Deconstructing former President Muhammadu Buhari and matters arising

By Godson O. Moneke

Muhammadu Buhari first came into national limelight on December 31, 1983 when he became a military Head of State after a military coup d’etat led by Gen. IBB Babangida which overthrew the elected civilian government of President Shehu Shagari.

Before then he had played crucial roles in past coups resulting in his being a military governor of the former Northeastern State and Federal Commissioner of petroleum during the first coming of Olusegun Obasanjo as military Head of State.

He was GOC of 3rd Army Division with headquarters in JOS when IBB and the Spy Czar, Gusau invited him to be the Head of State in the military coup which both spearheaded.

It has a lot to show about the level and collapse of investigative journalism in Nigeria that nobody could tell Nigerians the true persona of Buhari who has been around for a very longtime until he happened on Nigerians as an elected president in 2015.

Though, I was relatively young in 1985 when the coup that overthrew his military government happened, I still remember Gen IBB telling Nigerians that one of the reasons for the overthrow of Buhari’s military government was his inability to appreciate the multiethnic, multicultural and multi religious tendencies of Nigeria as a country which should reflect in a leader’s actions. Simply put, he said he was nepotistic and a religious bigot.

However, because of the wrong way that the IBB handled the June12 Election debacle, nobody bothered to take any notice of the IBB government reservations and warnings of the government led by Buhari and why he was overthrown.

Gen Buhari was the Federal Commissioner of petroleum during the INFAMOUS $2.8 BILLIONS LOSS SAGA. Despite the controversial comments of the then Majority Leader of the Nigerian Senate, Olusola Saraki that the money was misplaced, nobody bothered to investigate whether the money was actually missing or not.

Instead, some journalists who bothered to ASK QUESTIONS were hounded and nobody came to their rescue or protected them. One of such journalists was Miss Vera Ifudu who was shoved out of her employment at the NTA.

That marked the BEGINNING OF THE DEATH OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM in Nigeria. Most of the journalists we have today are YELLOW AND BROWN ENVELOPE JOURNALISTS who are ready to align with the oppressors against the people for a MESS OF PORRIDGE.

Nigerians have short memories but it was some sloppy actions of the IBB government and the angst about the June12 election fallout that made Buhari appear like a saint before Nigerians who readily forgot the many brutal and undemocratic practices associated with his overthrown military government.

He sought to become the elected president of Nigeria in 2003, 2007 and 2011 before succeeding in 2015 at the fourth attempt which was enough period to x-ray his governance and leadership credentials.

But, we as a people were too lazy to scrutinize the leadership qualities of somebody who sought to lead the country even when he was already politically exposed. We readily got sold on the hyperbole that he was the right man for the job especially after he wept emotionally and openly on television in 2011..

In trying to deconstruct him, I disagree with those who blame poor education for his leadership failures. Muhammadu Buhari rose to the rank of Maj.General in the Nigerian Army. I have interacted with military officers and they are among the most cerebral and knowledgeable people in Nigeria today.

I do not take any of them for granted because, all military officers that I have met without exception are intellectually savvy. Therefore, anybody who has risen to the position of a Maj.General in the army should be given the benefit of doubts as far as education and academic qualifications are concerned.

This is more so when the person has held many Staff, Command and Political positions in the process. Buhari was once a member of the Supreme Military Council, the Highest Leadership and Policy-Making Body in a military government. A person with these pedigrees cannot be said to be educationally handicapped.

A social psychologist, Kurt Lewin propounded the theory that behavior is a multiplicative function of the PERSONALITY AND ENVIRONMENT meaning that what happened in the last eight years under Buhari had more to do with his PERSONALITY than his ENVIRONMENT AND OTHER VARIABLES which included education and socialization process. Buhari saw leadership from PROVINCIAL, ETHNIC , RELIGIOUS AND GEOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVES.

He was a provincial bigot who unfortunately became the president of a multi ethnic, multicultural and multi religious country. What IBB and his group said about him when they overthrew him in 1985 was true and apt but we never reckoned with that until we learned the hard way.

Buhari is a narcissist who believes that people get into government to take care of themselves, families, relatives, relations, friends, faith members, ethnic groups and associates.

He does not believe that leaders get into government to ensure the wellbeing of the greatest number of citizens and denying themselves of some comfort if need be.

