Since
I wrote my piece, I have learnt that Dr. Clement Isong was not CBN
governor at the time. But the substance of my write up remains
unassailable.
Enjoy.
Enjoy.
He is a veritable enigma. A most
unlikely and unusual politician. He is a reticent, retiring persona.
Politics is a very public vocation. He is sparing with his words. The
successful politician is often loquacious. Like the trained soldier, the
skilled politician is often a master of intrigue and deception. He can
be blunt and truthful to a fault. I write of none other than the man of
the moment – General Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the
All Progressives Congress (APC).
In approximately six weeks, the ascetic
General leads his party in an epic electoral encounter with the
incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party
(PDP). In his discipline, focus, tenacity and stubborn commitment to
principle, Buhari reminds one of the immortal Chief Obafemi Awolowo. But
unlike Awo, there are strong indications that Buhari is unlikely to end
up as “the best president Nigeria never had”.
In spite of his prodigious talent, Awo
never succeeded in building a national pan-Nigerian platform to
actualize his ambition of leading Nigeria. In the APC, Buhari has such a
platform that has made his candidacy a viable proposition and his
emergence as President a very real possibility. Buhari’s fate has in
many ways been tied with that of Nigeria over the last several decades.
He fought in the civil war to preserve
Nigeria’s territorial integrity. He was once Military Governor of the
North-Eastern State that now comprises Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Taraba,
Bauchi and Gombe states. He led the clinical military operation that
decisively crushed the Maitatsine extremist Islamic uprising in Kano
between 18th and 29th December 1980. When rebels from Chad invaded part
of the country during the second republic, the General’s troops not only
repelled but pursued them right up to Ndjamena until he was recalled by
a dithering President Shehu Shagari.
By 1983, the politicians had effectively
dug the grave for democracy by the sheer scale of their corruption,
impunity and utter disregard for the rule of law. General Buhari emerged
as the Head of a corrective military regime that dislodged the leprous
political class and sought to restore the country to sanity. Unable to
cope with the alleged puritanical rigidity of Buhari and his deputy,
General Tunde Idiagbon, the regime was overthrown by successors who led
the country down the slopes of economic, political and moral debauchery
from which she is yet to recover.
Ever since the return to civilian rule
in this political dispensation, the promise of democracy has largely
continued to elude Nigerians substantially because of the lack of
competent, visionary, disciplined and morally untainted leadership at
the centre. The General has offered himself for service three times at
the polls without success. Not only has all kind of mud been thrown at
him, he has often been the victim of brazen electoral manipulation.
At last it appears that the Daura-born
General’s hour of fulfilment is at hand. He has emerged as his party’s
presidential flag bearer in transparent, credible and competitive
primaries. All his opponents at the primaries have rallied to his
support. He is running on a platform more viable and formidable than he
has ever done before. He seems tailor-made to counter the twin demons of
insecurity and corruption that constitute the greatest bane of the
country today.
It is impossible for Buhari’s opponents
to credibly question his personal integrity and unblemished record of
incorruptibility. His light in that respect shines in the darkness. The
darkness can neither comprehend nor extinguish it. Buhari has kept a
disciplined distance from the PDP since 1999, a rare feat in a polity
where everyone scrambles to identify with the resource-laden centre and
to be in opposition is anathema. He has refrained from joining those
northern politicians clamouring clannishly for power to return to the
north. He has put himself forward for service simply on the basis of his
personal merit.
As is always the case, Buhari and the
APC should expect their opponent to viciously attack his person and
character. Anyone in their shoes would do the same. They cannot win in a
campaign based on issues. They will thus dredge up the General’s
alleged ‘past sins’ and seek his political crucifixion. Luckily, the
renowned virologist and consistent social critic, Professor Tam David
West of the University of Ibadan has responded copiously to these
allegations, ruthlessly debunking them in his book, ‘The Sixteen ‘Sins’
of General Muhammadu Buhari’.
Like the meticulous and clinical
scientist that he is, Professor David West itemises the allegations
against Buhari and effectively debunks each and every one of them. The
APC must find a way of getting this book to as many Nigerians as
possible before the election. Professor David West’s weapons are facts,
figures, photographs and incisive logic. His capacity for documentation
and record keeping is as impressive as that of the legendary late Chief
Gani Fawehinmi. Now, is Buhari a saint? No. Let that mortal without sin
cast the first stone. Was the military government led by Buhari without
fault or blemish? No one says so. But Buhari’s alleged ‘sins’ pale into
insignificance beside the gross impunity and moral perversion being
witnessed in the country today.
Those mortally afraid of a Buhari
presidency have over the years sought to tag him as an Islamic
fundamentalist. Incidentally, Professor Tam David West, a Christian from
the Niger Delta was Minister of Petroleum in the Buhari/Idiagbon
administration. Other Christian Ministers in Buhari’s military
government include General Domkat Bali (Defence), Dr Onaolapo Soleye
(Finance), Dr Emmanuel Nsan (Health), Commodore Sam Omeruah
(Information), Patrick Koshoni (Works) and Chike Offodile (Justice). Dr
Clement Isong, a Christian was Central Bank Governor. These were
certainly key offices.
Christians appointed as Military
Governors under Buhari were Allison Madueke (Anambra), Jeremiah Useni
(Bendel), Michael Bamidele (Ondo), Oladipo Diya (Ogun), David Mark
(Niger), John Atom Kpera (Beune), Dan Archibong (Cross Rivers), Ike
Nwachukwu (Imo), Oladayo Popoola (Oyo), Bitrus Atukum (Plateau) and B.L.
Letimah (Rivers). Of the 19 military governors at the time 11 were
Christians, seven were Muslims and one, Gbolahan Mudasiru of Lagos State
was a Grail Messenger.
Professor David West tells the following
interesting story on page 22 of his book, “In 1984 (Geneva), as a
Christian Oil Minister, and consequently the leader of the Nigerian
delegation, I made OPEC to halt its conference (meeting) for Christian
members to go home and celebrate Christmas. A meeting was scheduled for
25 December 1984. Their Excellencies obliged, but not without some
objections by some member countries. On my return from Geneva, I
reported to the Head of State, General Buhari, what happened in Geneva.
He did not object at all. He even sent me handsome Christmas presents”.
Would that be the attitude of a religious fanatic?
Equally enlightening is the following
account by Professor David West on page 26 “In early 1984, at a State
Banquet at State House, Marina, Lagos, in honour of a visiting ‘Number
Two’ in a North African intensely Islamic state, General Buhari was most
generously offered $4 billion interest free financial aid. Buhari in
his characteristic humility expressed very sincere appreciation and
gratitude to our brother North African Head of State. But he most
elegantly refused to accept the generous, huge financial assistance: ‘We
(Nigeria) will pull ourselves up by our boot traps’. The $4 billion
generosity was double what the country was negotiating with the IMF
under Shagari with all the terrible conditionalities”. Ah! Just imagine
if Nigeria had persisted on that path of discipline, self-reliance and
sanity.
It is unfortunate that the manipulation
of religion for political purposes has reached unprecedented heights
under the Jonathan presidency. But as Professor David West also rightly
noted “The pleasant Nigerian reality is that no Muslim Head of State can
make Nigeria an Islamic state; and no Christian Head of State can make
Nigeria a Christian State” because “the essential or the constitutional
secularity of the Nigerian state has not changed”. The good thing is
that things have degenerated so badly under President Jonathan’s watch
that religion is unlikely to serve as the opium of the electorate in
next month’s election.
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