A few days ago, I was ruminating on President Muhammadu Buhari’s journey so far as the leader of the most populous black nation in the world and after a thorough overview of his actions and in-actions in the past six years, I came to the conclusion that he is the most strategic politician I have ever known. Whether this is in the positive or negative, I don’t know but the man has shown that it takes beyond normal prudence to stay at the top of the game of politics despite gross incompetence. How did I come to this conclusion?
To start with, who apart from candidate Buhari ever ran for office in a country as certificate-crazy as Nigeria and didn’t have to show his educational papers? Even his supposed WAEC certificate has discrepancies.
From inception, Buhari knew that he doesn’t have the capacity to deliver on the role of a President – a President of the African giant at that. So, he strategically placed his kinsmen in all the strategic positions so that irrespective of his gross failure, no one can cough or attempt to oust him from the helm of affairs. Isn’t he strategic? You could call him the ‘baddest’ political strategist.
Prior to the 2015 election, Buhari strategically positioned himself as an integrity merchant and hobbled on the mantra of change. Four years after, his change literally translated to chains – flagrant nepotism, abysmal non-performance. Despite promising to tackle insecurity, the man from Daura became clueless upon assumption of office and ‘expressing shock and sending condolence messages’ became his style of tackling insecurity. Again, despite vowing to tame and flush out corruption, snakes started swallowing money under his watch; even monkeys had their fair share of the national cake. Under previous administrations, looting of the nation’s wealth was being done by human beings but under Mr. Integrity, animals had a free access to Nigeria’s funds.
With the nation on the brink after his four years, well meaning Nigerians had hoped that the Daura man would honorably desist from flying any party’s ticket for the 2019 election. Who knows and can name one other Nigerian, living or dead, who got away with or survived just about anything? How he was able to get his name in the good books of so many Nigerians despite his abysmal performance remains a conundrum that would take only immortals to decipher. Who can show me one other Nigerian who enjoys Buhari-like nationwide cult following for nothing? Imagine someone who promised change in 2015 providing nil in 2018 but drew substantial applause the moment he summoned courage to declare for 2019!
Again, let me show you another action that portrays Buhari as the baddest strategic politician. Following his abysmal first term, he knew that he can no longer win the election on a free and fair scale so the way forward was to rig the election and get the judiciary on his side. This explains why, prior to the 2019 Presidential election, he ousted Justice Walter Onnoghen (SAN) as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).
Buhari, has since then, continued to unapologetically demonstrate his nepotism by ensuring that every key position is filled by his kinsman so as not to give room for any move to impeach him. Today, the national assembly is a rubber stamp.
No Nigerian, whether living or dead can get away with everything that has happened under Buhari. How would you explain it that despite the acute hardship, abject poverty, lopsided appointments, all time high insecurity, Nigerians will still not cough? It is even worse that he has made it a duty to clamp on those who attempt to air their pains. For Nigerians, it’s now suffering and smiling because the tyrant in office doesn’t want anyone to even cough out their pains!
Buhari is not your mate in this political game. He is not moved by the pains of anyone – I haven’t seen any other Nigerian public office holder’s wife, apart from President Buhari’s Aisha, who has ever gone public with a criticism of the husband’s in-office performance! He careless, he is not even aware of so many things happening under his nose but he sure knows how to play this political game!