It was little wonder that while most Nigerians were hungry and emaciated as a result of his poor performance and incompetence, his wife, children and their orbits looked like people from the proverbial FATTENING ROOM with robust cheeks and necks. The eight year leadership of Buhari lacked direction and the country was on AUTO PILOT.

It was little surprise that CORRUPTION, LOOTING AND SLEAZE were commonplace making the government arguably the most corrupt government in the history of Nigeria. The reason is not far fetched because, when the HEAD OF A FISH IS ROTTEN, THEN THE WHOLE BODY IS ALSO ROTTEN. It is the leader that sets the example before the followers toe the lines.

The fuel subsidy scam has a long history, the first dimension of the scam was raised in 2012 or thereabout by Senator Bukola Saraki regarding the endemic corruption that symbolized the fuel subsidy regime.

A Committee was set up by the then House of Representatives to investigate the allegations but its report never saw the light of the day because the Committee was itself enmeshed in corruption allegations of asking and receiving bribes from perceived culprits.

The allegations that subsidized fuels were being smuggled across our borders into neighboring countries is rife but rather than effectively policing the borders, our governments believe that the solution is in making the petroleum products expensive for Nigerians by removing what they call the FUEL SUBSIDY. In effect, the fiscal policies in Nigeria is influenced by the economic dynamics of neighboring countries over which we have no control.

The government in Nigeria deliberately makes the cost of energy high with negative consequences for production as it exacerbates COST-PUSH INFLATION thereby undermining local production.

High cost of locally produced goods and services aids smuggling and import-dependency which have negative implications for national income and Gross Domestic Products (GDP). As a sovereign country that finds it difficult to police its borders and fight smuggling, the VICIOUS CYCLE that makes us a vulnerable lame duck continues for the country.

Nigeria wants to achieve a production-driven economy but how can the country achieve global price competitiveness when the cost of energy which is a significant input in the production process is on a steady upward swing?

Nigerian leaders behave as people who do not understand what their economic imperatives are.

There is no production driven country which does not subsidize one or two inputs of their production functions, it depends on what their economic philosophy, vision and priorities are. The world is a global village and no country gets laidback in order to allow another country to catch-up.

Every country is in a rat race to maximize the general welfare of its citizens and Nigerian leaders must not give the impression that they are imbued with inferior leadership qualities and allow the whole world to perpetually treat the country as an economic minion and inferior.

It is not enough for somebody to aspire to achieve leadership responsibilities when the person knows he has nothing to offer. The time has come for our leaders to be held accountable for their actions in government especially when such actions are despicable as witnessed in the immediate past government.

The ex-president was the minister of petroleum to underscore its importance to the economy of the country but alas that became the worst performing sector of the economy. The question became; what did the country benefit from Buhari doubling as the petroleum minister in his government given the magnitude of oil theft, opacity and corruption that had never been seen before in the sector?

In deconstructing the persona, Muhammadu Buhari, attempts would be made to find out if the Buhari who was sold to Nigerians as a man of integrity, impeccable character and tenacity of purpose was the same person who was the president of Nigeria between 2015 and 2023.

I am sure, right-thinking members of the Nigerian society would find difficulty in answering this question. I say this because the gap between the expectations and experience is very wide.

All indices by which development and governance in a country are measured, recorded negatives during his reign. Even the indices of measuring Human-Centered Development regressed during his tenure.

IBB was the military president of Nigeria at a time but himself and the wife Maryam Babangida had their last child during their reign at the State House Clinic here in Nigeria because the money budgeted for the upkeep of the clinic was not embezzled as happened under Buhari’s watch. Even the much vilified Sani Abacha had his last child with his wife, Maryam at the State House Clinic.

Contrast that to Buhari who was not known to have patronized the State House Clinic even for ailments as mundane as Tooth Ache. All the medical treatments of Buhari and his family during his tenure were done outside the country at huge expense and cost to the Nigerian taxpayers.

At a time, Mrs Buhari was living outside the country, allegedly in Dubai, UAE for years and was only visiting Nigeria, all these at taxpayers expense. It is difficult to imagine that the Buhari who was sold to us as living a spartan lifestyle was the same person who as president embraced profligacy as a second nature.

By 2019, we had run uninterrupted democratic government for twenty years and one had expected that our democracy in Nigeria would have matured for the better.

But in 2019, Muhammadu Buhari caused the removal of the head of an independent branch of government, THE JUDICIARY using a compromised chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal based on a TRUMPED UP PETITION by a little known NGO. We all know that the Tribunal was an agency of the Executive branch of government.

