Outspoken cleric, Archbishop Chukwuma, has advised Nigerians not to expect any magic from President Muhammadu Buhari, as he is weak at 72 and would be taking over a country in a serious economic mess.
He said that coupled with the problem of the economy of the country, Buhari has around him greedy and selfish people who might cause his downfall, describing the challenges before the incoming President as enormous.
Some excerpts from the interview as follows
People feel Buhari has all it takes to turn the country around and deal with the corruption issue, but they are also of the opinion that there are corrupt people in around him and his party that may want to force him into looking the other way. What do you feel about that?
Buhari does not have the capacity to perform any magic at his old age. The Buhari you knew when he was a military man is not the Buhari of the civilian government. Buhari was able to perform and do what he did because of decree, he was ruling with decree, he was also having a backing of a man who was not corrupt, Idiagbon. Right now there is no Idiagbon behind Buhari, there is no magic he can perform and with his old age at 72, Buhari is a weak man now and he can easily be influenced and turn around by the corrupt people around him.
Buhari cannot rule this country without abiding by the constitution; Buhari cannot rule this country without passing through the National Assembly. If they give him tough time in passing budget or in passing some bills, he cannot move forward so it is not a matter of Buhari alone, it is a collective responsibility for this incoming government to work and that is why he must make sure that the incoming government must be a collective rule, inclusive rule, all inclusive. If it is not all inclusive, then they will be in trouble.
It is true PDP has lost but PDP has a very reasonable percentage of success in many of the states and the whole country. So it is not a matter of winner takes it all, if not it is going to be a problem for him and that is why APC must be very careful. They must make sure that PDP has a reasonable success percentage in many of the states and it should be all inclusive, so that they can get the cooperation of other parties.
Then people who are around him also are selfish, most of them are looking for their own selfish satisfaction and all that, so I don’t believe that probably any serious thing can happen if Buhari does not caution and discipline himself. Unless he allows himself to be ruled by the spirit of God and stand on his known principle, without being influenced or being twisted by those greedy politicians, you will see what will happen as far as appointments are concerned, there is going to be trouble in the house of APC as far as appointments are concerned.
There going to be trouble even in the Senate and House of representatives because of election of officers and appointments. We are only praying for them and all we want to say is that Buhari can only succeed if he is highly principled, stand his feet and work cooperatively with the National Assembly and with all the party members and abiding with the constitution and according to the rule of law.
What kind of opposition would you expect from PDP?
Well, apart from PDP, Ndigbo as a whole should be the beautiful bride. Let me tell you, the Northerners and the Westerners cannot go together easily and that is why PDP and Ndigbo should stand firm and very strong because when the chips are down, they are going to be intermediaries, they are going to be people who are going to be balancers.
So PDP should not lose hope or think that all is finished because the house of APC has some internal problems for which PDP will be useful to resolve, so as far as am concerned if PDP is not recognized and given their due respect, then they will make themselves serious opposition to the APC, and when they make themselves serious opposition to the APC, then there will be too much heat in the government to come. So that is why everybody should work together.
Source: Sun