My Problem with Buhari By Jude Atupulazi

On March 28 Nigerians will troop out to their various polling booths to exercise their franchise and at the end hope that the people they prefer for the various elective positions will be declared winners.

Top on the list of these positions is that of the president. It is a straight fight between the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and Muhammadu Buhari, a retired general, of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Indeed, never in the recent history of the nation has a presidential election looked so tight and perhaps unpredictable. It is a far cry from previous elections where the ruling party, the PDP, was so sure of victory and cockily so.

This time the APC made up of mostly aggrieved ex-PDP chieftains, has mounted a serious challenge. The war cry on the lips of APC people has been one word: CHANGE! They are advocating a change from the Jonathan administration to that of Buhari. But this is where my problem with them and their candidate starts.

Often times Nigerians are involved in clamouring for what they do not understand. They even make the loudest noise while going about it. What is happening now on the political front is akin to this action of Nigerians. The APC faithful are shouting change and Buhari is not just shouting change too, but parading himself as Mr Clean. That is another way of saying that Buhari is not corrupt.

Indeed, he has been going about telling everyone who wants to hear how he is going to fight corruption. The way he has been going about it seems as though the only problem of Nigeria is corruption.

But even when we decide to take him up on that, a lot of absurdities rear their heads. Chief among them is the inconsistency of Buhari himself and that of his major backers.

We have this aphorism which goes thus: ‘show me your friends and I will tell you whom you are’. This is very, very true of Buhari.

While Buhari shouts and makes a great show of fighting corruption, he is surrounded daily by some of the most celebrated corrupt politicians. Where will I begin?

Ahmed Bola Tinubu

This is the strong man of Lagos State. The Baba of Eko. He was the one who handed over the governorship baton to outgoing governor, Babatunde Fashola. Although Tinubu is no longer in power, he is believed to wield more influence than the incumbent governor in Lagos and he is said to be the recipient of much of the proceeds of the state’s IGR and is actually fleecing Lagos which he holds by the jugular.

But that is not all.

He has some controversies trailing his name and one of them, like his ward, Buhari, is his certificate. He has not been able to convince Nigerians which school he attended, hence his moniker of ‘’Chicagogate’’. This is one of the men presenting Buhari to Nigerians and before whom Buhari makes a show of being an angel.

Bukola Saraki

He is the son of the late strong man of Kwara politics as well as being a former governor of the state. He has a subsisting case with the EFCC on alleged diversion of not millions, but billions of Kwara State money through his family bank. He is today among those surrounding Buhari who says he will fight corruption.

Chibuike Amaechi

He is the Rivers State governor and director-general of Buhari’s Campaign Organization. He has multiple cases with the EFCC and also is enmeshed in a questionable acquisition of a private jet which he claims belongs to the state. After his tenure as the speaker of Rivers house of assembly, he had been on the run over alleged cases of fraud. Today he is allegedly using over N30 billion of state funds to finance APC campaigns. Yet Buhari has made such a controversial figure the head of his campaign organization!

Henry Okah

He is the militant leader of MEND and is currently in prison in South Africa over gun-running. His group detonated a bomb near Eagle Square Abuja in 2010. He is one of those shouting change with Buhari.

Timipre Sylva

A former governor of Bayelsa State, Sylva has issues with the EFCC over alleged laundering of billions of naira as governor of his state. He also has questions to answer on the bonds he collected as Bayelsa State governor. He is today an apostle of Mr Clean, Buhari.

Nasir El-Rufai

Former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, El-Rufai has a date with the EFCC over the way he grabbed lands during his tenure. He is a beloved of Buhari.

Senator Ali Ndume

He is alleged to be a sponsor of Boko Haram and is in court over that. He is today one of those asking Nigerians to vote their man in the name of change.

Femi Gbajabiamila

He is a member of the federal house. He was linked with a fraud case in America. Consequently he was barred from legal practice in America as a result of unethical conducts. He is one of the cheer leaders of Buhari.

So from what has been said of the above listed men, does anyone see any reason why Buhari and his apologists should be shouting change?

If they say President Goodluck Jonathan is bad, what makes Buhari and his cohorts better? How can Buhari fight corruption when those surrounding him are no better than the man they want us to change? Will it not be like asking a man who has many cats a rat to keep?

This is the problem we have in Nigeria. People say what they either don’t even believe or understand. But worse of all is that they are hardly consistent. Some of the men flocking around Buhari today are those who condemned him in the past. Check out these again…

Bola Tinubu on Buhari in 2007

‘Buhari is a destabilization agent and far worse than Obasanjo.’

Dele Momodu on Buhari in 2011

‘As ex-coup plotter, Buhari is not qualified to rule.’

Nasir El-Rufai on Buhari in 2011

‘Buhari should retire; it’s time for a new generation of leaders.’

So if all these men saw Buhari the way they variously described him a few years ago, what has changed between then and now to make us believe that Buhari is a saint?

Is this not yet another example of the inconsistent nature of our politicians who change colours faster than a chameleon to suit their latest surrounding?

I have always said that Jonathan is not the greatest president Nigeria has had or will ever have. But the fact remains that we do not at present have a better man in the major opposition party.

Buhari can never in any ramification qualify as a better option to Nigerians either now or in the future because of what he represents. Buhari is a fundamentalist. He makes unguarded utterances and doesn’t care a hoot what fire his utterances ignite.

Was he not the one credited with saying that the baboon and the monkey would be soaked in blood if he did not win the last election? Didn’t that tactless speech trigger off a massive bloodletting in the north?

Today the convoy of President Jonathan is being attacked in parts of the north by APC supporters. Why always in the north? A source said to have emanated from Kaduna had it that the ordinary Muslim in the north does not see Buhari as a mere politician but as a jihadist whose presidency would clear the country of us infidels and supplant western values with Islamic values in the manner of Othman Dan Fodio over a century ago.

According to this source, it is because of this perception of Buhari in his place that some APC supporters in the north now see the party as Muslim party, while PDP has become that of infidels; thus the stoning of Jonathan’s campaign convoy in Katsina and Bauchi as well as the burning of a PDP bus in Jos North LGA of Plateau State.

‘Today any northerner not supporting Buhari is being threatened and seen as an infidel,’ the source claimed.    

If you ask me, I believe Buhari is content to let the perception of him as a jihadist stick so that whenever he wants to unleash violence on his ‘enemies’ it will be immediate.

Perhaps that was why he earlier berated the FG for killing his people in the north in the guise of being Boko Haram members. He has always fought for them and in return for his protection they had nominated him to lead their delegation on the botched negotiation with the FG.

In saner climes Buhari ought to have quit the race owing to the controversy over his certificate which he has failed to convince Nigerians about its authenticity. But he is sticking to his guns which many of us see as dubious.

Buhari has not shown enough restraint expected of a leader of a country as diversified as Nigeria. His open endorsement of Sharia Law is a case in point.

We also remember his rigidity while as head of state and how he defied pleas from the international community, including the then pope, to spare the lives of those condemned to death by firing squad over crimes they committed before his draconian decree.

If Buhari could truncate a civilian regime as he did in 1983, why should he seek to be a civilian president today? Isn’t it like a dog going back to its vomit?

Buhari does not also command any intellectual appeal. All he says is just about rooting out corruption. But as earlier highlighted, how can he do that with the mass of corrupt politicians ensconced in his inner chambers? Talk about hunting crickets with a fowl in the bag.

I really do not see any need for change if the change is going to come in the shape of Buhari and his disciples. I’d be content with dealing with the devil I know.

Buhari, I don’t trust you.