President Muhammadu Buhari is on the spot. He is President of Nigeria at a time like no other. He is leading the country at a time where the aspiration of the people for fairness, equity, social justice and the good life is fever-pitch. Long held in the grips of incompetent and uncaring leadership, a heavily repressed people have cast off their chains: they want to be led with sensitivity, respect and honour.
Interestingly, it is this background that had helped Buhari to assume power three months ago; that is also the Achilles heel he is contending with today and which may make or mar the success-graphs of his tenure. But is he seeing it? Will he or won’t he? Or as the other writer put it: ‘to be or not to be, that is the final question.’
To fully understand the Buhari challenge, we have to go autobiographical. A man is largely a product of his story, it has been suggested. Sometimes this is not necessarily correct; many times however, it has been so. So how does our subject rank in this regard?
In this particular instance, Buhari’s story is indeed telling us a whole lot about where he is coming from, where he has been, where he is today and where next he is inclined to be headed, if left alone to himself and his natural inclinations, desires and the constraints of his internal space as it exists now.
Born in the Daura emirate 72 years ago in an era when the British colonial authorities had initially contended - but was later to be compelled to share power, values and systems - with the traditional emirate system, his family was persuaded to send him out to have a bit of the western educational experience that had then become an alternate reality in his milieu. He obliged and off to the ‘whiteman’s school’ did Muhammadu go.
Just before he completed his secondary schooling, a new imperative came to the fore. Independence was coming and with it also some landmark changes. Power was going to be totally devolved to Nigerians, with the immediate implication that many young people who had already embraced western education were also going to be the first in line to fill up spots in the public services of the regions, municipalities and at the centre that the British were vacating. Those like Buhari who were already enrolled, were dutifully rewarded with opportunities and positions of worth and substance in the unfolding dispensation. His specific posting was the military and the rest as we say is history.
The event of military intervention in the nation’s body-politic also provided a boost for Buhari. He was during that era to be awarded critical political positions that helped to grow his name recognition and which he also utilized to grow the brand appeal of a Spartan and discipline-driven patriot which was to come in most handy in the making of the political Buhari three decades after. Now all of the cards look like they are neatly stacked on his desk, and the nation watches as he serves.
So how far has he served? While the jury is already out on this subject, and notably on the way he has used power this far, this writer would however rather prefer to focus on the things that he cannot serve. This is because, given our history as a nation and the range of variables that underpin our group structure, there is really very little that any leader, one leader can do.
Buhari can, and has indeed made mistakes at the moment especially as it has to do with his near-total absence of solid and all-encompassing political sensitivity. In this sense, he has not been able to infuse and bring along the integrative political nuances that mitigate elite mischief in an environment where visible national development is the core need. So he really has no one but himself to blame for the political flak that has greeted his appointments list so far.
Indeed, there is a sense in which in carrying on in the manner he has done so far, he does indeed give credence to the pre-election postulations of pundits that he was not really properly prepared for the task of running a 21st century Nigeria. Yes, he had held a sizeable number of appointments in different aspects of our national life in the past, but given his story and the fact that a lot of his earlier service had been done within the restrictive frames of authoritarian military rule, there has now arisen then a brand new imperative of his having to prove himself within the elective space. And as we are seeing by the day, this is clearly not the easiest of tasks for Buhari to handle today.
However, this writer would yet counsel that we do not on account of errors in rendering throw away the baby with the bath water. Yet. The truth is that when the Nigerian voters were making the choice in the April polls, they had the benefit of the facts on the table. They were presented with the same question marks that are showing up today alongside the promise marks of what he could deliver and chose to yet go on with him. For them then, there was a whole lot of work to be done to save Nigeria and keep her on course. And they concluded he was the best fit for the job.
But does that absolve him from dealing with his question marks particularly as it has to do with the touchy issue of geo-political balancing and leadership sensitivity. Never. However, seeing that he clearly does not have it; it imposes an additional responsibility on his immediate handlers, his sponsoring political party, other variable institutions of state, the media, civil society, the opposition and the nation at large to rise to the challenge and ensure that Mr. Buhari’s limitations would not yet impede our continuing march to get the new Nigeria we yet deserve. Aluta continua.
