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President Muhammadu Buhari: Sacrifice, Patience, Change, and Peoples’ Expectations (I) By
Bukhari M. Bello Jega
"He who has
appointed himself an Imam (ruler) of the people must begin by
teaching himself before teaching others. His teaching of others must
be first by setting an example rather than with his words, for he
who begins by teaching and educating himself is more worthy of
respect than he who teaches and educates others."
Ever since General Muhammadu Buhari decided to join
the murky, mockery and flirt fields of Nigerian politics, so
many people raises their reservations while some commended such act
of bravery. To some, Nigerian politics is a graveyard for people
with good intentions, while to some the political atmosphere is
saturated with idles and hopeless characters, thus, principle and
people with integrity must step in participate and cleanse the
political atmosphere and restore sanity and morality in the society.
Interestingly, whatever side of the spectrum one decides to stand,
the reality is that the entrance of General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd)
into Nigerian politics in 2002 has change the landscape of Nigerian
politics forever. When historians and analysts begin to chronicles
actors, villains and heroes that contributed in deepening and
consolidating our democratic history and culture through purposeful
engagement, faith and strengthening of the Nigerian system, one name
that will feature prominently; is General Muhammadu Buhari. His
participation and enrichments of the democratic system and the legal
system is beyond quantifications. His doggedness, patience,
perseverance, sacrifice and adherents to the rule of law in seeking
electoral redress and justice from a flaws process without
compromising his principle and integrity, distinguished him among
the various serious and unserious actors in our last 16 years of our
democratic experimentation.
If we may recall on September, 2002, when the
peoples’ General went to submit his letter of intent to contest the
2003 Presidential Election on the platform of All Nigeria People’s
Party at the headquarters in Abuja, he was quoted to have said that
“There has been for the past three years gross disenchantment
among Nigerians with the style of governance of this
administration... hardly could we justifiably say that the condition
of the ordinary Nigerians has improved over the last three and half
years. Internally, this has led to apathy, insecurity and a level of
poverty that was never witnessed by our nation since the civil
war....Saving the country from precipice is today a duty for all
patriotic citizens..... We need to restore trust in government by
the reinstitution of accountability, discipline and self sacrifice
for the benefit of our people”. Interestingly, politicians and
the ruling party found themselves enmeshed with growing tides and
waves of the spirit of Buharism among the Nigerian masses especially
at the northern part of the country. A spiritual and physical
hurricanes and tsunamis that is about to crushed anybody that stand
on its way; a hurricane and tsunamis that is beyond ruling party’s
imagination, understanding and comprehension especially in the
northern part of the country; especially as the peoples’ General
seem to be riding on personal accomplishment and integrity in the
past.
As usual, the Nigerian elites faced with this
dangerous tsunami that is about to wiped them out of political and
economic relevance, return to their laboratory of mischief,
propaganda, blackmails and deceits; as they begin to deplete his
popularity using what they know how to used best, religion and
ethnicity. It won them, sympathisers in the Southern part of the
country, but, not in northern part of the country, who sees General
Muhammadu Buhari as their messiah; saviour and redeemer, they having
waiting for in the last 40 years. The rest they say is history.
However, the beauty of General Muhammadu Buhari
momentum is the doggedness, perseverance, patience and sacrifice
throughout his sojourns in politics before the present moment of
greatness. Indeed, General Muhammadu Buhari had to taste the bitter
poisons of betrayals, conspiracy, blackmails and propaganda within
his party and loyalists on one hand and the ruling party on the
other hand. Unperturbed, the man continue to move from one electoral
defeat to another, but, interestingly, he neither compromises his
integrity, principles and moral standards, nor succumbed to various
attempts to soiled his hands with corrupt tendencies. One of the
biggest ironies in Nigeria today, is the capacity of the state to
corruptly enrich anybody including the angels if they could find
their ways; but, it takes a man with strong spiritual and moral
principles to reject such tempting offers. This is where General
Muhammadu Buhari’s image and personality resonates among his
supporters and political foes alike. For a man who contested
elections three times and lost and still maintained his integrity,
principles and morality in a geographical entity called Nigeria,
indeed deserves commendations and iconic projections.
