Sir: Everything that has a beginning must have an end. That is the case with the presidency of Muhammadu Buhari. With just a few days remaining, we will bid farewell to the diminishing era of Buharism.
Unfortunately, Buharism was like a revolution for the rebirth of the nation but lacked a visionary foundation. Just as Buhari is eager to relinquish office on May 29, so are Nigerians anxious to see the end of what has been a political disappointment.
Buhari’s ascension to power in 2015 came with two glad tidings. We were psychologically intimidated that the country would collapse and be thrown into doom. But this fear of scripted anarchy was reversed after Buhari’s victory. Also, the gigantic merger project that resulted in his electoral victory was seen as a good sign for Nigeria’s unity. However, the unity was squandered by his ineptitude through total withdrawal of the forces and elements of unification.
Unknown to us, Buhari’s emergence would be both a personal and national tragedy. We saw how his lackadaisical attitude towards national cohesion had driven the country to the verge of disintegration with the eruptions of ethnic nationalists and gorillas. Not only that, he deployed some inimical economic policies that cemented the roots of poverty, inflation and unemployment in an unprecedented dimension. Frightening insecurity became a national character, with particular reference to banditry, kidnapping and other waves of crimes. Amazingly, the man whom we trusted to be aggressive against corrupt persons was later found to be sympathetic to them by condoning their nefarious acts and granting state amnesty to convicted corrupt Nigerians.
Buharism has produced many casualties, including Buhari himself. He is a victim of his own failure, a product of self-demystification. He is also a casualty of his own unlimited self-glorification, who sees himself as sacrosanct. There is also the larger victim, the country of Nigeria. He will leave it worse than he met it. The government itself is a victim of a degenerated leadership.
In a wider scope, democracy has suffered as a casualty for two main reasons. One is the legislative enslavement in which the negative influence of Buhari on the National Assembly has resulted in the accumulation of a humongous debt. The judiciary has been rendered a casualty by Buhari’s refusal to comply with various injunctions on critical issues. The general populace will have an everlasting and disgusting impression about Buhari for mortgaging their collective hopes and dreams.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) is also a big political victim of Buhari’s poor performance. Many Nigerians feel that Buhari’s failure is the party’s making. If not for the emergence of Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso as presidential aspirants, the APC would have been a loser in the last presidential election. Even the Villa cabals are casualties. This is owing to the fact that Buhari had given them much power which they literally abused, culminating in their failure to impose on the nation their preferred presidential candidate. They are really victims because Buhari aided them to laugh but will end up not having the last laugh.
For long, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will continue to be a giant victim of Buharism. The prolonged strike did not only victimise lecturers, but also students, their parents and the university system.
The immediate future will also be a waiting casualty as the prevailing socio-economic upheavals will have a long-lasting effect. Even those who have held different positions, and have acquired ill-gotten wealth and perhaps may go unpunished, have entered the class of casualties. This is because their perpetrated felony will not go down in vain in the hereafter, and they must account for their misdeeds. In a nutshell therefore, we are all casualties of Baba Buhari’s failed leadership!
What is fundamentally wrong with Buhari’s leadership? Many lapses can be recorded and scrutinised, but the major ones will be mentioned here. Buhari lacks the political will to administer both politics and administration effectively. This gives rise to the display of self-indulgences by people entrusted with responsibilities. With immunity, they have played the destructive game of putting themselves first before the nation and its people.
Though Buhari’s incorruptibility is still unquestionable, he lacks vital qualities of leadership such as competence and vision. On competence, it is imperative to quote the Islamic philosopher Ibn Taymiyya that he would prefer a candidate with competence without integrity to a candidate with integrity but without competence. His basic argument is that integrity affects the individual only but incompetence will have devastating effects on the society.
How long will it take the nation to heal from the deep wounds of these eight years? Has Buhari agreed that his poor leadership is responsible for all these casualties, and that is why he is begging to be forgiven?
•Abdu Abdullahi,
aaringim68@gmail.com