As the presidential election draws nearer and nearer, supporters of General Buhari are busy trying to rebrand the General to improve his acceptance. To help the electorate separate facts from fiction, we will explore if the rebranding are supported by existing evidence. His acceptance speech at the conclusion of the APC primaries built on this rebranding effort. In that speech, General Buhari, pledged the following:
a) We will govern Nigeria honestly, in accordance with the constitution.
b) We will strive to secure the country and efficiently manage the economy.
c) We will strive to attack poverty through broadly-shared economic growth and attacking corruption through impartial application of the law.
d) We will tolerate no religious, regional, ethnic or gender bias in our government.
We will examine his antecedents vis a vis these promises together with the image being created of him.
The first issue to address is his promise to govern honestly in accordance with the constitution. One should commend him for recognizing that this is the basis of our democracy. Within this constitution, issues of human rights are very prominent.
In December 1994, Buhari was interviewed after he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi. On the question about military intervention in polity he replied
Technically, there had only been two interventions: (a) Ironsi in 1966 and (b) our own in 1983. The rest was among ourselves – soldiers. I recall when the last National Assembly asked that soldiers who overthrew civilian government should be tried, well you cannot now try Ironsi who is dead, or Gowon who overthrew Ironsi (not a civilian government) or Murtala who is dead. Obasanjo merely stepped in When Murtala was assassinated. I overthrew Shagari. So I am the only one who can be tried and I want to see who will now come out to try me.
An interesting development from this response is that at the beginning of that interview, he declared himself as a converted democrat. But his subsequent answer to some questions and his other actions suggest that he is not a committed convert. A few examples are given below.
An important deduction from his response is that he has no regret terminating a constitutional constituted government which is in contravention of the constitution. He also sees himself as above the law and untouchable. It is also instructive that this tendency was also exhibited in his refusal to honour the invitation of the Oputa Panel. Buhari finds it difficult to subject himself to a democratically elected authority. Another example of this is the disobedience of a lawful order from President Shagari, his Commander in Chief not to enter Chad with his troops. It is therefore not surprising that not long after this, he led a coup that removed the Shagari government. A leopard, they say cannot never shed its spots. Section 1 (1) of Nigeria constitution states “This Constitution is supreme and its provisions shall have binding force on the authorities and persons throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” If Buhari, without executive powers sees himself as above the law, one could imagine what he could do with executive powers.
In the area of human rights, Buhari has equally showed his disdain for constitutionally guaranteed human rights. Under his government civil servants who were late for work were publicly humiliated by being forced to do frog jumps and he also introduced a notorious decree to limit press freedom, under which two journalists, Ndukar Irabor and Tunde Thompson were jailed notwithstanding that their stories were factual. Tai Solarin who demonstrated courage by distributing his documentation of the human right abuses of Buhari’s government as many papers became afraid, was equally jailed and was only released by the Babaginda regime. Chapter IV section 34(1) of the Nigerian Constitution provides that every individual is entitled to respect for the dignity of his person, and accordingly (a) no person shall be subject to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment, while 39 (1) guarantees freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.
Up till this day, Buhari remains convinced that he did the right thing by executing three young Nigerians based on a law that was retroactively implemented. This is not a sign of a man that will govern honestly, in accordance with the constitution.
General Buhari has also promised to secure the country and efficiently manage the economy. On security, Buhari has been promoted as being very capable of dealing with the Boko Haram. His exploits while dealing with the Maitatsine sect is cited as proof. The acclaimed success of Buhari’s approach to suppressing this insurgence raises some questions as one reads Buhari’s reaction to similar approach by President Jonathan. He accused the president of using excessive force. Hear him:
“”…when the Niger Delta militants started their activities in the South-South, they were invited by the late President Umaru Yar’adua. An aircraft was sent to them and their leaders met with the late President in Aso Rock and discussed issues. They were given money and a training scheme was introduced for their members. But when the Boko Haram emerged in the north, members of the sect were killed”. (Liberty Radio, Kaduna May 14 2012)
The declaration of state of emergency in three Northern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe is a grave injustice against the North.” (Liberty Radio, June 2, 2013). A similar argument was raised in his interview by Daily Trust published on Wednesday, May 22, 2013.
