By Michael Egbejumi-David<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
I am not one of Buhari\u2019s fans; not one of his baying cult followers, but I have to concede that the man\u2019s stock is quite high at the moment.\u00a0 The General\u2019s star is shining brightly.\u00a0 His stock has recently skyrocketed.\u00a0 But why is that?<\/p>\n
Cult followership I do understand.\u00a0 That happens all the time.\u00a0 Folks with similar but narrow interests that are driven mostly by hatred for a particular cause or hatred of a particular person would always find comfort banding together and are often very shrill in their campaigns.\u00a0 The fading Tea Party in America is a case in point.\u00a0 But apart from such devotees, Buhari also has a lot of…how shall we say?…a lot of unthinking \u2018follow-follow\u2019 followers who just parrot what other people say.\u00a0 This number is particularly large and they too are becoming strident.\u00a0 Why is this the case?<\/p>\n
Buhari has an unsavoury record as a former Head of State.\u00a0 He then proceeded to live out his post-retirement years as a local champion with no real legacy to point at.\u00a0 The General is still the same man.\u00a0 He is the same man who contested the presidency against Obasanjo, a Yoruba man, in 2003 and lost.\u00a0 He contested against Yar\u2019Adua, a Hausa-Fulani, in 2007 and lost.\u00a0 He tried again in 2011 against Jonathan, an Ijaw chap.\u00a0 He lost again.\u00a0 So what has changed now?\u00a0 All the people clamouring for Buhari today, including the ones who appear ready to lay down their life for him, where were they in 2003, 2007 and in 2011?<\/p>\n
What has changed?\u00a0 Well, a couple of things.<\/p>\n
First, enter the Yorubas.\u00a0 Nigeria has three main tribes of which the Yoruba is one.\u00a0 In fact they are one of the more dynamic \u2013 certainly in terms of political awareness.\u00a0 President Jonathan however, through sheer incompetence laced with a lethal dose of complacency, completely sidelined the Yorubas in the scheme of things in Nigeria.\u00a0 Throughout his first term, no Yoruba featured in any major post in Nigeria under Jonathan.\u00a0 Nothing!\u00a0 Even the Central Bank passed tantalisingly right under the Yoruba firmament.\u00a0 It was only last year that the President belatedly appointed one colourless bloke from Ondo as his Chief of Staff after Mike Oghiadomhe was eased out.\u00a0 It was a vexing tokenism that came way too late in the day.<\/p>\n
So it was only a matter of time before the Yorubas would look past Jonathan for business.\u00a0 Restructuring and sovereign national conference would have to wait.\u00a0 Similarly, the uncompromising value hitherto placed on solid education here can wait too.\u00a0 Even if my laptop was contesting the election against Jonathan, the president will still lose the Yoruba vote.\u00a0 Bola Tinubu, the current avant-garde leader of the Yorubas has been waiting and scheming how he might get himself into Aso Rock.\u00a0 And when Buhari was astute enough to talk himself into Tinubu\u2019s good books again, another lethal brew, a formidable opposition was birthed.<\/p>\n
Even Obasanjo, the man who laid the foundation upon which the PDP\u2019s perversion, do-or-die doctrine and lawlessness was erected, is supporting Buhari \u2013 although OBJ\u2019s electoral value at the moment is lower than a snake\u2019s belly.<\/p>\n
The other thing that has changed is the \u2018sudden discovery\u2019 of Buhari by the Southwest media.\u00a0 Buhari had made it his grim evangelical mission to decapitate the Yoruba leadership between 1984 and 85.\u00a0 Whilst he was doing that, the man still found time to completely emasculate the Press.\u00a0 But today, all of that is forgiven.\u00a0 In fact, some in that media have been working overtime to wipe the slate clean and even deny that Buhari ever put a foot wrong.\u00a0 Though Buhari himself never said so, he has been totally repackaged a changed man by that same Press corridor.\u00a0 How do you like your irony!\u00a0 But why is that?\u00a0 He has Jonathan for an opponent, and here, it\u2019s anybody but Jonathan.<\/p>\n
Be that as it may, Buhari 4th<\/sup> edition and the sleek operations of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been a blessing to Nigeria\u2019s political development.\u00a0 They have possibly changed the face of electioneering in Nigeria forever.\u00a0 If we look past the threat of violence and people\u2019s fears, this season\u2019s campaign has been more sophisticated and more challenging than what used to obtain here.\u00a0 The bar has been substantially raised and the standard is a lot more serious.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a shame that the APC has chosen not to participate in pre-election debates.\u00a0 But I understand that too.\u00a0 Sources within the party have revealed that despite long hours of coaching and preparation, General Buhari persistently performed abysmally, jumbling up things and forgetting over 80% of things that had just been relayed to him.<\/p>\nThe behemoth that is the PDP has gone largely unchallenged in Nigeria in terms of coherent opposition so much so they have begun to take the voters for granted. \u00a016 years of unfettered looting and treating the populace with sneering disdain has made the PDP grandees complacent.\u00a0 If the PDP thought they were going to get an easy ride back into power, they were mistaken; and that too is a good thing.<\/p>\n
What still bothers me though is the blackmail tool that is Boko Haram that was used and which yet lurks in the background.\u00a0 A change in government \u2013 particularly in the direction we are been urged to do \u2013 seems to me to be too close to acquiescing to the demand of Boko Haram sponsors.\u00a0 I fear that if we yield to this, a dangerous precedent is set, and a perpetual threat hangs over all of us, coiled up miserably somewhere, only to be whipped out whenever anyone feels sufficiently aggrieved.<\/p>\n
And all of that is the Buhari factor…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
demdem@hotmail.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\nTwitter: demdemdem1<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Michael Egbejumi-David I am not one of Buhari\u2019s fans; not one of his baying cult followers, but I have to concede that the man\u2019s stock is quite…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n
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