{"id":66287,"date":"2019-04-17T14:42:52","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T13:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=66287"},"modified":"2019-04-17T14:42:52","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T13:42:52","slug":"the-danger-in-buharis-totalitarian-patronage-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/the-danger-in-buharis-totalitarian-patronage-model\/","title":{"rendered":"The Danger In Buhari\u2019s Totalitarian Patronage Model"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
By SKC Ogbonnia<\/div>\n
\n
\nDiversity and dynamic opposition are twin catalysts for effective
\ndemocratic leadership. This explains why Nigeria owes a debt of gratitude
\nto patriots, most notably, Ogbonnaya Onu, Bola Tinubu, and Muhammadu
\nBuhari for sustaining the opposition movement, which culminated in the
\nbirth of All Progressives Congress (APC). Similar kudos ought to go to
\nPresident Goodluck Jonathan for creating the enabling environment that
\nengendered the emergence of the APC, the elusive viable alternative to the
\nthen-ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The irony, however, is that
\nBuhari, as president, has adopted a patronage model, which is on pace to
\ndecimate the opposition and potentially plunge the nation into a \u201cnext
\nlevel\u201d of crisis.<\/p>\n

The Buhari patronage model is a totalitarian discriminatory scheme
\npredicated purely on political inclinations. Adapted from the stone-age
\nimperial philosophy, and brought into the 21st Century Nigeria since 2015,
\nthe model views opposition with perilous contempt. For example, Buhari\u2019s
\nsecond term is set to once again overly reward Northern Nigeria at the
\nexpense of the South, merely because the former accounted for 77%
\nof his votes in the 2019 presidential election. Specifically, government
\npatronage is likely to mirror the share of his total votes, which are as
\nfollows: North-West:40%; North-East:21%; North-Central:16%;
\nSouth-West:13%; South-South:7%; and South-East:3%.<\/p>\n

The totalitarian model explains why Buhari, upon assuming office,
\ndiscarded an equitable order embraced since 1999, whereby positions of the
\nPresident, Vice-President, Senate President, Speaker, Chairman of the
\nruling party, and the Secretary to Federal Government were spread across
\nthe six geographical zones\u2014regardless of political inclinations.\u00a0 The
\ntotalitarian
\nscheme is the sole rationale behind the current plan by the ruling party
\nto zone the Senate Presidency to the North-East, thereby producing a
\ncurious state of affair where all the three arms of government are headed
\nby the North. Today, virtually all critical state organs are controlled by
\npeople of the Northern extraction, particularly from the North-West and
\nthe North-East zones\u2014thanks to the Buhari model.<\/p>\n

This blind pursuit for total domination is antagonistic to the Nigerian
\ndiversity and negates the Constitution. The optics is taxation without
\nrepresentation, which historically leads to revolt. Moreover, injustice
\ningrained with impunity is a recipe for crisis which, of course,
\ndoes not always differentiate between the North and South. But what must
\nnot escape the minds of Buhari apologists is the fact that Nigeria remains
\na diverse country of bellicose ethnic groups, with national income accrued
\nfrom the states naturally endowed with remunerative resources. Thus, while
\nit can be convenient to gloat over the reality that over 70% of Buhari\u2019s
\nvotes came from the North, it is bluntly instructive that over 70% of the
\ngovernment revenue is generated from the South, the apparent victim of the
\npresident\u2019s totalitarian regime.<\/p>\n

As elaborated in my 2015 essay, \u201cHow PDP and APC Created New Biafran
\nAgitations\u201d; while the abject lack of development in the East during the
\nPDP years handed the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) the convenient
\nbackdrop to curry its initial groundswell of sympathy, Buhari\u2019s brazen
\nthreat of vendetta against the region definitely exacerbated the
\nsecessionist movement. The immediate effect, remember, was the emergence
\nof a sister organization, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), that shutdown
\noil facilities in 2016, causing production to its lowest level in the
\nFourth Republic, which contributed in no small measure to the economic
\nrecession that followed. A repeat of Buhari\u2019s first term blunder is bound
\nto provoke a next level of crisis. Only a loon will ignore the message
\ninherent in this passage.<\/p>\n

Yet Buhari\u2019s yes-men will argue otherwise, nudging the
\npresident to stay the status quo. After all, the man just won re-election.
\nBut that is a toadying travesty. An objective history will not archive his
\nvictory in 2019 as any reflection of broad or mass support. The verdict
\nwas merely a byproduct of a binary election in which the opposing party,
\ndisgraced out of power, nominated a fundamentally flawed candidate with
\nperplexing prospects for victory. Nevertheless, the flaws of the
\nopposition party or its candidate do not bequeath President Buhari the
\nrabid audacity to oppress 44% of the electorate, or the zones, that voted
\nagainst him. Opposition is neither a crime nor failure. Thus, the
\nprevailing
\nattempt by overzealous ruling party propagandists to stoke guilty
\nconscience on some people or zones based on their voting preferences is
\nmaddening nescience.<\/p>\n

The fact is that Buhari\u2019s discriminatory patronage model is a serious
\nthreat to the fabric of the vitally essential Nigerian diversity, as well
\nas the opposition. This portends a troubling future. Other fears apart,
\nthe president ought to realize that the primary victims of a weak
\nopposition state are the poor masses, the very class he claims to
\nsymbolize. Buhari
\nmust also recognize that the new generation of Nigerians\u2014both north and
\nsouth\u2014want an equitable and progressive country. It is not surprising,
\ntherefore, that true patriots within the ruling party, particularly from
\nthe North, are rising against the unjust patronage model.<\/p>\n

SKC Ogbonnia, a former 2019 APC presidential aspirant, is the author of
\nthe Effective Leadership Formula*<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By SKC Ogbonnia Diversity and dynamic opposition are twin catalysts for effective democratic leadership. This explains why Nigeria owes a debt of gratitude to patriots, most notably, Ogbonnaya Onu, Bola…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Danger In Buhari\u2019s Totalitarian Patronage Model - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/the-danger-in-buharis-totalitarian-patronage-model\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Danger In Buhari\u2019s Totalitarian Patronage Model - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By SKC Ogbonnia Diversity and dynamic opposition are twin catalysts for effective democratic leadership. 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