The reason for the ignominious removal was to prepare the ground for a rigged 2019 presidential election and prevent it from being effectively litigated upon in the courts.

Yet some bootlickers call him a democrat. The removal was to beat the judges into submission having frightened them by removing the head of the judicial branch of government.

It was under Buhari that a midnight raid was conducted at the houses of some justices of the Supreme Court with some of them arrested and tried like common criminals all intended to secure a free passage through a cowered judiciary for a rigged election in 2019.

A similar attempt to browbeat the legislature was aborted by vice-president as the then Ag. President who removed the DG of the DSS, Mr Daura as a result.

Nigerians should note that Buhari never forgave the Vice President for that. You would notice that Buhari never allow the Vice President to act as president thereafter during his many medical trips and absence.

Common sense dictates that if a sitting president from a different political party provided a level playing field that made it possible for Muhammadu Buhari to win the presidential election of 2015, the least that was expected of Buhari was to provide the same level playing field in the subsequent presidential election of 2019 but he never did.

Instead, he compromised the election processes and encouraged security agencies to unleash violence on Nigerian voters on a scale never seen before.

He was desperate to win a second term when he knew fully well that he had mismanaged his first term and dashed the expectations of the electorates.

During his reign , INEC which hitherto under Prof Jega was approximating nobility, independence and integrity became a shadow of itself reeking in corruption, doublespeak and dishonesty.

When the Maitatsine religious sect was wrecking havoc in Kano during the second republic, we were told that Buhari led the soldiers that routed the violent group sending them permanently out of Nigeria.

With that pedigree , we had thought that Buhari as president would make a mince meat of the Boko Haram sect and stop them from terrorizing , killing and maiming Nigerians especially in Northeast of the country.

But what we saw was frightening and a total disappointment because apart from the dreaded Boko Haram swelling in ranks and emboldened , the hitherto cattle rustlers of the Northwest zone transformed into a more vicious and daring armed Bandits terrorizing, kidnapping and killing Nigerians.

The violent criminals took over the Abuja-Kaduna highway wrecking havoc in the process, yet Buhari was the president and commander in chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces for good eight years while it lasted. All these happened in spite of the huge monies in local and foreign currencies committed into defense and security by the Nigerian government.

President Obasanjo established the NDDC, while President Yar’Adua established the Amnesty Program and the ministry of Niger Delta to temper the restiveness of the Niger Delta youths but here was Buhari who for eight years could not solve the problem of IPOB caused by SE youths.

He could not engage the IPOB militants made up of restive youths from the SE in any dialogue.

The government of Muhammadu Buhari engaged either directly or encouraged dialogue with Boko Haram, Armed Bandits, Murderous Herdsmen and deviant groups throughout the country with a view to finding lasting peace in the country but it was seen not have engaged IPOB militants for one day.

What impression was it creating? He was instead threatening the entire SE with annihilation as an ordinary DOT IN A CIRCLE meaning a LANDLOCKED AND USELESS area which did not matter in the sociopolitical calculus of Nigeria.

It is obvious that majority of the political leaders of the SE do not support IPOB and their modus operandi. He was ever ready to showcase his undisguised hatred for the Igbo ethnic group as if he created and decreed them into Nigeria.

Today, Nnamdi Kanu , the leader of IPOB is still in detention despite a discharge and acquittal order by Nigeria’s Court of Appeal. Instead of obeying court order, Buhari elevated sadism to statecraft by his continued incarceration always finding reasons to keep him in the gulag.

For good eight years, Buhari could not attempt a single solution to the security situation in the SE except deploying battalions of soldiers as if the SE was an enemy territory. His conduct while in power was anything but statesmanlike and outrightly provincial.

Yet he wanted to be seen as the president of the WHOLE COUNTRY who was elected to hold the resources of the country in trust for all including the Igbo ethnic group, such a paradox!!!! Under him the SE degenerated into an unsafe place with major security concerns . No sane leader ignores inclusiveness in managing a country as diverse as Nigeria with all its many contradictions.

Buhari never gave a thought to this in eight years. Therefore, the Muhammadu Buhari who became president of Nigeria was not who we thought he was. He ended up wasting eight solid years in the life of Nigeria as a nation state.

Moneke is a quantity surveyor, economist, sociologist, administrator and sociopolitical advocate writes from Abuja. Readers are permitted to share.