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Tag: General Muhammadu Buhari

  • The home stretch, finally?

    The home stretch, finally?

    By the time we meet again on this page next Tuesday, the presidential election – dare we hope?–would have been won or lost

    The thrill of victory will be ringing harmoniously in one camp and across its political base, and the agony of defeat will perfuse the other camp and its base. In one camp there will be rejoicing and in the other mourning; in the one, celebration and in the other, lamentation and recrimination.

    A great deal of re-positioning, to borrow the locution careerists so readily employ to justify their fecklessness – a scramble, the like of which Nigeria has never seen, will be well under way, with elements of the losing party denouncing it with the same or even greater fervor than that with which they had supported it and defecting en masse to the winning party, which they will hasten to canonize as the only one that can “move the country forward.”

    Contemplating this latter scenario, a leading expatriate Nigerian academic whose insights and judgment I respect tells me he is substantially sure that, if the APC wins, the foul-mouthed, equal-opportunity slanderer, Femi Fani-Kayode, will dump the PDP without hesitation and without regret, and begin singing the praises of the new people with even greater fervor than he had employed as media director of the Goodluck Jonathan campaign in skewering them.

    All this is of course assuming what cannot be assumed even at this point, namely, that the election will actually take place as scheduled.

    Leading personalities across the political divide are saying they cannot vouch that an election will actually take place on March 28.  The Jonathan administration, I gather, is still shopping around for a court judge who would consider a multi-billion Naira reward worth the risk of declaring General Muhammadu Buhari ineligible for the race.  It is also shopping around, by the way, for a judge who will, for very valuable consideration, prohibit the use of electronic card readers during the election.

    The national security apparatus, Dr Jonathan’s confederates in administering Nigeria as a police state, may yet come up with another excuse to warrant yet another postponement.  Don’t forget that they had requested that the poll be pushed forward by six weeks in the first instance to allow them crush Boko Haram.

    We are still in that first instance.  And with vast tracts of Nigerian territory yet to be recaptured from the marauding insurgents, who says that there cannot be a second instance, or a third?

    Nor can it be assumed, despite Dr Jonathan’s stout denial, that the “Interim Government” option is no longer under active consideration.  The former military president and self-proclaimed “evil genius,” General Ibrahim Babangida, who was reportedly awarded the contract for the scheme, may swear by anything he holds dear, but nobody will believe him.  He lacks a crucial attribute that his unexplained billions cannot buy:  credibility.

    He has been peddling the scheme and may yet find a buyer.

    I hope they are factoring Chief Ernest Shonekan into the scheme.  As the only Nigerian who has the experience of actually running an interim government, he is eminently qualified to head the scheme.   It lasted only 83 days, I grant.  But I am sure he learned all the appropriate lessons.  So that, if summoned to national service again, he may well be able this time around to transform the interim into the interminable.

    Nor should anyone be fooled by Dr Jonathan’s frenetic pace these days as he flies to far-flung places to buy support from traditional rulers and ethnic militias.  It is almost as if he has just discovered Nigeria.  His wife, Madame Patience Faka, is criss-crossing the country seeking – no,  I take that back – demanding support for Dr Jonathan, sowing coarse and vulgar abuse and the most delicious infelicities along her route.

    It is unsafe, I insist, to conclude from all this coming and going that the presidential election will actually take place. “Betwixt the cup and the lip,” says an English proverb, “there’s many a slip.”

    Whatever happens, the election campaign will go down as the dirtiest, ugliest, and the most indecent in Nigeria’s history.  It was not entirely devoid of ideas, but the ideas were crowded out by fear-mongering, character assassination, incitement, ethnic-baiting and hateful speech on a scale beyond belief.  As the perceptive Kayode Komolafe of ThisDay remarked, some combatants carried on as if the law of defamation was on vacation.

    I would add that it was almost as if the civil law relating to invasion of privacy and the criminal law relating to incitement were also on vacation.