For a man who shed innocent tears of agonies and
sympathy for Nigerians, over the choice and the mistakes they are
about to make in choosing disaster and hell fire for themselves and
children over the promised change, repositioning and redirection for
a better tomorrow he was promising them. He was not only ridiculed,
humiliated and call all sort of names, but, he was tagged as a man
desperate for power. Unfortunately, for the gullible, fatalistic and
narrow-minded Nigerians, the future the General envisage and the
dangers he saw ahead was beyond their understanding, appreciation
and foresight; until few years later when the pretender and clueless
man began to unleashed his reign of terror, incompetence and light
feather approach to governance. Nigerians and Nigeria transcended
from “Goodluck Nigeria to Reality Nigeria”. Indeed, majority began
to see the vision and foresight of General Muhammadu Buhari over the
choice they made for themselves. The man without shoes has finally
gotten multiple designer shoes and he is using such to oppress the
people; as the government runs from pillars of cluelessness,
oppression, and corruption, humanitarian disaster of killing and
bombing of innocent and belligerent Nigerians. Nigerians began to
see the wisdom in General Muhammadu Buhari’s tears, but, it is too
late. In retrospect, we can say, it has being six (6) years of
deaths, assassination, corruption and incompetence; but, who bears
the grunt, we Nigerians. Indeed, it was a grunt we suffered and are
still suffering without seriousness and pity from the outgoing
government.
As 2015 General Elections, surprisingly Nigerians
from different shed of light, ideologies and political and
socio-cultural persuasions, began rooting and begging General
Muhammadu Buhari to re-contest the 2015 Presidential election for
the fourth time. These different political, ideological, and
socio-cultural persuasions believed and advance the argument, that,
it is only General Muhammdu Buhari that can redeem the Nigerian
state, from the shackles of hopelessness and disaster they found
themselves. The man once told his loyalists, he has had enough of
politics, even thought patriotism, sympathy and love for humanity
still run in his veins. It took the active pleading and prayers of
his loyalists and supporters, before General Muhammadu Buhari
decided to come back into the dirty and murky water of Nigerian
politics. Indeed, it was an interesting fourth coming under a now
mega, strong, formidable and progressive opposition party
“All Progressive Congress (APC)”. The prospects look
great especially against decimal failure of cluelessness and
incompetent son of fisherman in leadership position. The coast seems
beautiful, especially when the General won his party Presidential
primary against formidable and equally grassroots and moneybags
politicians like the former Vice President Alh Atiku Abubakar,
Governor Eng. Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso and Leadership Newspaper
Publisher Sam Nda Isiah. The victory of the General finally sealed
the lips and blackmails of arm chair critics, who argued that, the
General has never won any election; as all previous elections in his
previous party was a product of consensus arrangements. The party
primary was a sweet victory for his supporters; but, a bad omen for
the cluelessness and neophytes in the ruling power and party; as
they immediately lunch attacks against his personality.
The fourth coming of General Muhammadu Buhari as a
presidential candidate came with alot of advantages unlike in his
previous contest; such as; the emergence of strong, mega and
formidable opposition party “The All Progressive Congress”; the
rebranding and image handling of the new look General Muhammadu
Buhari; the desperation and disunity within the ruling party the
PDP; campaigns of calumny, insult and rascality by the ruling party
without retaliation from the General himself; a visible and decimal
failure of cluelessness, light feather incompetent leadership in the
last 6 years; huge appetites for change from the hopelessness
Nigerian masses found themselves; wanton corruption and
insensitivity of neophytes in government houses; the unity and
determination of all party faithful especially those who lost the
Presidential primary and their supporters to work for the common
good of the party beyond personality and ego; the grassroots
membership drives and linking the party with the general feelings
and aspirations of the common man on the street, resonates passion
and love among the people that the APC is their party; the
endorsement of notable personalities who previously were at
loggerheads with his candidature; the sincere prayers and humility
of millions of Nigerians to humble themselves and submit completely
to God Almighty for succumb and redemptions from the criminal
gangsters in leadership position; and finally the personality and
integrity capital General Muhammadu Buhari brought with him
resonates with the people especially those that don’t know him
before due to years of blackmails and deceit on his personality.