Will Buhari who has on these occasions ethnicised the issue approach the security challenge differently when elected? Has he not by his statements been fueling the insurgency? If he has the solution to the security situation why has he not used his membership of the Council of States to advise the President?
On the economic front, there will be little confidence even from his most ardent supporters that he is equipped to comprehend the treacherous and dynamic economic terrain prevalent today in the world. When he boasts about resisting the devaluation of the naira, it suggests that he does not appreciate how valuation of currency operates. It does not take an economist to understand that when your main source of foreign exchange goes down from $130 to $50 per unit, that something must give way. It is therefore not accidental that during his short spell as Head of State Nigerian economy retrogressed and nearly went into coma. According to the BBC, during his two year in power, his attempt to manage public finances led to many job losses and closure of businesses, prices rose while living standards fell. It is also during his regime that international financial institutions refused to honour letters of credit from Nigeria, leading to the regimes experiment with the primitive trade by barter.
Another important index to evaluate the perception of Buhari supporters about him is on the issue of corruption. But before doing this let us quickly contexualise the discussion on a given definition. This is important since even Buhari himself has limited coverage of what corruption is. Otherwise how can we explain his statement of finality to the effect that Abacha was not corrupt. In 2008, during the 10th anniversary of Abacha’s death, Buhari declared that Abacha was neither corrupt nor a thief. “He did not steal Nigeria’s money,” This is in spite of the millions of dollars recovered from overseas banks.
The Business Dictionary defines corruption as wrong doing on the part of an authority or powerful party through means that are illegitimate, immoral, or incompatible with ethical standards. Corruption often results from patronage. The World Bank extends the concept to include ‘legal corruption’ in which power is abused within the confines of the law – as those with power often have the ability to shape the law for their protection.
Having established parameters that determine if a leader is corrupt or not, let us now examine Buhari’s performance in his various capacities. Buhari was once the Minister of Petroleum. The sum of 28 billion US$ was alleged to be unaccounted for by the Justice Irikefe Panel. Subsequently, Vera Ifudu, reported that she was informed my Olusola Saraki, a Senator then that the 28 billion US$ which was missing at NNPC when Buhari was the Minister was traced to a private bank account at the Midlands bank.
Under Buhari, owing of foreign accounts was illegal, but Lawal Rafindadi, his head of security had several personal foreign accounts and he did not succeed to unfreeze this account before his death. His Government promulgated a decree prohibiting any person under the age of 18 from performing the Hajj, but Idiagbo’s son who was 14 performed the hajj with his father. The audit of the PTF revealed over-invoicing and misappropriation to the tune of 25 Billion Naira. Buhari’s response was that he did not know how it happened. The probe revealed that Buhari outsourced the management of the PTF to a company owned by his brother-in-law. This company became a law onto itself and Buhari ignored the complaint of the board members to rein in on his in-laws company.
For the exercise of changing the national currency, the Nigerian borders were shut to foreclose any entry of money. But Buhari through his aide-de-camp, Jokolo, facilitated the breach of this enforcement. The custom officer who resisted the entry of these suit cases was redeployed.
When we speak about corruption, especially for an executive president, we are not limiting ourselves to bribery and embezzlement, but extends it to the abuse of power through means that are illegitimate, immoral, or incompatible with ethical standards.
Another significant promise Buhari made during his acceptance was with respect to religious and ethnic tolerance. He promised “we will tolerate no religious, regional, ethnic or gender bias in our government.” Let us now examine his antecedents to see if we can trust him in this regard.