    There is more than enough blame to go around, but it has to be said it was the PDP’s national secretary, Wale Oladipo, who cast the first stone when he dismissed General Muhammadu Buhari as a “semi-literate jackboot.”

    Though Oladipo has the formal designation of professor of Nuclear Analytical Techniques at the Centre for Energy Research and Development (CERD) at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, his antecedents at first blush seem as dodgy as Dr Jonathan’s doctoral dissertation.

    At this writing, he does not figure on CERD’s web site.  My Internet search turned out more information about him as PDP national secretary than about his scholarship in the arcane field              of particle physics.  Even his home page, such as it is, says nothing about his education and the universities he attended.

    Perhaps Oladipo is not the type who blows his own trumpet. But settling for such a desultory identity as secretary of the PDP – even if it is still the largest political party in Africa  — when  he may well belong up there with Ernest Rutherford and Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg and Max Planck  is carrying coyness too far.

    As they say here, Man, if you’ve got a trumpet, blow it; blow it hard and blow it often.  Otherwise, it will get rusty.

    To return to the election:  Mrs  Jonathan has been ordering her fellow women to vote for her husband because more than one-third of the senior officials he has appointed are women, whereas Buhari did nothing for Nigerian womanhood when he held power for 2o months some 30 years ago.

    Stop throwing stones (no pun intended) when you live in a glass house.

    Was it not under her husband’s watch that about 230 girls were plucked from their hostel in Chibok and spirited to places unknown?  For ten precious days, her husband not only failed to rouse himself to launch a rescue effort, he was actually in denial, claiming that that the whole thing was another propaganda stunt by the Opposition to discredit his administration.

    And by way of support, Mrs Jonathan personally conducted on national television an inane inquisition seen and ridiculed around the world, blaming the school authorities for what was a failure of security, a failure of anticipation, and most crucially a failure of leadership – her husband’s leadership

    Two hundred and thirty young women unaccounted for under Dr Jonathan’s watch.  That is an entire generation.  Then, there are the tens of thousands of Nigerians lost to Boko Haram violence without serious challenge until lately, under a Commander-in-Chief whose primary duty is to protect the lives and property of citizens.  Then again, there are the millions of so-called internally displaced persons, refugees in their own country.

    Dr Jonathan has not indicated what he would do differently if elected.  In six years when money was not a serious problem, he succeeded only in patching the Lugard-era Lagos-Kano railway line.  Now that money is tight, he is promising to link all 36 state capitals by rail if re-elected.

    Desperation truly knows no bounds.

    A vote for Dr Jonathan is a vote for more of the same, for Continuity.

  • Polls: Jonathan, Buhari in last minute battle for votes

    Polls: Jonathan, Buhari in last minute battle for votes

    •Security alert nationwide

    •President threatens prosecution of advocates of interim government for treason

    The two leading candidates in Saturday’s presidential race, President Goodluck Jonathan and General Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday commenced the last lap of their campaigns, reaching out to the electorate in different parts of the country to canvass for votes.

    General Buhari spent time with groups of the physically challenged in Lafia, Nasarawa State to give them words of encouragement while President Jonathan inagurated a N2.5 billion fly-over in Kano and named it after the late Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero.

    He later visited Daura, Katsina State, Buhari’s hometown for a whistle stop.

    The various security agencies, meanwhile, are busy perfecting their arrangements for the elections.

    Reports from across the country said Nigerians have been stocking their homes with food items and other needs ahead of the elections.

    Buhari at the Lafia meeting with the physically challenged told them to refuse to be discouraged by their conditions.

    He promised to appoint a federal ombudsman for people with disabilities to combat discrimination against them.

    The Ombudsman, according to him, will take care of rehabilitation, employment of disabled persons and participating in public life, among other assignments.

    He narrated the stories of the late American President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Professor Steven Hawking, astrophysicist of Cambridge University, England both of whom he described as very outstanding people who not only fought incredible physical disability but became known throughout the world  “because of their determination, will power, incredible resolution.”

