If Muhammadu Buhari were truly a humane ascetic, he would seek greater ennoblement of his role as President, in conduct, speech, according to benign tenets . He would shun the sycophancy of his media advisers and re-election campaigners, and seek direction via personal relationship with the people, on the streets.
Let him be guided by rare wisdom and example set by true leaders of men, like former Uruguayan President, José Mujica. Now 83, Mujica served as leader of Uruguay between 2010 and 2015, in his 70s. As President, he scorned the grand presidential lifestyle and donated 90 percent of his salary to the impoverished and small scale entrepreneurs.
He shunned the vulgar opulence characteristic of contemporary presidencies like Nigeria’s, to live in a farmhouse, off a dirt road in Montevideo. There, he and his wife worked the land cultivating chrysanthemums for sale, having declined to live in the lavish State House or use its staff and official motorcade.
Mujica earned $12,500 a month, but reportedly kept only $1,250 for himself. “I do fine with that amount; I have to do fine because there are many Uruguayans who live with much less,” he argued in a newspaper interview.
He lamented that: “As soon as politicians start climbing up the ladder, they suddenly become kings. I don’t know how it works, but what I do know is that republics came to the world to make sure that no one is more than anyone else. You need a palace, red carpet, a lot of people behind you saying ‘Yes, sir.’ I think all of that is awful.”
As President, Mujica rode a 1987 Volkswagen Beetle car. In 2010, the value of the car was $1,800 and represented the entirety of the mandatory annual personal wealth declaration he filed for that year.
Of course, he wasn’t perfect, but he improved quality of life for the citizenry via populist economic policies. Uruguay thus enjoyed an impressive GDP considering its position as the second-smallest nation in South America.
He was also known for speaking his mind, defending basic human values and attacking the darkness of modern life. He did so in a remarkable speech at the sustainability summit in Rio de Janeiro. In September 2013, he reiterated his philosophy of leadership and humanity to the United Nations General Assembly.
As a Colombian newspaper said, it was “the speech world leaders did not want to hear.” The speech has been called poetic, prophetic, romantic, lyrical and flat-out weird. It’s not exactly your 16-minute TEDtalk, but it definitely projected ideas worth reliving.
Excerpts of the speech:
“We have been talking about sustainable development, about rescuing the masses from the claws of poverty…I ask this question: what would happen to this planet if the people of India had the same number of cars per family as the Germans? How much oxygen would be left for us to breathe?
“More clearly: Does the world today have the material elements to enable seven or eight billion people to enjoy the same level of consumption and squandering as the most affluent Western societies?
“Are we ruling over globalization or is globalization ruling over us? We come into this planet to be happy. Because life is short and it slips away from us. And no material belonging is worth as much as life, and this is fundamental.
“If consumption is paralysed, the economy stops, and if you stop economy, the ghost of stagnation appears for each one of us, but it is this hyper-consumption that is harming the planet. And this hyper-consumption needs to be generated, making things that have a short useful life, in order to sell a lot. Thus, a light bulb cannot last longer than 1,000 hours. But there are light bulbs that last 100,000 hours!
“But these cannot be manufactured, because we have to work and we have to sustain a civilization of ‘use and discard’ and so, we are trapped in a vicious cycle. These are problems of a political nature, which are showing us that it’s time to start fighting for a different culture.
“I belong to a small country well endowed with natural resources for life. In my country, there are a bit more than three million people. But there are about 13 million cows, some of the best in the world. And about 8 or 10 million excellent sheep. My country is an exporter of food, dairy, meat. It is a low-relief plain and almost 90% of the land is fertile.
“My fellow workers, fought hard for the 8 hour workday. And now they are making that 6 hours. But the person who works 6 hours, gets two jobs, therefore, he works longer than before. But why? Because he needs to make monthly payments for the motorcycle, the car, more and more payments, and when he’s done with that, he realizes he is a rheumatic old man, like me, and his life is already over.
“And one asks this question: is this the fate of human life? These things I say are very basic: development cannot go against happiness. It has to work in favor of human happiness, of love on earth, human relationships, caring for children, having friends, having our basic needs covered. Precisely because this is the most precious treasure we have; happiness. When we fight for the environment, we must remember that the essential element of the environment is called human happiness.”
Mujica is a farmer. Buhari is a farmer. The difference between both men’s touted simplicity is that, while Mujica governed humanely and practiced what he preached by scorning the trappings of presidential office, Buhari seems unable to do so.
Nonetheless, he seems Nigeria’s best hope at the moment, amid the pack of hounds masquerading as ‘Change Agents.’
As he seeks re-election, Buhari should avoid treating the electorate with contempt. He should scorn god-complex and embrace the finer aspects of tact, humility and sacrifice in the interest of the people.