The mantra of the opposition All Progressive Congress is change. It is a well-known fact that Nigerians have not really had a fair deal under the current Jonathan led administration. The fight against the hydra-headed monster called corruption which has seen about $20 trillion being salted away since independence has not been given a significant boost. It was scandalous that the President could say that there was a dichotomy between stealing and corruption. How tragic! The mind boggling allegations against the Minister for Petroleum, Diezani Allison-Maduekwe never got a thorough investigation. Princess Stella Oduah, his erstwhile Aviation Minister whom he relieved of her appointment after much public pressure on corruption allegations was never prosecuted and even now has the nerve to take a shot at the hallowed chambers of the Senate. The missing billions from the NNPC is a story for another day. Jonathan made mockery of the noble concept of servant leadership when he said in 2012 that he was not going to declare his assets and did not give a damn about it even if he was criticized from Heaven. Why a leader would blatantly choose not to be accountable to the people beats the imagination of democracy loving Nigerians.
The boko haram insurgency gained notoriety under the Jonathan led government. He demonstrated his helplessness when he said to the consternation of Nigerians that the killer group had infiltrated his cabinet. It is no surprise that the secondary school girls abducted in Chibok have not been found close to a year now. The ship of the Nigerian state is totally rudderless and is in dire need of a rescuer to steer it back to normalcy.
Obasanjo angered a section of the Yoruba race when he opined in the wake of the June 12 Presidential annulment that Abiola was not the messiah that the country needed. History tends to repeat itself because man in his usual frailty learns the stories but never its salient lessons. The question put before Nigerians is ‘Is Sai Buhari really a better alternative to the Otuoke born Jonathan?’
Buhari cuts the image of an incorruptible leader and that is what his handlers have harped upon in their sale of him to the populace. They made an issue of his acceptance of only ten percent of the monthly 23 million naira which former Heads of State are entitled to and his taking of a bank loan to raise the funds to procure the presidential nomination form. The monthly entitlement accruable to ex Heads of State is dubious and extremely suspect. Why should the nation pay pension to a clique of rulers that ruined her? Why should Generals who came into power through the barrel of the gun, truncated the democratic process on spurious grounds of corruption and misrule and set the nation aback by decades collect colossal amounts from the state that they once raped? He who comes to equity must come with clean hands. It would have been a better tale for Buhari to have out rightly rejected the 2.3 million monthly largesse if he was truly incorruptible as the basis for his collection of that fund is morally wrong and repugnant to justice and fair play. It is on record that Buhari was petroleum minister when 2.8 billion naira developed wings. He has never addressed that scandal of gargantuan proportion. Are Rotimi Amaechi and Bola Tinubu, his two major backers the best examples of leaders in the fight against corruption? Amaechi should have resigned as Governor of Rivers State after defecting from the PDP to the APC since it was the PDP that brought him to power against all odds. We cannot forget his controversial ascent to power without contesting an election in 2007. Morality should have made him throw in the towel. How did Tinubu become so wealthy within a space of 16 years? He is not known to have been a successful businessman before he joined the murky waters of Nigerian politics. Didn’t the Asiwaju nominate his running mate? Can Buhari look them squarely in the eye in his so called anti-corruption fight? His leadership style leaves much to be desired. While he was Military Head of State, his deputy, Late General Tunde Idiagbon effectively ruled the country and was the de facto ruler. So powerful was he that the government was overthrown after he left to Mecca to perform the Hajj. While he held sway as the Chairman of the defunct Petroleum Trust Fund, Tayo Akpata and the Afri Projects Consortium ran the show. In the midst of the current economic and political crisis, do we need a leader that delegates core functions to lieutenants? Doesn’t the nation deserve a firm leader who has what it takes to stand on the side of the people in order to deliver the goods?
Is Buhari now a genuine democrat? One wonders why he blatantly refused to appear before the Human Rights Violation Investigations Commission a.k.a Oputa panel to answer questions bordering on human rights abuses while he held sway as a military autocrat. Why did he have to seek the protection of the courts to bar him from attending if he had nothing to hide? He said he would peg the dollar at one naira to a dollar. How? Is it by fiat? Can he be insulated from the post-election violence in the north of 2011? In 2012 he said ‘the dog and baboon would all be soaked in blood should the 2015 elections be rigged.’ Shouldn’t that statement which is inciting make us mistrust him as a repentant democrat? Why did he refuse to participate in the electoral debate where he could have had the golden opportunity to sell himself before the people and dispel the notion of his being dictatorial? The ground of bias on the part of the organisers was laughable. He could have still pulled the rug from under their feet by agreeing to attend and then letting Nigerians be the judge of the alleged bias. He pulled a coup d’grace in Chatham House, London. Why didn’t he pull it in the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs? Will he rule the country from London? Fela was right when he sang about colonial mentality.
It is sad that Buhari has not really proffered solutions to the nagging problems of the country beyond mere sloganeering and mantra chanting. Do we make a change for change’s sake? That is the dilemma of most Nigerians now as the difference between Jonathan and Sai Buhari is akin to that between six and half a dozen.
Over to you beleaguered Nigerian voters!
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