Mr. Shaka Momodu described Buhari as deeply partisan, sectional and a religious irredentist. Atiku Abubakar, the former Vice President described him as a religious bigot. Even Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State who described Buhari as incorruptible accused him of divisive campaigns in the northern and southern parts of the country. At the Malam Aminu Kano Triangle during the official declaration of the gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, he accused him of being insincere in both intent and purpose. According to him, when Buhari talks to the electorate in the North, he usually plays up the religious card, but once he is in the South, he plays it down by harping on the unity
Let us now interrogate some of the statements made by Buhari over time to enable us reach a fair conclusion. On 27 August 2001 following his condemning Atiku on the BBC Hausa Service for urging Muslims states who adopted Sharia to return to the respect the secularity of the Nigerian State., Buhari said the following: “I will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the Sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria. God willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the Sharia in the country.” Subsequent to that statement, in 2003, he said “Muslims should only vote those who will promote Islam. We are more than the Christians if you add our Muslim brothers in the West.”
Buhari has always had sectional and parochial tendencies. Buhari jailed politicians after he overthrew the Shagari government in a manner that suggests parochialism. Alex Ekwueme, Sam Mbakwe, Ambrose Ali, Jim Nwobodo, Lateef Jakande and Adekunle Ajasin were all jailed while Shehu Shagari, who is supposed to carry the can was put under house arrest. Even Ikemba Ojukwu and Obafemei Awolowo who were not in government were denied their freedom, with Ojukwu being jailed and Awolowo put under house arrest. Awwal Ibrahim, the former Governor of Niger State who was arrested with 14 million pounds was not jailed but was only put under house arrest for two weeks.
During Governor Lam Adesina’s tenure as governor of Oyo state, Buhari led a protest visit to the Governor and complained thus “Your people are killing my people.” This was after a clash between the Hausa-Fulani herdsmen and the indigenes who complained that the herdsmen were destroying their crops. Governor Adesina was so disappointed with Buhari that he admonished him to eschew his parochial ethnic tendencies and play the statesman as a former head of State
His management and execution of projects under the PTF did not fare better. The execution of the projects were very lopsided. For roads, the percentages were as follows; Southeast 5.34 %, Southsouth 8.07%, Southwest 10.84%, Northeast 23.48%, Northcentral 24.86 and Northwest 27.42. Note that the percentage of roads constructed in the 3 zones in the south is less than that of the Northwest where Buhari comes from.
Under educational rehabilitation programme, Southeast got 4.04% Southwest 5.29 %, South south 19.48%, Northcentral 14.40 %, Northeast 21.97% and Northwest 34.82%.
For National Educational materials, we have Southeast 10.57% Southwest 19.84 %, South south 13.77%, Northcentral 14.21 %, Northeast 21.97% and Northwest 30.64%.
For the rehabilitation of health facilities the percentages were Southeast 6.53% Southwest 0 %, Southsouth 13.26%, Northcentral 24.42 %, Northeast 0.42% and Northwest 55.37%.
For food supply, Southeast got 4.02% South-west 7.26 %, South South 5.27%, north-central 11.4 %, north-east 11.77% and north west 60.54%.
We have attempted in our discussion to provide an insight into Buhari’s sojourn in the public service. The presidency is such a serious business that we need to be guided by facts supported with evidence in making our choice. That is why we have tried to juxtapose Buhari’s promises and what are being branded about him with information on his position on issues over the years. According to Wole Sonyinka, “history matters, records are not kept to simply to assist the weakness of memory but to operate as guide to the future.
As we ponder over the rebranding of Buhari as a viable alternative to President Jonathan, we need to ask ourselves some pertinent questions.
Can a person who declared that Abacha was not corrupt and is not a thief and who exhibited the tendency to condone or even negligently aids and abets corruption be trusted to be committed to fighting corruption. The 53 suit cases issue, the inflated invoices at the PTF and the soft landing of Awwal Ibrahim, the former Governor of Niger State are just but a few examples.
Can we trust somebody who has vowed and we quote “God willing, we’ll not stop the agitation for the total implementation of Sharia in the Country,” to be committed to the secularity of the Nigerian state?
Having gone through the statistics of the implementation of projects under the PTF, can we trust Buhari to be fair and equitable in the location and establishment of infrastructure?
We need to honestly answer these and other questions to avoid retrogression in the name of change. In doing this we need to separate fact from fiction.
Uzochukwu Okafor
Surveyor-General – Namibia
uzo31@yahoo.com