Buhari

Buhari’s Choice of Bakare as Running Mate

Jideofor Adibe

The word ‘hypocrisy’ will cry out loud if hung on the neck of Muhammadu Buhari. Even his most ardent critics concede that he is honest, disciplined and non-corrupt. As military Head of State, he was credited with one of the most patriotic sentiments ever uttered by any Nigerian leader, when, on coming to power on December 31, 1983, via a military coup, he declared that “this generation of Nigerians and indeed future generations have no other country than Nigeria. We shall remain here and salvage it together.” Buhari’s sentimental invocation of nationalism was later captured in a biopic in which the character Andrew was caricatured for cowardly seeking to ‘check out’ of the country instead of staying behind to help salvage it from its numerous challenges. The Andrew jingle was a big boost to Buhari’s image as a patriot. On March 20, 1984, the Buhari regime launched what it called ‘War Against Indiscipline’ (WAI), which was to come in phases, with the first phase emphasising a queue culture. The initial successes of WAI, coupled with the wide disenchantment with the overthrown political class, added another fillip to Buhari’s (and his deputy, the late Tunde Idiagbon’s) already growing images as sort of junior messiahs. Though the goodwill was squandered in less than one year of coming to power, (even the regime’s signature WAI had begun to lose steam by the time the second phase was launched), Buhari’s name continues to be a recurring decimal whenever Nigerians moan the dearth of quality leaders in the country and the type of leadership the country deserves. Buhari, whose regime was overthrown on August 27 1985, was the presidential candidate of the ANPP in both the 2003 and the 2007 presidential elections. The Congress for Progressive Change – a political party he registered in late 2009 - nominated him, as expected, as its flag bearer for the April 2010 presidential elections. Buhari surprised many people by choosing Pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly, Tunde Bakare, as his running mate. The choice raises several issues:

One, there have been suggestions that Buhari deliberately chose a fiery Pastor to moderate his labelling by critics as an ‘Islamist’ or one so devoutly attached to his religion to the point of arousing the suspicion of the non-adherents of the religion. This appears, at best, to be only a part of the story. It is in fact possible that Buhari was simply taken in by Pastor Bakare’s fiery rhetoric and grandstanding, including his involvement in the convening of the Save Nigeria Group, whose public protests helped to force the hands of the national assembly into invoking the doctrine of necessity, which paved the way for Jonathan to be made an Acting President in the dark days of Yaradua’s terminal illness. Pastor Bakare was also at the centre of the well reported return of $50,000 ‘transport’ money which President Jonathan allegedly gave to the group after a meeting at Aso Rock. It is possible that because of these, Buhari felt he found in Bakare a sort of ideological soul mate – pretty much the way the late Tunde Idiagbon was believed to be his ideological compatriot during his first coming.

Two, aside from the question of his electoral value, there are several other legitimate questions about a Bakare candidacy. For someone who obviously likes to hug the limelight, will he have the discipline to play a second fiddle as demanded by the office? Is it right for a candidate who is obviously on the religious right, and whose every interview is like a lecture on theology and the bible, to be a heartbeat away from the highest political throne in a secular, plural, multicultural and multi-faith society? To put this in perspective, how will the rest of the country feel if an Imam, whose every utterance is laced with quotes from the Quaran is made the running mate of a major presidential candidate? Or for that matter, what will the country think of an unapologetic priest of Okija shrine or Sango being a heartbeat away from the highest political office in the land? With both Buhari and Bakare being passionate about their religious faiths, how will they resist the temptation of trying to impose their version of morality on the rest of the society? How will their faiths impact on the current strategies for fighting HIV infections or stem cell research? Since extreme religious devotion and democratic temperaments tend to be strange bedfellows, what will be the implications of the Buhari/Bakare presidency for the country’s democratic space? The choice of Bakare as running mate indeed raises fundamental questions about Buhari’s political judgments.

Three, is the question of how Bakare’s selection as Buhari’s running mate may affect the political permutations in the South West. Though historically running mates do not tend to add much electoral value to a ticket, the South West from where Bakare comes from is politically closed and often delivers block votes. Currently the ACN is generally seen as the ‘Yoruba party’, and though the party is now making serious efforts to be national, critics maintain that its primary interest is in keeping the Yoruba states under one political umbrella rather than in whoever becomes the President of this country. With Bakare becoming the highest ranking credible political candidate from the region and with a chance of becoming the President in 2015 (since Buhari has pledged to run for only one term), will the ACN at the last minute abandon Nuhu Ribadu, its presidential candidate, and switch its support to Bakare and the CPC? With Bola Tinubu generally regarded as the ultimate political godfather in the South West, can he brook a Vice President, who, if Buhari wins, will potentially eclipse him politically? Between the implicit offer of the presidency in 2015 and ACN’s unknown political calculations and permutations, which will the core Yoruba strategists fall for?

Four, is a concern that Buhari has not made much effort to escape from what novelist Ngozi Chimamanda Adichie would call the ‘danger of a single story line’. He has remained stuck in the persona of someone who is ascetic, non-corrupt and honest – and his choice of Bakare only reinforces that single story line. Unfortunately honesty and being non-corrupt, despite being noble qualities, do not necessarily a good leader make. Shagari too was honest and non-corrupt, but few people will call him a great leader. A critical element in any effective leader is the vision thing and a well defined roadmap for actualising the vision. What does Buhari really stand for apart from the obvious - that he won’t tolerate corruption and that many politicians will end up in jail if he wins? What are his policies on electricity generation, security, education, health, fighting unemployment and improving the environment for business? The impression is that Buhari is relying on his obvious charisma (especially in the North) to win the election rather than on any saleable programme. However, even if he wins, and as German sociologist Max Weber will tell us, charismatic leadership will inherently have problems of institutionalisation and routinisation.