“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries … and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it.”
— Niccolo Machiavelli
There is no contention that General Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 14 poll, is the most popular personality in Nigeria today. Love him or hate him, he remains Buhari. Those who hate his guts, Spartan discipline and incorruptibility are quick to infuse his past with muck which they often rake up to make others view him unjustifiably from a myopic and selfish prism. Everybody has a past. Buhari’s past today represents both a personal and national gain. He may have been a lone voice in the wilderness but today people who genuinely desire peace and progress for this country are saying “thank goodness! Buhari is here to rescue us even though at 72.” Buhari’s mission to salvage this country today is a déjà vu because following widespread corruption, ineptness (today we say cluelessness), serious economic predicament and crisis of confidence that pervaded the then civilian leadership, the services of the armed forces, on January 1, 1984, invested him with the authority of the Head of State and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which he accepted.
As it was pre-1984, so it has been since 1999. Today Buhari is on another rescue mission. The story of Buhari could be likened to the odyssey of Jerry Rawlings in Ghana, except in certain acts of brutality against past leaders. Rawlings twice (1979, 1981) overthrew the government and seized power. His second period of rule (1981–2001) afforded Ghana political stability and competent economic management.
In June 1979, Rawlings and other junior officers led a successful military coup with the purported aim of purging the military and public life of widespread corruption. He and his Armed Forces Revolutionary Council ruled for 112 days, during which time the former heads of state, Gen. Ignatius Acheampong and Lieut. Gen. Frederick Akuffo, were tried and executed. Rawlings then yielded power to a freely elected civilian President, Hilla Limann, who promptly retired Rawlings from the Air Force.
However, Rawlings continued to be a popular figure and on Dec. 31,1981, after two years of a weak civilian rule during which Ghana’s economy continued to deteriorate, Rawlings overthrew Limann’s government, accusing it of leading the nation “down to total economic ruin.” Today Ghana is not only a symbol of genuine democracy in Africa, it personifies reasoned development and economic stability as a result of the purposeful leadership and solid economic foundation laid by Rawlings.
Buhari’s past has prepared him for the future. Although soft-spoken, he is highly principled and firm. He is not given to greed and vainglory. Unlike many Nigerian past presidents, Buhari does not own a huge mansion. He has no houses in Lagos and Abuja. He owes none of the banks in Nigeria and he is not known to have sat on the board of any.
His years of rejection, loneliness, and electoral manipulation have tapered him into a firebrand that Nigerians cannot afford to ignore if they truly desire genuine change and economic progress. Those who judge him with his past are at best indulging in arrogant ignorance because no matter how sordid a man’s yesterday is, his tomorrow is squeaky clean. Tomorrow is always a new page and it all depends on what we write on it.
Buhari is not guilty of the allegations being heaped on him. Those making mountains out of the molehills of his past have elected to be deceptive. They know he is the man for the moment but they are doing everything outside the books to stop him. Nigerians have said no because just like in 1984, he is again here to rescue this country by tackling corruption, insecurity and revamping our economy. There is time for everything. Buhari is the messiah we have been yearning for.
Those who say he is 72 and therefore should be stopped have not availed themselves of the lessons of history. South Africans did not consider Nelson Mandela to be 74 when they elected him to save the country from disintegration. The late Madiba’s fertile wisdom has continued to guide and guard the Rainbow Country in its journey to greatness. The United States recalled 73-year-old Ronald Reagan to save it from the crippling effects of economic depression. Again when America was confronted with a bitter war and economic depression, they found solace in a retired General, Dwight Eisenhower, who helped win the war and returned the country to the path of progress. France found its own Moses in retired General Charles de Gaulle, when it was bedeviled by war and a depressed economy. Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal was first elected President at age 74 in year 2000.
Is Nigeria not economically malnourished today? Is Nigeria not at war today? Who is better qualified and in the mould of Mandela, Reagan, Eisenhower and Gaulle to rescue our nation from war, corruption and economic malfeasance? Is it those who are so lily-livered that they cannot venture to visit communities attacked by insurgents or to visit and commiserate with the mothers of abducted Chibok girls?
