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By TochukwuEzukanma
Despite its magnificence, democracy has its limits.One of its major
drawbacks is that it does not guarantee the election of good leaders;it
only makes possible the removal of bad leaders. President Mohammadu Buhari
isa bad president. His administration is wobbling under its own weight of
ineptitude,corruption, ethnic chauvinism and religious zealotry. His
presidency hasbrought untold social and economic disruption to the
country. It left Nigeriansreeling from hitherto unknown levels of poverty,
economic hardship, insecurityand ethnic violence. Refreshingly, the
problems the Buhari presidency isvisiting on Nigeria will hopefully not
continue beyond 2019, because Nigerians areconstitutionally empowered to
put an end to his presidency.
In spite of his bungled leadership, Mohammed Buhari recentlydeclared his
intention to seek re-election to another four year term. In hisresponse to
this, Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State was lyrical. He called it“a
patriotic response to the clarion call of Nigerians of goodwill for him
tolead the country for another four years”. Governor Shettima of Borno
State alsoenthused, “he has done the right thing; he is going to contest
and we are solidlybehind him” The effusive approval of Buhari’s
re-election bid by GovernorsOkorocha and Shettima is not, in any way, in
line with the prevailing sentimentsamongst Nigerians. Sheltered in their
cocoons of opulence, self-indulgence andprofligacy, they refuse to
acknowledge an incontrovertible reality: the Buhari presidencyis terrible
for Nigeria.
Buhariwas swept into power by a groundswell of electoral support almost
unparalleledin Nigerian history. Buhari promised the Nigerian electorate
change, and they believedhim because they thought that he embodied the
essential qualities that willbring about the desperately needed change:
the indomitable will of a militarycommander, incorruptible uprightness of
a moral crusader and the puritanicalcandor of a devout Moslem. Therefore,
with his election, Nigerians understandably,expected change – positive,
progressive and palpable change. Lamentably, Buhari-styledchange is
negative and retrogressive.
Nigeriaremains a lawless country: a chaotic country that is probably one
of the mostunlivable places on earth. The cost of governance remains
outrageously high,with billons of naira still budgeted for trivialities
and frivolities that gratify the greed and fantasies of a privileged few.
Official corruption isstill repulsively rife. At the economic
strangulation of the masses, the elitecontinue to steal, share and salt
away billions of dollars. Debilitated bynepotism and cronyism, his war on
corruption lost its earlier dynamism. Itdegenerated into something of a
witch-hunt, targeting mostly those in theopposition, “while anyone, who
joins APC (the president’s political party)automatically, becomes a saint
and is protected to enjoy his loot”. The price ofoil has more than doubled
in the last three years; increasing from $28 to about$75 and Nigeria is
ostensibly out of a recession. Still, the economy has notimproved; it
continues to totter, with inflation spiraling out of control,
businessescollapsing, unemployment dangerously high, and the masses
increasingly burdenedwith crushing poverty.
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Theability of the federal government to protect lives and property keeps
eroding;the Fulani herdsmen mass-murder of the innocent and hapless in the
Middle Beltis scrapping to genocide. The conflictbetween farmers and
herdsmen is inherent, and, as a result, the fight betweenthem has
persisted from time immemorial. But this ordinarily commonplace
quarreltook a ghoulish twist since Buharibecame the president of Nigeria.
The clashes between then went beyond theusually struggle over farm land
and grazing routes to “low intensity genocide”.In the past, the rival
groups fought with machetes and bludgeons. But thesedays Fulani herdsmen
attack farming communities with assault rifles. They kill offand raze
entire villages. They rampage through these communities, mostly atnight,
maiming and killing defenseless men, women and children, raping
women,torching homes and destroying villages. The herdsmen’s murderous
lunacy is notjust about securing grazing routes and space for their
cattle; it belies an ulterioragenda.
Fulaniherdsmen are the foot soldiers of wealthy and powerful cattle
owners, whoseumbrella association is Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders
Association of Nigeria. Theaverage Fulani herdsman lacks the resources to
acquire sophisticated assaultrifles. He is invariably armed and assigned
on his gruesome mission by his mastersin the Miyetti Allah. Buhari is
Fulani and a member of the Miyetti Allah. Inhis unremitting nepotism, he
is sentimentally attachment to his Fulani kinsmen,the Miyetti Allah, its
armed terrorists, and their macabre agendas in theMiddle Belt. Not
surprisingly, his administration has turned a blind eye to theatrocities
of Fulani terrorists. It refuses to rein-in the bloodthirsty
herdsmen,protect the farming communities, and prosecute culpable herdsmen
and theirsuspected sponsors. As the number of the dead, maimed and raped;
burnt-downvillages; and displaced persons from the herdsmen’s murderous
binges continueto mount; President Buhari and his security chiefs
vacillate and equivocate.
Likeirredeemably bad rulers, Buhari has a penchant for blaming others for
hisblunders. After three years in office, hisadministration still blames
the Jonathan administration for the country’seconomic miseries. As for his
failure to contain the brutal menace of Fulaniherdsmen, he blamed armed
terrorists from Libya. For the mediocre achievements ofhis war on
corruption, he blames the judiciary and the constitutional guaranteesof
citizens’ immunity from dictatorial acts of governing officials. After
threeyears of Buhari presidency, Nigerians are disappointed, dispirited
anddisenchanted. In response to Buhari’s declaration for re-election, the
Coalitionof Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) stated, “The president’s
declaration ofintension to run is the height of insensitivity to the
plight of Nigerians whoare suffering under his administration”. It is a
statement wholly in consonant withthe popular sentiment in Nigerian.
Encouragingly,Nigerians reserve the constitutional right to remove
President Buhari. We mustexercise this constitutional prerogative in 2019,
and vote him out because the re-electionof Buhari would, in the words of
the Archbishop Emmanuel Chukwuma, “perpetuatesuffering and evil”.
TochukwuEzukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.