Muhammadu Buhari: A Child of Necessity
By
Paul Mamza
The person of General Muhammadu Buhari is not new in Nigeria, infact it is synonymous with the invention and re-invention of the Nigerian nation, but what is news is Buhari’s venture into Nigerian partisan Politics. Since this historic decision took place, Nigeria and Nigerians have undergone some psychological transmutation in the perception and direction of appreciating the good ideals of participatory democracy, where people’s mandate serve as an instrument for political emancipation and installation of purposeful leadership during the period of moral crisis. This psychological transmutation can be likened to the human equivalent of shifting cultivation.
The good will that greeted the Buhari’s venturing into politics is enough a reason to proof this point vis-as-vis the frustration eminent from the total collapse of leadership qualities in the current political dispensation. In this regard, even if there is no election today Buhari has been elected by this good will.
Why the need for change?
Triumph of the reign of political quandary has ignited the need for change. The three years of democracy had been characterized by fossilized corruption, servility, gross ineptitude, visionlessness and malfeasance. Despite the wide clamour for democracy the period presented a great innovation where the bad political temperament is becoming irrefutably irredeemable, insecurity is escalating into an escapade, the plight of the ordinary Nigerians is worsened, chivalrous persuasions are fast diminishing, good intentions are gradually becoming a pernicious act, decorum is substituted with pervasion, wishful perseverance is suppressed by perplexity and sovereignty has been compromised for personal temerity. There was governance but no leadership- one that had presented a motion without movement and a movement without motion, infact what we had was a hopeless mismatch of political events. The consequence is a loss of grandeur and respect for the most cherished ideals of democracy.
It is the natural course of good people to stand against the triumph of evil especially during the period of moral crisis and that is what the Buhari’s candidature is set to do, you may call it an intervention and a flourishing child of necessity. By this, it is obvious that the masquerade has been disrobed at the village square, it is time to go home. But we the supporters of this intervention should not underestimate the major challenges that will be encountered in future. Election may be rigged, manipulations can assume the centre stage for determining elected officials, political thugs are likely be appointed as presiding officers during elections and money bags can deceive the electorates to regard the exercise as a political bazaar. It is our ample duty that this must not happen and if we collectively regard this standpoint as sacrosanct then our intervention becomes possible. The symptom of political neurosis has filled the shores of our political waters which if not arrested by skillful and transparent practitioners like Buhari will lead to the demise of the state and its organs. The present state of groveling and pathetic wreck, inflicted on the psyche of the nation by the present crop of politicians is enough a pointer to predict these uncertainties. But let us be left in doubt that this our high capacity for resilience in support of mediocrity is a natural curse but rather our inability to live above the very conditions of our possibilities, you may call it a man-made disastrous innovation. The thieving class receive applause for thievery and violations of rule of law is mistaken as a political might yet we collectively blame nature for our predicament. It is irrational for good people to refuse to act during the period of moral decadence. To quote General Buhari in 1984. “This generation of Nigerians and indeed future generations have no other country than Nigeria. We shall remain here and salvage it together”. The General can as well repeat this statement today, it is as desirable as it is today, but unlike in the past when military intervened to save the soul of a bewildered nation, the present cause can be likened to a political revolution to halt the activities of political swindlers and that is the major reason why General Buhari is in the Presidential race.
THE BUHARI’S ATTRIBUTES
As mentioned earlier in my Tuesday column of Daily Trust of 8th May, 2001 “General Buhari is one of the few sincere Nigerians with an unimpeachable integrity. He is highly disciplined, upright and truthful to a fault and these assertions cannot be contested even by his enemies”. He has upheld these virtues even during the most tumultuous of times. His landmarks and legacies as the Military Governor of North Eastern state (1975) and Borno State (1976), General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the second, third and fourth division and later Assistant Adjutant General in the 1st Infantry Division speaks volume of laudable achievements. As a soldier he was thorough and highly disciplined. This fact was once attested by his former boss retired General Martin Adamu. “A first class officer, resourceful, very brave, but very calm, even under pressure” “He was a very loyal subordinate and very knowledgeable. I depended a lot on him. Like I said earlier, he has first class discipline and integrity and tends to insist on such qualities in his subordinates, both officers and men, to measure up to his own standards. In that way of course, it is only natural that some people will not like him. All the same they respected him for his professional competence and integrity. He is very thorough and discerning”. As a Federal Commissioner of Petroleum Resources he left the NNPC on a sound and firm footing through some structural, administrative and policy re-engineering. This yielded successes in the explorations in the Anambra and Chad River basin areas. As a Head of State he was a highly discipline and devoted leader whose track record is second to none in patriotic terms. No corruption, no Nepotism, No Indiscipline, and No Nonsense. These daring qualities have engendered him to the hearts of many Nigerians, especially the advocates of purposeful leadership. As the Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) during the regime of late General Sani Abacha he had proved that economic wastage can be overcome by instilling discipline and accountability in the conduct of public affairs and PTF achievements stand to be the best developmental effort ever since Nigerian nation was invented. Buhari’s leadership qualities in the past, lends support to the hypothesis that it is the lacking attributes of discipline and accountability in our leaders that made them failed statemen whose catch word is corruption and it is the same corruption that had polluted and corroded our capabilities and abilities alike. The major advantage of the Buhari presidential bid finds succour in his discipline- complaint and corruption-free personality profile. You can raise some primordial issues to question his integrity but nobody can say General Buhari is corrupt. He was tested and trusted. That is why they tried to blackmail him but instead they got blackmailed. They tried to intimidate him but at the end got intimidated. They tried to threaten him but were left threatened. These three instruments of out-maneuvering political adversaries have failed on Buhari and that is why some called him the “Diamond the hardest stone” and I sometimes refer to him as “the shining star that never dim”. Infact he is the last hope of the present lost generation of Nigerians. If we miss this great opportunity, History and posterity will never forgive us. That is why the actualization of Buhari presidency must be pursued vigorously and decisively. May God help us.
Mamza wrote in from A.B.U Zaria