General Muhammadu Buhari

General Muhammadu Buhari, ANPP, and the Electorate

A. Mohammed Bashir Shuwa

LEEDS UK

Indeed it is God that gives power to whom He wish and in a democracy God has given the will power to the electorate to exercise this role freely by choosing who they want to be in power. Power is then held in trust for the people by the person who is freely chosen by the people acting on God's wish. The Nigerian electorate have a chance to give power to someone they trust, someone who can come with the belief that he is voted by the people of Nigeria and is ready to serve them. The electorate must realize the difference between a candidate fronting for some self interest group from the one that is acting on their behalf as voters.

If election is a way of presenting oneself to serve then General Muhammadu Buhari has done so in the true spirit of the game. For a start he is not anybody's stooge and his loyalty will be to the Nigerian people and the constitution. Given his track record of transparency his administration will likely be more humane and development oriented unlike what we have now with the PDP. If there ever was an open regime in Nigeria it was the Buhari era when every first week of the month we were told about the state of the nation, what we earned and the projects that were to be executed and allocations to the various tiers of the government. This was done through a widely publicized radio and television broadcasts entitled Matters Of The Moment.

Considering that the problem of the country as at January 1984 was basically to do with citizens attitudes Buhari initiated a revolutionary citizen mobilization drive tagged War Against Indiscipline to tackle the myriad of problems retarding Nigeria's quest for purposeful development. Toward this end the WAI campaign identified workers attitude to work ( work ethics), environmental sanitation, queuing culture, bribery and corruption as some of the key elements of what the WAI campaign tackled. A lot of progress was recorded in that regard before his administration was terminated on 27 August 1985.

Since then General Buhari has gone through a lot of transformation. He has in the true spirit of reconciliation forgiven those who overthrew his government and detained him without trial for nearly three years. He has displayed his large heart in accepting to become the chairman of petroleum trust fund PTF under the Abatcha regime even though Abatcha it was that announced the coup that sacked his regime and enthroned IBB. In a similar vein Buhari has been having a cordial relationship with IBB with whom they have been meeting and charting the right course for the nation's future.

General Muhammadu Buhari is a visionary leader and has a purpose. He wants to uplift the standard of living of the ordinary Nigerian whose concerns he always shares in all his actions and utterances. He also want to build a strong and virile Nigeria where every Nigerian will be proud to call his nation and live to contribute his quota toward achieving its greatness. One thing I still remember about Buhari is that as a head of state when he was on state tour he does not only visit state capitals but traverses the length and breath of the state so as to have a first hand impression of the needs and requirements of the people. A Buhari presidency will ensure that people in all spheres and localities of Nigeria will experience the presence of government wherever they live.

The transformation of Buhari as a politician and a statesman has made him to become a good negotiator and motivator. It has also brought out the love he has for justice and fairness which are part of his long standing attributes. Even though his candidate lost out in the ANPP primaries and overtures were made for him to desert the party he remained resolute and committed in his desire to achieve his aspiration on its platform which stood him out as the most principled politician we ever had.

While some politicians think that they can capture power through the controls of state machinery such as the army,police and electoral officers who are expected to rig the election in their favour Buhari on the other hand is asking the people to give him their mandate which he promises to defend even at the cost of his life.

So if Buhari is ready and willing to safeguard his mandate if given freely by Nigerians what can the electorate do to help preserve the sanctity of their votes? This is a very relevant issue as we are aware of recent past electoral fraud orchestrated by the present set of PDP men in power. They stole votes openly and nothing happened and so will there be repeat of this ugly saga or are Nigerians ready and willing to vote and defend their votes?

However the scenario may be different this time as most of those who actively participated in changing the course of events in favour of PDP are no longer in the party. They have inside knowledge of how the party uses state machinery to rig elections and their knowledge would provide insight into how to defeat such attempts in the future.

Certainly the political terrain favours Buhari as he has the good will and support of the teeming masses of Nigeria who look at him as their saviour and also he is able to galvanize the support of the Action Congress which as is expected has formed an alliance with the ANPP together with other parties.

At this moment therefore the ANPP must work toward sensitizing voters on the need to vote and be active politically by making sure that their votes count and not allocated and shared by PDP'S INEC. This is because it is indicative that the PDP has not shied away from its ignoble practice of vote fixing by rewarding Andy Uba with governorship ticket despite his role in the last election which if OBJ is serious in his fight against corruption might have seen Andy going to jail for his actions and not government house!

The contest is now between Buhari and OBJ'S poodle and all progressive forces must rise up to the occasion by giving OBJ and his co-travelers a bloody nose in April 2007 so that Nigerians can move away from domination and control by a minority clique who have tasted power, abused their privilege and want to hang on to it just to safeguard their personal interest and nothing more.

A defeat to PDP is a defeat to OBJ and his eight wasted years that has failed to provide electricity, made life more difficult to people who hardly can feed themselves, saw unprecedented rise in violent crimes and politically motivated murders all over Nigeria. Nigerians have golden opportunity to bid bye bye to bad government by making wise decision to vote for ANPP and General Buhari who have what it takes to transform Nigeria and improve the quality of life of its people.