    Of  Roosevelt, Buhari said: “he was crippled in both legs with polio and throughout most of his adult life was consigned to a wheelchair and had to be helped to bathe, to get into bed, to get out of bed, to dress and to be wheeled into his office or to address a political meeting. Roosevelt won four consecutive presidential elections, led the Allied Powers in the Second World War to defeat Hitler’s Germany and imperial Japan.

    “His most significant achievement on the domestic front was to start massive public construction works to build roads, bridges, dams which employed millions of Americans and helped to alleviate the economic depression following the Great Crash of 1929. Roosevelt is regarded as the greatest American president of the 20th century. He overcame disability and proved to his countrymen and the world that physical challenges could be circumvented with the right spirit.”

    He said Hawking, on the other hand, was “just walking around in his university compound when he collapsed on the ground and had to be helped to his rooms. Eventually, he was diagnosed as suffering from a motor neuron condition.

    “In spite of this disability, can’t walk, can’t talk, can’t eat on his own, he wrote a masterpiece doctoral thesis and is now a professor in Page 1 astrophysics and is even improving on Einstein’s theories. He can only nowadays communicate by using a speech generating device operated by a small sensor in his cheek. He is completely physically incapacitated but because of his indomitable spirit, he keeps on living, teaching and engaging in research.”

    Buhari said physical disability, therefore, should “not be the end of our usefulness.”

    The APC in Yobe State yesterday held a grand rally in Damaturu, the state capital, to spread the Buhari- for- president message.

    Governor Ibrahim Gaidam said at the rally that Buhari was advised not to attend because of the insecurity in the area.

    The governor said contrary to rumours that he was not on good terms with Buhari, the insecurity of the Maiduguri-Damaturu highway accounted for Buhari’s absence at the rally.

    He said he was amused by the “fabrication of falsehood” by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party that Buhari’s absence at the rally was due to the alleged sour relationship between him and the APC presidential candidate.

    Gaidam said the APC standard bearer remained the candidate with proven integrity.

    “Buhari is a straight forward person, whom Nigerians will benefit from under his leadership,” he said,

    He called on Nigerians to come out en mass to ensure victory for the APC during the forthcoming elections.

    President Jonathan on a visit to Daura threatened that those advocating interim national government in the country would be arrested and prosecuted for treason if they did not desist.

    He paid a courtesy call on the Emir of Daura, Alhaji Umar Farouk, and said he had built 28 Almajiri schools and a federal university in the state.

    He had earlier in the day inaguarated a N2.5 billion flyover built in Kano by the federal government, he promised that if reelected as president, he would correct everything that  has gone wrong in the country and the PDP.

    He said the decision to name the fly over after Alhaji Ado Bayero was because he “was not known for controversy, he never played with his throne.” He held that office with extreme dignity, he gave colour to that office. He brought dignity and respect to the office. He left us but we live to continue to remember him.”

    The election delay has hurt the economy, which has been battered by the global oil shock, creating investor uncertainty and an urgent problem for whoever wins.

    With tension building up ahead of the election credit ratings agency Standard and Poor’s at the weekend downgraded the economy further into junk territory, blaming falling crude prices, political instability and Boko Haram.

    Security on polling day remains a major concern after the military authorities asked for the postponement of the elections from February to enable them deal with the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast.

    The opposition does not want soldiers deployed during the polls for fear that they may be used to rig in favour of the ruling party.

    Nnamdi Obasi, senior researcher at the International Crisis Group, said Boko Haram is still able to carry out its threat to disrupt elections, which it views as “un-Islamic”.

    “Its fighters may not be able to seize new territory but they could certainly still send suicide bombers to public places, including polling centres,” he told AFP.

    “In many parts of Borno State, the security situation is still tenuous and displaced persons have not returned or settled down well enough to participate in elections.

    “Elsewhere in the region, the polls will go but very much in an atmosphere of unease and insecurity.”

    Last Friday, suspected cultists unleashed terror on Port Harcourt killing no fewer than eight persons in different parts of the Rivers State capital.

    Five persons were allegedly shot dead by the cultists at a popular bar close to Amadi-Ama roundabout.

