By Austine Uche-Ejeke
With the many decades of military rule, most Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief in 1999 when democratic dispensation knocked at the country’s door.
The joy increased when the conspiracy theorists in their usual way decided that the person to kick start the democratic era will be no other person than Olusegun Obasanjo, the man they can trust!
Expectations were high that an Obasanjo on a second missionary journey will be brutal and decisive in fixing the country. Why you may ask. This is purely on the premise that Obasanjo has seen it all and there is nothing remaining than to put the country in proper pedestal.
Talk of experience, Obasanjo as at that time had a bag full of it, having been second in command to Murtala Mohammed and eventually became head of state at the death of Mohammed. But that is not even the main issue then. The bottom line as at that time was that a personality like Obasanjo had seen it all and as such would perform far above expectations. This is because the dreaded draconian ruler Sani Abacha jailed Obasanjo on charges of attempted coup plot against his government. A lot of sinister things happened during that regime that Obasanjo’s good friend Musa Yar’Adua died in detention under questionable circumstances! People in the know said Obasanjo was the next person to be eliminated but mother luck smiled on him that few days to the actualisation of that evil plot Abacha died! Even Obasanjo confirmed this in his widely glamorised thanksgiving services after coming out of detention.
Now if God Almighty has been so kind to Obasanjo by not only sparing his life but giving him a second chance to rule Nigeria, the expectations of many Nigerians was that Obasanjo would have done marvellously well by not continuing in the business as usual format. In fact, Obasanjo himself in his early days in power boasted that it was not going to be business as usual as he would step on toes, very powerful toes for that matter. How many toes he was able to step on and actually radically changing the fortunes of the country is now left for historians to articulate and publish under the name of Chronicles of Obasanjo Second Missionary journey!
Not only were Nigeria’s disappointed in the near stagnation of the country during Obasanjo’s regime but they were taken aback with the velocity of graft, corruption and impunity under Obasanjo’s watch. This is to the extent that an Obasanjo who openly confessed in his best-selling book My Watch that he had only N20,000 in his account in 1999 grudgingly left power in 2007 as a billionaire and reputed as one of the richest ex-presidents in the world!
To be candid with you, that was when I started losing hope in this country. As I was thinking aloud that if Nigeria could not be fixed by an Obasanjo with all his credentials as former military head of state, an acclaimed international statesman but most importantly somebody that God showed an uncommon mercy and grace by saving his life from murderous plot just by the whiskers; if he couldn’t fix Nigeria, then who will?
Be that as it may, my hope was rekindled in 2011 when General Buhari came out to contest for the third time to rule Nigeria as an executive president, having ruled before, from 1983 to 1985, as a military head of state. By that time, he was contesting with Goodluck Jonathan whose only campaign material was “I had no shoes to go to school” and his unique name of Goodluck! With what Jonathan did in the short spell of time he acted in the stead of his sick boss and president, Umaru Yar’Adua, I was convinced beyond all reasonable doubt that a Buhari will be far more decisive and better than a Jonathan. And so I took up the onerous task of campaigning for Buhari in 2011. Most of my friends and my family members then were routing for Jonathan but I stuck with Comrade Buhari. At the risk of my life, reputation and all I stood for, I insisted that a president Buhari was all Nigeria needed to wipe away all tears of misrule, mismanagement, graft and corruption.
It got to an extent that I was almost disowned and ostracised by my family for my radical propagation of the Buhari candidature as I risked my life travelling to the Southeast and my village to convince my people to vote for Buhari in 2011. Some of my kinsmen took the pains to trace the Jonathan’s roots to Arochukwu in Abia State from where they claimed his forefathers migrated to Otuoke in Bayelsa State and wondered why I shouldn’t vote for one of them, their own very brother. When I queried them to provide evidence, they snapped back on why my eyes and senses were blindfolded by not seeing the Igboness in his name Ebele, Azikiwe, a dummy Jonathan sold to them to hoodwink and garner their votes!
I was an avid apostle of the fabled story of Buhari being the only living ex head of state that has just one hut in his Daura home town. We spread the gospel that Buhari had no house in Abuja and Kaduna. In fact, the propaganda that came out that time was that Buhari was about being thrown out of his Abuja home on account of his inability to pay his rent. There was also the story that it was only Buhari among the ex-presidents that had blatantly refused to collect the millions accruable to him as ex head of state as monthly pension.
All these we carried as the very rare and unique selling point of the candidature of Buhari in 2011.
Unfortunately, or will I say fortunately, Buhari lost the election and a Goodluck Jonathan won and ruled for four years. We are all aware of the achievements or otherwise of a Jonathan rule and may not be worthy of time in this my treatise here.
Then came 2015 and with all the odds, pendulums and conspiracy it was fait accompli that Muhammadu Buhari will win the election. With the international community solidly behind him and the general refrain then that anything but Jonathan is only good for Nigeria, it was a done deal that Buhari will emerge as the president and that he did!
What then happened shortly after winning the election that Buhari so vigorously fought for? We now saw development of skepticism and cold feet by a Buhari that had sought for power all his life! A clear showing and manifestations of unpreparedness and endless blame game of previous administrations were all we could get right from inception up to this moment that a whooping three years has gone down the drain!
A Buhari that could not put together a formidable cabinet six months after his swearing in as president, a Buhari that cannot be decisive and allows graft and corruption to fester in his administration to the extent that a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation used millions of naira to cut grass! A Buhari that could not manage the economy and allowed it to relapse into recession with many states and even federal ministries and parastatals owing many months of unpaid salaries few months after taking over power.
A Buhari that reneged in most of his campaign pledges and promises of operating an austere and simple government saw him squandering scare national resources on medical bill abroad together with his son, Yusuf. A Buhari that vowed to fly public aircraft with ordinary Nigerians and launching a national carrier by converting most of the presidential aircraft to a new Nigerian Airways was now a Buhari that was flying all over the globe with posh presidential aircraft with members of his family posing on selfie and telling Nigerians to roast if they want to. A Buhari that his middle name now is nepotism and tribal warlord. A Buhari that is presiding over a highly polarised and divided Nigeria. A Buhari that insecurity and wanton destruction of lives and property is a daily occurrence now. How many can we count and how many are we leaving uncounted?
With all these heartbreaks the question still reverberates: if an Obasanjo and world acclaimed puritanical Buhari cannot fix Nigeria, who will then fix it?
I can hear some people saying that is the reason we should find solace in the youth and young people by supporting the Not Too Young to Rule agitations.
Fine arguments they have there if you ask me. But who is that young man or woman that can help us reclaim Nigeria? Can we have their names and antecedents? Is it a Yahaya Bello of Kogi State that is in his forties and who is about the worst performing governor or is it the garrulous and hip pop singing Senator Dino Maleye? Just name the person/persons and my hope in this country will be rekindled.
It is against this background that most of us have relapsed into the mode of “Siddon Look” waiting frantically for that exceptional Nigerian that will bring the country out of the doldrums and reclaim Nigeria, the great country that Obasanjo and Buhari could not fix with all their powers!
****Austine Uche-Ejeke, a public affairs analyst and Editor-in-Chief, Agenda Community Newspaper, wrote vide eaustineuche@yahoo.com
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