Buhari is tested and proven and is reputed not to be skittish or indecisive about his responsibility once it is incumbent on him to act. He acts with the speed of light and very quick to decide on the next course of action. For instance, in 1983, Chadian soldiers invaded and took 19 Islands in Lake Chad within Nigerian territory. The then Brigadier Buhari, who was the General Officer Commanding (GOC) the 3rd Armoured Division (a post he held from November 1981 to December 1983) successfully carried out a blockade of Chad, until all the territories were recovered. The Nigerian Army under Buhari then pursued the Chadian Army as far as 50 kilometres into Chad. He has again promised to personally lead the charge to rout the Boko Haram from the territories they have illegally annexed in Nigeria. In 1984, he flew into Adamawa as the Head of State, and that permanently ended the Maitatsine uprising.
Prominent among his achievements as a reformer (not Transformation Agenda confined to bill boards, radio jingles, television commercials, newspaper adverts and social media commentaries), include his successful struggle to secure a major concession from the Organsation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1984 to increase the nation’s oil production quota from 1.3 million barrels per day to 1.45 million barrels per day and the the introduction of a public campaign against indiscipline known as “War Against Indiscipline” (WAI). Buhari is also reputed as an exemplar of Spartan discipline, highly principled teetotaler, an avowed anti-corruption crusader and a man of the people. As a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, he reportedly accounted for every dollar from crude oil sales without fail. Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo described him as ‘incorruptible’ in one of his books.
For the one year and eight months Buhari led Nigeria as Head of State, Nigeria’s Foreign Reserve rose sharply from about N264 million to about N4 billion ($21.621 million). But the same cannot be said of President Goodluck Jonathan who inherited a Foreign Reserve of about $65bn that is now down to about $31bn. Shamefully, the Ministry of Finance tried but in vain to justify the plummeting reserves. It said: “It is a misconception to think that reserves are immutable or cast in stone. The reality is that since May 2007, the reserves have fluctuated in line with developments in the international oil market, rising from $43.13bn at that time, peaking at $62bn in September 2008 during the Yar’Adua/Jonathan administration when oil prices reached a peak of $147 per barrel, and falling subsequently to a low of $31.7bn in September 2011.” How did it fall? What was the money used for?
Certainly, what some see as the ‘dark’ side of Buhari is invariably the epitome of his abounding patriotism, courage and energy. GMB obviously has been misunderstood. But who is that great soul that has traversed this earthly plane that was never misunderstood? Ralph Waldo Emerson stated that it is not so bad to be misunderstood because “Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh.” Emerson added that to be great is to be misunderstood, the same thing Adam pointed out to Orlando, in Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’: “Know you not, master, to some kind of men, their graces serve them but as enemies? No more do yours; your virtues, gentle master are sanctified and holy traitors to you. Oh, what a world is this, where what is comely envenoms he that bears it?”
The Transformer in Aso Rock and his minions in both the public and private sector are presently spewing out a lot of thrash they believe could sway public opinion against Buhari. But they came a little too late. The revolution to reclaim Nigerian has not only birthed but growing. They are sponsoring all kinds of false messages to impugn on the avowed integrity of Buhari because having crippled our economy and made our youths jobless and desolate, they want a leader under whom it would be business as usual.
Those mortally afraid of a Buhari presidency have over the years sought to tag him as an Islamic fundamentalist and religious bigot. However, records exist to dispel and disprove their wrong accusations. For instance, Professor Tam David West, a Christian from Rivers State was the Minister of Petroleum during the Buhari/Idiagbon administration. Other Christian Ministers appointed by Buhari when he was the Head of State are General Domkat Bali (Defence), Dr. Onaolapo Soleye (Finance), Dr. Emmanuel Nsan (Health), Commodore Sam Omeruah (Information), Patrick Koshoni (Works) and Chike Offodile (Justice).
He also appointed 11 Christians as Military Governors out of the 19 States then. The military governors under Buhari included, Allison Madueke (Anambra), Jeremiah Useni (Bendel – now Edo and Delta States), Michael Bamidele (Ondo), Oladipo Diya (Ogun), David Mark (Niger), John Atom Kpera (Beune), Dan Archibong (Cross River), Ike Nwachukwu (Imo), Oladayo Popoola (Oyo), Bitrus Atukum (Plateau) and B.L. Letimah (Rivers).
In addition, Buhari’s cook, driver and personal aides in the last 30 to 40 years have been Christians. This is a record his traducers dare not disprove and notwithstanding the several orchestrated blatant falsehoods being bandied about to demonise him, Buhari remains a man of courage and an incorruptible Nigerian with avowed commitment to sanitise our messed up socio-economic space and Nigerians are set to show him love on Valentine’s Day.
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