    A report said the incident occurred at about 11:30 p.m. Among those killed was a lady.

    Eye witnesses said that three corpses, which were not identified that night were kept outside the bar till morning, and expended bullets littered the vicinity of the drinking bar.

    The warning by Police Inspector General Suleiman Abba that voters should steer clear of polling booths after casting their votes has provoked sharp reactions from several quarters including the APC which asked Nigerian to ignore the warning which, according to it, is not backed by the law.

    The army and the police have stepped up security around the country with attention being paid to public buildings.  More than   68.8 million people are registered to vote in the elections.

    Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chair Prof. Attahiru  Jega said on Monday that 67.8 million cards or 98.5 percent of cards had been sent out – up from 66.5 percent a week before February 14 – but some 20 million had not been collected.

    A further delay has been ruled out, with Jonathan’s mandate due to expire on April 30 and a formal handover of power set for May 29.

  • Presidency wants to ground my campaign, backers, says Buhari

    Presidency wants to ground my campaign, backers, says Buhari

    The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO)  yesterday alleged plan by the Presidency to ground all aircraft being used by the party’s presidential  candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari,  as part of a grand plot to cripple his campaign.

    Also being targeted for freezing by the authorities, according to APCPCO are the  bank accounts of stalwarts of the party.

    The  Director, Media and Publicity of the campaign team, Mallam Garba Shehu,   said in a statement that the move  to destabilise Buhari might  not be unconnected with  the massive  global attention on the APC  after Buhari’s sterling  performance at Chatham House, London last  Thursday.

    Shehu described the Presidency’s alleged plot as desperate, anathema, criminal and inimical to the nation’s  nascent democracy and civilised human behaviour.

    But he vowed that any such move “will be foiled by the citizens who have taken over the movement of change as symbolised by General Muhammadu Buhari.”

    He added that the authorities plan to “use the Aviation Ministry and the secret arm of the Security Service to hound and clampdown on members of the APC, by prospecting obnoxious means that would ground private jets belonging to senior members of our party, in order to halt and slow down Buhari’s world-acclaimed phenomenal popularity as President-in-waiting.

    Shehu added, “There is also a plot to block or freeze the bank accounts of APC chieftains like Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Governor Rotimi Amaechi (Director General of APC Presidential Campaign Organisation), and other prominent leaders believed to be funding the General’s campaign; and availing him their aircraft for electioneering purposes.”

    Shehu recalled  that private jets conveying APC Governors including Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, had in the past being either prevented from taking-off or landing during crucial political occasions, particularly during  the run up to the last governorship election in Ekiti State.

    The organisation  regretted what it called PDP’s descent into  the abyss in its desperate bid to retain power, stressing that the party has become so delusional that it now fabricates outright lies to blackmail and denigrate the APC and its presidential candidate and his running mate  Prof Yemi Osinbajo,all in an attempt   to divert attention from the mess it has created in every facet of lives in the country.

    He cited how the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), an appointee of the President, used his office to do a counter-affidavit and supporting written address to  give tacit approval to a nocturnal group’s desire to truncate the use of card reader in the coming elections.

    He said: “an online news blog, Sahara reporters, made copious public display of the two documents; the AGF, in doing a volte face, denied giving authorization to the staff members of his Office in that ignoble service to the Nigerian state.

    “A patriotic Nigerian soldier, Captain Sagir Koli, had done a painstaking and elaborate audio recording of the meeting in which the Presidential order for the rigging of the 22nd June, 2014 Ekiti governorship election in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was handed down.

    “Among the people present at the meeting were: Mr. Ayo Fayose, the greatest beneficiary of the nefarious rigging plot, Mr. Musiliu Obanikoro as the Minister of state for Defence, Brigadier-General Aliyu Momoh, the commander of 32nd Artillery Brigade, Alhaji Jelili Adesiyan, Minister for Police Affairs, Otunba Iyiola Omisore, PDP governorship candidate for Osun State.