Indeed, all these factors contributed significantly
in dislodging the biggest Multinational Corporation in Nigeria - the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from power. The PDP was not only
reduced to an opposition party before the election, but, their
desperation to scuttles the electoral process became their biggest
undoing especially among the undecided voters. From campaigning
against the use of Card Reader; to election postponement; to insult
and heating up the system, finally Nigerians delivers their
electoral verdicts on the administration of President Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan on March 28, 2015. He was not only rejected with more than
2 millions vote tally; but, we have never seen the kind of
celebration in this country, like what we saw on 31st
March 2015. It was indeed, a sweet victory to the Abraham Lincoln of
Nigeria, General Muhammadu Buhari after three unsuccessful attempts
against the Multinational Corporation Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP). The victory elicited celebration and warm wishes within and
outside the country.
However, as May 29th 2015
date for the inauguration of the President Muhammadu Buhari draws
closer by the days, can we pause beyond tokenism, celebration, and
warm wishes to silently ask ourselves some basic questions, and draw
lessons for the future. Indeed, the victory of General Muhamadu
Buhari came through the slogan of change, but, do we understand and
appreciate what “Change” means? Are we really ready for change
beyond the emotional outburst and passions? Is this change
affordable to us? Can we bear the sacrifice and patience that come
with Change? Are
our leaders willing to abandon ideological gridlock and learn to
compromise for the sake of those who follow them in this nation?
Also, do we know the meaning of the word sacrifice anymore? And if
not, are we willing to learn what that word means and enact policies
that are truly compassionate towards our progeny?
With the current
economic crisis and fluctuation in the prices of crude oil which is
the main revenue based of the country, are we ready for some painful
austerity measures to stabilise the economy? What happen if the
government decided to retrenched or reduce workers salaries, are we
willing to sacrifice for the future? Is the government ready for
true change or cosmetic change? These are interesting questions we
need to reflect on as the People’s government takes over power on
May 29th 2015.
On the issues of change; change mean overhauling
everything that is bad in this country. Change means complete
departure from what used to be before to a new serious and committed
process. Change means, change in looting of the treasuring; change
in orientations and attitude of government officials and masses too;
change to people’s oriented programmes and policies; change to
accountability, transparency, rule of law, probity, selflessness,
freedom, openness and participation in governance and decision
making process etc. It is a wholesome game that needed seriousness,
sincerity and political will of those in leadership position and
support, encouragement and commitment of the masses. It takes two to
tango; thereby making the change a reciprocal gesture between the
leadership and followers. Seriously, if one should based the
commitment and sacrifice of Nigerians to making change of government
possible during and after the 2015 General Elections, then, we may
miss the point about whether or not Nigerians are ready for change
or not. For now, Nigerians have demonstrated their willingness
emotionally and passionately, but, beyond these token gestures, can
we withstand the pressure and crisis that come with change?
Nigerians must remember, understand and appreciate
the fact that, they change certain groups of characters, who have
been enjoying the spoils of wars at their expense. And these
characters today almost control almost every aspect of our lives.
Are we ready to bear the sacrifice and patience requires of us as
change champions when these characters decides to create chaos
through unethical practices of hooding or refusing to supply or
import essentials goods that makes our lives pleasurable, before the
government sort itself out? Indeed, you don’t change people and
expect free hands and stability; they will fight back to reclaim
their archest. Are we ready for the sacrifice and patience requires
from change makers? Indeed, we need to be careful and guard against
the enemies of the masses, as they will attempt to frustrate the
incoming government through various unholy act aims at heating up
the system. A classical example is the Islamic or Arab reawakening
and revolution that took placed in Egypt. Egyptian protested against
the dictatorial regime of President Hosni Mubarak for months until
the government collapsed and the man adjudicated his seat. The
military took over; yet, the people continue to pressurize the
military until a democratic election was conducted and Mohammed
Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood won and were elected President of
Egypt.
