Missteps Buhari's handlers make

Also published in Daily Trust   

When the “military kingmakers” who had brought General Muhammad Buhari to power abruptly ended his rule in another military coup in 1985, Nigerians had already come a long way in adjusting to the new order of social discipline his regime had introduced and vigorously promoted.  

Nevertheless his overthrow was greeted with indifference, and even cheers, by a significant portion of a largely gullible populace who, having been used to the culture of chaos and social indiscipline over the decades, had regarded the new social order under Buhari/Idiagbon regime as being too harsh. Of course, the beneficiaries of the status quo among the notoriously corrupt politicians, their associates in public service and private sector, as well as their business associates, also greeted his overthrow with jubilation.

However, when the ensuing degeneration caused by the subsequent military and civilian regimes, which also gave rise to the culture of institutionalized corruption of monumental magnitude in the land began to take an unprecedented dimension, while its attendant widespread economic frustration, confusion and despair got worse, Nigerians began to realize that corruption was the only cause of all the country’s problems, and that only an honest leader could salvage the nation.

Therefore, following what appeared to be an intense pressure and lobbying, Buhari reluctantly decided to join politics and join the presidential race, while having already been widely and rightly believed to be honest and incorruptible, his reputation and popularity continued to grow particularly among the ordinary Nigerians.

Unfortunately however, he fell into the hands of unscrupulous political opportunists many of whom had been wallowing in political obscurity or irrelevance before they benefitted immensely from his popularity to win elections at various levels of government and indeed rise to political prominence, only to eventually betray and abandon him.

Besides, despite his wide experience in governance, having held different political positions including Head of State, during his military career, and even though the game of politics is inherently intrigue-ridden, no one denied or underestimated Buhari’s dilemma for having to operate in Nigeria’s political terrain, which is particularly messy, and indeed for having to work with Nigerian politicians most of whom are simply there in order to achieve their selfish interests, which they have always pursued and achieved at the expense of the long-suffering ordinary Nigerians.

Yet, Buhari’s political predicament has been particularly due to the apparent incompetence of his handlers whose inexcusable blunders have been responsible for his failure to achieve his political ambition, and are also responsible for his seemingly declining political fortune even within his traditional political stronghold.

Vested interests and other individuals who are particularly against his presidential ambition have over the past several years worked relentlessly and have, to a large extent, succeeded in painting and portraying him as a villain of a sort, and as an ethno-religious and regional bigot who also lacks the necessary qualities to win majority support nationwide to become president.

Moreover, his obviously incompetent media and public relation handlers, who have failed to effectively counter the systematic and sustained campaign of calumny against him by such vested interests, have, in effect, been partly responsible for the spread of anti-Buhari sentiment, which those vested interests have deliberately created and promoted particularly among the non- Muslim communities in the country.

Also, in view of how his reputation has easily and recurrently been exploited by fake political allies for their personal interests, and considering the persistent strategic blunders and inconsistency that define some of his political strategies, one can confidently conclude that his political strategists, advisers and analysts are simply not competent enough to handle his political project.

For instance, the potentially divisive feud currently brewing in All Progressives Congress (APC) over some credible leaks that the party is considering the idea of pairing him, as presidential candidate, with Bola Tinubu as vice president, is a yet another political miscalculation by his handlers, which could not only cost him his presidential ambition but probably deal the final blow to whatever is left of his political adventure, age being an important factor.

Incidentally, notwithstanding whether Tinubu is a suitable candidate for the post of vice president or not, and even though theoretically speaking, political parties are expected to field the best candidates regardless of any other considerations, this is not the case in reality even  in the most advanced democracies. Other factors, which are theoretically irrelevant, are nonetheless considered in order to address some specific expectations of the electorate.

Therefore in a sharply polarized and tension-ridden Nigerian society, which increasingly cracks along ethno-religious and regional divides, it does not require any intricate political calculation to realize the foolishness (politically speaking) of the idea to field a duo from the same religious, ethnic or regional background for the posts of president and vice president.

The boring excuse i.e. the Abiola/Kingibe presidential ticket in 1993, which is repeatedly cited by those behind this idea, is simply no longer relevant in Nigeria, because of the huge changes that have taken place since then, which have also hugely changed the pattern and equation of political alliance between country’s ethno-religious and regional components.

Therefore, considering the obvious ridiculousness of this idea in Nigeria’s political context, and how Buhari’s handlers seem to deliberate overlook its damaging effect on his presidential ambition, one can suspect that there are some infiltrators within the party’s hierarchy, or at least within the circle of Buhari’s handlers, who undermine his presidential ambition. After all, the current gradual but seemingly persistent setbacks suffered by the party may not be completely unconnected with such possible undercover elements.