    “Meanwhile, Ayo Fayose, Jelili Adesiyan and Musiliu Obanikoro had variously made statements in attesting to the veracity of the nocturnal meeting; President Goodluck Jonathan, pressured to probe the incident, peremptorily foreclosed such investigative check when he said ‘If someone comes up with a spurious allegation that has no substance and the person disappears, of course, what do you want me to do?’

    “Obviously, this President is not mindful of his oath of allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria! The evidence of audio recording with the available technology can be used to ascertain the truth about the plot, regardless the presence or absence of the source of it. Apparently, the President, caught in the act of ordering an electoral heist, is unwilling to initiate a probe that will indict and incriminate him.

    “The Director of Communication for the PDP Presidential Campaign, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, said with uncanny impudence that the APC Vice Presidential candidate, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, was made to agree to an oath to resign six months after and allow Senator Bola Tinubu, in the event that APC wins the Presidential election.

    “Quite evidently, this piece of bunkum was meant to vitiate the integrity of our respected Vice Presidential candidate by the band of dishonourable politicians in the PDP. We state, without any iota of equivocation, that this is untrue and unfounded.

    “We have shown these examples of the PDP-led Presidency’s conduct in desperately laying hold at straw despite the rejection of the Nigerian people, ahead of the general elections. The resort to deliberate falsehood and unfounded allegations represent the PDP-led Presidency’s unmistakable beclouding of the campaign issues of the forthcoming election.”

  • Amoji women back Buhari

    The Lagos State chapter of Amoji Women Association of Umoji community in Anambra State has vowed to mobilise women for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari.

    This decision was reached at the end of the association’s meeting in Festac town last weekend.

    Hostess of the meeting, Benedine Eloka, tasked Nigerians to assess candidates contesting for elective offices based on their pedigree and performances without religious or tribal sentiments.

    She lamented that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has not been able to deliver dividends of democracy to Nigerians in the last 16 years, saying, “We firmly believe that the election of General Buhari and Professor Yemi Osinbajo is not only critical for the restoration of dignity and honour, but will also create equal opportunities for all, address the problem of youth unemployment and restore peace and tranquility to Nigeria.”

    Buhari, she stated, is not perfect but his election will reduce “the level of corruption, impunity and mediocrity, which she noted, has made him the most preferred candidate among all the presidential candidates.”

    In her address, Chairperson of the state chapter of the association, Mrs. Nneka Akana, argued that those asking Buhari to step aside on account of his age do not mean well for the country.

  • Between Jonathan and Buhari

    Between Jonathan and Buhari

    IR: Great men like John F. Kennedy battled with infidelity as president, Richard Nixon lied his way out of the presidency, Bill Clinton almost got impeached because of acts of impropriety but they were, and are, people, that history cannot do without: they made, are part of, and are history.

    So much has been written about General Muhammadu Buhari, warts and all.  Buhari like many other statesmen is fortunate; he is popular with the teeming population of the underprivileged in society, those that really matter in the electorate process despite elitist blackmail.

    Goodluck Jonathan is also a lucky man; first, he rode to the presidency on pure happenstance and later got his first mandate through goodwill of Nigerians in 2011.

    Whose way will victory go between the incumbent president (PDP) and General Muhammadu Buhari (APC) in the forth-coming presidential elections in February 2015?

    It is clearly a tough call. But some analysts have submitted that barring all untoward circumstances and if we are to have a free and fair contest now, the odds will be against the incumbent.

    He has been equated with Lyndon Johnson who rode to the presidency on the benevolence of the American people after the death of the much loved Kennedy but was too overwhelmed to seek re-election on principle in the end, due to his poor handling of foreign policy (Vietnam).

    Can Buhari provide Nigerians with an experience to take us to seventh heaven? Aren’t Nigerians expecting too much from Buhari? Is there a chance that his much-vaunted, probable victory might be likened to that of Jimmy Carter who defeated Gerald Ford to become president due to his high belief in himself, with only a couple of thousands of votes out of millions less in Ohio, Hawaii and Delaware because the electorate wanted someone with more experience?