It was indeed the Egyptian people’s revolution and
momentum of change. Egyptians were greeted and celebrated around the
world (just like we did too through the ballot box) as a new symbol
of democratic ethos in the Arab world. However, when the government
decided to move towards the real change by repositioning the country
for better service, the characters that were changed and the real
owners of Egypt fought back with various unethical antics such as
hooding of wheat, oil, gas, hike in rents and others coordinated
activities aimed at frustrating government and the movement towards
change. Unfortunately, hardship, lack of ideological lining, vision,
patience and clear foresight and understanding of the evil of
criminal gangs in the country, created the environment for mass
street protest and chanting of song against the government, by the
same masses that brought the government to power through protest,
bloodshed, and death. The protest led to the collapsed of President
Mohammed Morsi’s government through military coup by General
AbdulFatah Al-Sisi. Interestingly, with the emergence of General
Al-Sisi everything was normalised and life was return to normal in
Egypt. Now, same people who protested against President Mohammed
Morsi that lead to his ousted are now back to the street protesting
against President Al-Sisi; thereby creating a scenario of
hopelessness and confusion among change makers in Egypt.
So, this is a classical example for us to learn from.
Changes champions must guard against artificial induce crisis,
frustration, deception and conspiracy by enemies of Nigeria. The
government indeed need to move very fast against any major
shortfalls and crisis that may arise. Secondly, with the current
economic crisis and fluctuation in the prices of crude oil which is
the main revenue based of the country, the masses need to guide and
direct their expectations, because of the pitfalls and some sought
of austerity measures the government may be coming up with. Indeed,
these austerity measures might be very painful at the short run,
but, at the long runs can lead to more happiness. What happen if the
government decides to retrench or reduce workers salaries, are we
willing to sacrifice for the future? These are all issues we need to
guide and reflect upon if we are really serious about change in our
national. It is a bitter pill, that, for once we most all learn to
swallow so, that, we can have the future we envisage, There is no
society or country that become a model of development that did not
passes through these bitter pills, so Nigeria cannot be an exception
especially against the backdrop of confidence and pan-Nigeria
support we saw for General Muhammadu Buhari build-up to and after
2015 General elections. In my thinking Nigerians, voted for change
to the badness of yesterday, hopelessness of today, and desire for a
new future for ourselves and children; therefore, no sacrifice is
too much rewrite the wrongs of yesterdays and today. Rome they said
was not built in a day, so, also, the development we envisage cannot
happen within the shortest period of time. Sacrifice, patience and
commitment of both leaders and followers alike is needed in this
voyage of discovery.
However, the incoming government has tremendous
challenges ahead, which requires seriousness, commitment, sacrifice,
selflessness, political will and sagacious and people oriented
economic packages. Just, like in 1983 Nigeria found herself in
quagmires due to wanton corruption and hopelessness by politicians
and General Muhammad Buhari/Tunde Idiagbo government came to the
rescue; so, also, with the current reality before us and General
Muhammadu Buhari was voted as the messiah of this period. Therefore,
government must rise to the challenges and give succour to the
millions of belligerent Nigerians. Indeed, the expectations among
millions of Nigerians who line up in various streets and polling
units to vote for the incoming government are very high, which the
General Muhammadu Buhari himself acknowledged in his last
presentation at the Chatham House on Thursday February 26, 2015,
where he was quoted to have answer that; “i know there are high
expectations. Those who are following our campaign would have see
how people were coming out with some them becoming emotional and
crying. In view of that, iam really getting scared that when i get
there, they will be expecting miracles within the first three to
four months. It will be very dicey handling that and i think that we
have a deliberate campaign to tamper high expectation with some
reasonableness on the part of those who are expecting miracles to
happen”.
Indeed, these expectations are real,
and must be met with some high degree of seriousness and action
oriented programmes, policies and selflessness as envisaged by
General Muhammadu Buhari himself. A walk into the markets square or
any neighbourhoods, most discussion is centred on the messianic
mission of General Muhammed Buhari led government. The atmosphere is
full charge and Nigerians are seeking for quick fix to the plethora
of problems confronting them; excuses or failure is simple
unacceptable to these hopeful and belligerent citizens. I really
don’t envy General Muhammadu Buhari and members of his team, because
of the serious decays in the system and the high expectations among
the people for quick fix to these problems. Therefore,
through
careful analysis of what is going on today and comparison of today’s
events with the things that have gone on in our societies and
governments that preceded we will able to recognise and correct our
course. We are engage in nothing less than a war of philosophies,
one of which will lead to prosperity and continued freedom, and the
other, which will lead to fundamental changes in who we are and our
role in the world. We get to decide which of these futures we want
to leave to our children, but, we only have a short time to make
that decision.
