Buhari Goes To School

By

Okachikwu Dibia

nelsondibiaokachi@yahoo.com

 

 

There appears to be an ongoing debate on Buhari for 2015. Some people are of the opinion that General Muhammadu Buhari, former Nigerian military head of state who had contested for the presidential elections in 2003, 2007 and 2011 and lost in all, should contest for the coming 2015 election again. The other view is that he should allow the younger politicians in his Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) to bear the baton. This debate, with its attendant merits and demerits, is more within his followers in the CPC than elsewhere. But these followers, who had been benefiting from using Buhari’s name to win elections as state governors, national assembly members, state assembly members, councilors etc, have never interrogated the question: why did Buhari fail in the three presidential elections he contested?

 

The third position of the debate is that Buhari should rather not contest for the presidential election in 2015 but should proceed immediately to study Political Science (the science of state leadership) in any good university so that in the next eight years he would have been well grounded and enriched in the ideals of civil political leadership. Also, during this period, he would have succeeded in guiding, nurturing, penetrating and maturing his party’s ideology in the minds of Nigerians. I strongly support this view because as at today, Nigeria is desperately searching for who will lead her out of indiscipline. This school of thought further hopes that after school by 2019, Buhari can contest the presidential election and win.

 

This thinking has become necessary because as at today and probably before 2019, Buhari seems to be the only Nigerian leader who can decisively deal with Nigeria’s hydra-headed indiscipline, which remains the root cause of Nigeria’s social, economic and political failures. But Buhari, it appears to me, does not understand how to effectively manage Nigeria’s sensitive differences and this is the reason he must go back to a non-military school. Nigeria must make hay of Buhari now that he is alive to lead Nigeria out of corruption (the quintessential shame of the country), instead of waiting to shed crocodile tears when he is no more around and describing him as the best and honest leader Nigeria never had. Big nonsense! Buhari does not need to write university entrance examinations; his should be a direct entry with special preference because of his age, not social status.

 

Indiscipline, manifested in the corruption of all facets of Nigeria’s life, is the primary cause of the failure of Nigeria. There is nothing of Nigeria that has not been corrupted. Without a civilized Buhari-like-fight against indiscipline in Nigeria, and no matter the millions, billions and trillions spent, this nation may neither become any giant of Africa nor achieve any of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), nor become a member of the G20 by year 2020. Nigeria’s current level of discipline is too weak to support these great ambitions. To truly lead Africa, achieve the MDGs and become a member of the G20 require a very high level of discipline which is obviously lacking in Nigeria.

 

Buhari’s government in 2019 will be to do one thing: reduce drastically the level of indiscipline in Nigeria. Like he would always say, he will facilitate the sanitization of the Nigerian mind to behave well and just do the right things right. This he can achieve in four years time from 2019 to 2023 and leave the office. This is the essence of a General Muhammadu Buhari in the cosmic and earthly plains of Nigeria in the 21st century. Nigeria needs Buhari to achieve this all important change. To me he appears to be the only one who has the sincerity and passion for this type of job in Nigeria.

 

Meanwhile, Buhari must ignore those who have started disturbing him to contest the presidential election in 2015 without curing him of his deficiency in the management of a heterogeneous circumstance called Nigeria. They constitute his real problem in becoming an elected president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.