    What hope does the incumbent have in western Nigeria with no-nonsense leaders who have been able to strike strategic alliances with the north?

    What hope does President Jonathan have in the north west and north east? The elites from those regions say he has a chance, but they should know better. He would have had a major chance had zoning been allowed to stay in that party. Most elites do not vote, the browbeaten masses do, and these will follow the principle of “group think” to vote for Buhari.

    Certainly President Jonathan will carry the day in the eastern part of Nigeria. Regrettably unlike the West, the East has not totally accepted national politics and are still seething from the plagues of the Biafra war which they accuse the north of directing. He is likely to carry the north-central region that, like the east, are yet to carve a political identity for itself.

    Without a doubt we need a leader who can help define Nigeria for Nigeria. A leader that can stand toe-to-toe with world leaders without a subservient complex, who will be a big brother in Africa, who will go to war if need be to prevent factions from using their territory to plan insurrection against our country. He must be ready to submit himself to microscopic inspection and shirt-front daring religious leaders who pronounce dangerous diktats.

    Someone who understands the power of reason must be ready to enforce the secular make-up of our nation to respect people of all faiths. Someone who knows what politics is all about: solving problems.

    I have long ago made up my mind (even as a non-card carrying member of any political party) to vote Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 if he becomes the presidential flag-bearer of a major party for this simple fact: that it will be detrimental to our democracy if Nigeria becomes a one-party state and if we do not change our leaders from party to party and from time to time.

     

    • Simon Abah,

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State

  • Reject monetary inducement, Buhari’s supporters tell Nigerians

    SUPPORTERS of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari, want Nigerians to put aside the politics of monetary inducement and elect a new set of leaders that will bring the desired change to the nation in the forthcoming general election.

    The supporters, under the auspices of Buhari Friends Organisation Network said the former Head of State stands as the only man with the right quality and integrity to deliver the nation from its present challenges.

    In a statement signed by its National Co-ordinator, Saint Athanasius Okon, the group said that even though Buhari has no money to offer anybody, he has what is more than money to offer Nigerians.

    While commending the All progressives Congress (APC) for giving the retired Army General its presidential ticket, the group said “Buhari has no money to offer but by the grace of God, he has what is more than money to offer Nigeria, which we are all yearning for, including the unborn children in their mothers’ wombs. You can buy almost everything on the surface of the earth, but certainly not integrity, wisdom, courage, discipline and selfless features, etc.

    With peculiar circumstances and challenges, occasioned by the past and present selfish political rulers, we need leaders this time around, as we are tired of rulers that are selfish and heavily corrupt. We are tired of pseudo politicians and pretenders that masquerade themselves in the corridors of powers, who claim to be democrats.”

  • Buhari: The opponent PDP prefers!

    Buhari: The opponent PDP prefers!

    Even before the first vote was cast at the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primaries the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) was already dismissing eventual winner, General Muhammadu Buhari, as a walkover. Its spokesman boasted that President Goodluck Jonathan would trounce all the opposition party’s aspirants rolled into one.

    Early in the week, all sorts of analyses made out former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to be the man most feared by the ruling party. One such article spoke of his immense wealth, intense preparation for the job and existing contacts with a remnant of his loyalists in the PDP who could work for him under the radar. At the end we were assured he would pip Buhari at the finishing line.

    In their attempts to paint the former head of state as easy to beat many are quick to point at his three unsuccessful attempts at getting the top job. But they do so without putting those defeats in proper context.

    For instance, it is settled that no one can become president of Nigeria unless they run on a broad-based platform with firm presence across the country. The constitution requires that to be elected you must win a majority of votes cast as well as 25% in two-thirds of the 36 states.

    The two times Buhari mounted his challenge on the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) platform, the party was strong only in a handful of northern states where it had governors. Down south it was virtually non-existent.

    In 2011, after he parted ways with the ANPP, he offered himself on an even more ramshackle arrangement called the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). By the time of the elections, the party didn’t control even one miserable local government area in the country. It had very little name recognition anywhere in the country and not much money.