The incoming government cannot afford to fail or seem to be failing
in her responsibilities and promises. Nigerians voted for change,
because, they believed General Muhammadu Buhari has the integrity
capital and the anti-corruption fighting spirits and records to
gives direction to the new government. Corruption, impunity,
insecurity unemployment and poverty seems to be the biggest evil in
our society today; so, pragmatic approach to tackling these killer
diseases, will send a strong signals to the enemies of humanity,
whether it is going to be business unusual or as usual.
Fundamentally, our communities, political parties,
business organizations, the old and the new media, educational
institutions and the government can all work to turn our nation,
but, the most important changes will be made by you and me, the
Nigerian individuals. Each of us can control only our own behaviour,
but if we all take action individually, our action will collectively
have a significant impact on the directions of our nation. As
individual, we can educate ourselves and our children, cultivate the
art of compromise, pray for wisdom, and hold our representative
accountable. Each of us can positively affect our nation just by
making ourselves (and those in our spheres of influence) aware of
the fact that we are being used as pawn by those who try to tell us
what we should think as opposed to using our own common sense. If
each of us sits back and expects someone to take action, it will
soon be too late. But as of today, it is still not too late to join
hands in this battle to save our nation and pass on to our children
and grandchildren something we can all be proud of. In the wisdom of
our founding fathers do we find some answers to our contemporary
challenges. Our nation’s founding father felt very strongly that our
system of government could only survive with a well-informed and
educated populace. They understood that if the populace reached the
point of not being able to critically analyse information, it would
be easily fall prey to slick politicians and unethical news media.
All citizens need to arm themselves with basic knowledge of Nigerian
history and stay abreast of our current events, analysing them with
respect to his. Knowledge is power and at a time when people are
becoming increasingly impotent while the government grows larger and
more powerful, it is vital that we arm ourselves with knowledge.
Inherently, in the history, sacrifices and patience
of President elect General Muhammadu Buhari should we draw important
lessons as a people and as a nation especially our youth. His
political sojourns were met with three times failure in the fields,
but, yet he never gave up on Nigeria and the masses, as he finally
came for the fourth time and emerged victorious. This should remind
us about perseverance, patience, steadfastness, and patriotism, as
we decided to vote and wanted change in the way things are done in
this country. The youth needs to know; every successful journey is
story of great failures. So, failures in life, is a stepping stone
to greatness tomorrow; that sacrifice is the hallmark to success. A
life without sacrifice only leads to greed, conceits, treachery, and
injustice. So, we must learn to make significant sacrifice, for the
goodness of tomorrow. We must understand and appreciate the fact
that, betrayal, deceit, conspiracy and insults shouldn’t deter us
from what is right and acceptable. We should remain patient and
continue with our mission; after all we had a divine mission before
anybody has any opinion against us. We must remain focus and patient
with betrayers, deceitful and conspirators, because, at the end we
shall laugh last. For now, General Muhammadu Buhari beyond the
euphoria has fulfilled the above quotation by Ali Ibn Talib (as) due
to the said integrity capital he brought with him during the
campaigns which resonate among his admirers and foes alike;
therefore, it is expected of him to maintain such principal standard
in redirecting and fulfilling campaign promises.
IN conclusion, General Muhammadu Buhari should be
wary of this beautiful advise by Ali Ibn Abu Talib (as) when he
admonished leaders to be more concern ".......with developing the
land should be greater than your concern for collecting taxes, for
the latter can only be obtained by developing; whereas he who seeks
revenue without development destroys the country and the people."
The President and his team must understand and
appreciate the fact, that, in six (6) months without tangible
result, the honeymoon will be over; as admirers will become critics
and protesters especially in conservative society and his strong
support based the northern part of the country. I don’t envy you
sir, but, it is a job that must be done. Congratulations on your
well deserved Pan-Nigerian mandate and welcome on board Mr
President.
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