    Like before, his new party was virtually non-existent in the south. He tried to remedy this and deal with accusations that he was a Muslim fundamentalist by picking a well-known pastor, Tunde Bakare, as running mate. Whatever point he thought he would score with southern Christians was neutralised by the fact that the clergyman had no political structures to add heft to the ticket.

    A last minute attempt to cobble together an alliance with other opposition groups came to nothing, and the CPC plunged ahead with its ultimately futile bid. The astonishing thing is that despite the crippling shortcomings of the platform, his candidacy still managed to attract over 12 million votes.

    This time around, Buhari is running on a platform that has 14 governors and strong presence in states where it does not control government. For the first time ever, this candidate who lost thrice because he didn’t have a credible electoral route to Aso Villa, now has a realistic chance of securing a simple majority and 25% of votes cast in two-thirds of 36 states. And yet the PDP would have us believe that he would be so easy to beat!

    Beneath the bluster, however, you get a sense of unease at the emergence of the old enemy. There’s no stronger evidence of this than the desperate efforts by the ruling party’s online army to discredit Buhari by reminding Nigerians of a litany ancient sins allegedly committed by the former head of state.

    One accusation that has been levelled against the APC in the past is that there’s not much separating it from the PDP. The differences are becoming quite stark – starting with the two presidential candidates.

    Let’s begin with ability to communicate their ideas and positions. No one can accuse Buhari or Jonathan of being orators. In fact, listening to either drone on from their usually prepared speeches is guaranteed to send you to sleep faster than swallowing a pack of sleeping pills.

    But what Buhari lacks in oratory he makes up for with that X-factor which attracts fanatical following. In this sense he is akin to the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo – no great speaker himself – but whose mere appearance at a public function could work his supporters into frenzied cries of Awo!

    The APC flagbearer excites his base. His followers are passionate about him: the word more commonly used to describe the connection between them is ‘fanatical.’ They will follow him for free and at the drop of a hat.

    Can we say the same about Jonathan? Take away the platform and Buhari would still attract millions of voters. If you separate him from the PDP platform, how many supporters would follow the incumbent president on a journey into the unknown?

    When you think of Buhari the adjectives that come to mind are firm, stern, strong and honest. Think of Jonathan and words like humble, amiable, deliberate come to mind. But you also think weak and indecisive.

    This may not be a totally fair assessment of the president but it is the perception out there – one that is reinforced by quotes like the one from former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s controversial new memoirs, “My Watch”, that insinuated Patience Jonathan, Diezani Alison-Madueke, Petroleum Minister, Stella Oduah, former Aviation Minister and Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, were all ‘Presidents’ of Nigeria. Jonathan, he wrote, was the weakest of them all.

    Buhari’s strongest point – one on which friends and foes largely agree – is that he is honest and that in a country where a large chunk of the elite have been besmirched by corruption, he has remained sleaze-free. The PDP recognises this as his strong suit and is challenging that image.

    We are now being reminded that when the nation’s borders were shut amidst currency reforms in the mid-80s, the then military ruler’s aide-de-camp, Major Mustapha Jokolo, pulled rank to get 53 suitcases belonging to an emir into the country. The bending of the rules to allow the privileged bring in the banned baggage with unknown content remains a sore point that dogs the General’s steps.

    This one incident is what critics point to when they raise doubts about Buhari’s saintliness. But to put things in perspective we should also note that the man has held several high profile offices – including supervising the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and yet has no house in Abuja or a foreign bank account. Most people accept that he’s an honest man with a modest lifestyle, that is why attempts to paint him otherwise always ring hollow.

    Under his watch three convicted drug pushers were executed under the retroactive laws instituted by the military junta of the day. Of all the actions of that tough regime, this is perhaps one of the most wrongheaded and troubling. It is one which he would one day need to confront and apologise for.

    But if we were to use the atrocities of former military regimes to exclude people from participating in the political process, then a large swathe of powerful figures in the land today would be disqualified – everyone from Obasanjo to Babangida, David Mark and others who participated in the annulment of the June 12 election results, or who rubberstamped death sentences arising from trumped-up coup plotting allegations.

    The ruling party supporters may be dismissive of Buhari in the belief that as they successfully did in times past they can define him again as some sort of religious nut. Against the backdrop of a polity polluted by sectarian disputes made worse by the atrocities of Boko Haram, this old trick could be used to damage the man before the undiscerning.

    True, Buhari has said in the past that he supports Sharia. But I’m yet to see a Muslim who is opposed to the legal code that is part and parcel of their religion. Indeed, knowledgeable people would tell you that it had always been in the statute books in Northern Nigeria before and after Independence. The turning point was when Sani Yerima, then Zamfara State governor, dramatised and politicised the adoption of the code by his state in 2000.

    Beyond one or two ill-thought out utterances, fair-minded people should look at Buhari’s life, actions and associates and determine for themselves whether he fits the mould of an Islamic fundamentalist. Let’s not forget that this same individual led the military push to destroy Maitatsine in the 80s. This last July, he barely survived a bomb attack carried out by extremists he is supposedly sympathetic towards.

    Those who dismiss the APC candidate as easy to beat should ask themselves whether over the last four years he has shed support like his opponent for the February 2015 polls. Most people who voted back for Buhari in 2011 are still likely to back him today. After seeing what he has done with power , Jonathan has lost many erstwhile supporters.

    What should disturb the ruling party more is that people are becoming increasingly resistant to the old propaganda. They take the position that Buhari may not be an orator, he may not be an angel or discuss economic policy like Okonjo-Iweala, still they would risk their votes on him because they are fed up with Jonathan’s Nigeria.

  • Buhari’s fourth try: It will be real now

    My instinct made me to believe, that General Muhammadu Buhari would clinch the just concluded All Progressives Congress (APC’s) primaries

    The other four contenders- Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, Governor Rochas and Mr. Sam Isaiah will not really pose any threat in making the Buhari candidacy under the platform of the APC, because the retired General has enjoyed and still enjoys the people’s confidence in yearning for positive change in this country.                                      It is therefore not a surprise, that when counting of the ballots started at the primaries, General Muhammadu Buhari polled a total vote of 3,430 out of the more than 7,000 delegates votes.              It is only General Muhammadu Buhari, in the whole of this country that can still be enjoying mass appeal of the people. A lot of things that are unexpected happened as the primaries was held in Lagos and one of the things that came to the open was the acceptability of General Buhari in South-East and the South-South by the people.

    The massive supports given to General Buhari during the concluded primaries has break the jinx, that was associated with him as a strong religious bigot, who only care for the Muslims.                                      Those who tagged him with such incredulous label are political adversaries that are threatened by the support he enjoys from the people of this country from different parts of this country. It is clear that General Buhari in the election proper in 2015 would give the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan a good run for his money.

    Most of the co-contenders like the former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has shown good sportsmanship by conceding defeat and congratulating the General over his victory.

    The task has now shifted from General Buhari to all the party men and women to now vigorously come out from any shell they may be in to assiduously work for the victory of the party, and General Buhari, at the polls next year.

    General Buhari stands a good chance in becoming the next

    President of this country in next year’s election once the people will put aside any primordial interest and work in unison for the success of the party and the candidate against the dreaded PDP and its candidate.  People should eschew political rancor and money bags and vote according to their conscience in order to ease out the PDP and their presidential candidate.

    The people have suffered too much especially in the North East where insurgents have ravaged so many towns and villages with scores of people losing their lives and hard-earned properties worth billions of naira.

    Insecurity has scuttled the business opportunities of the people as people now live from hand to mouth. The year for real General Buhari’s presidency is now and the people should rally round and see to its actualization.

    General Muhammadu Buhari will transform this country that all can claim to be worthy in staying. This generation and indeed future generations yet unborn have no any other country than Nigeria and we must stay here and salvage it together.

    – Santuraki is a Political Analyst/ public from Yola.