Nigeria: Hope is the Biggest Casualty of the Buhari Failure
For a long time, the Buhari presidency was an enticing promise. He evoked the memory of the no-nonsense general who would knock us into shape and make us whole again. Wean us of our obsession for corruption and immorality. And turn this our country of perpetual promise into what the founding fathers had long ago dreamed for it. And the whole world has waited with baited breath for decades. There was genuine hope. The kind of hope that no other Nigerian in recent memory had evoked. At least among his supporters.
The origin of this image and reputation was from a generation ago when he was head of state for less than two years. A carefully cultivated image that grew as time and retelling made it into a fable and turned him into the cult hero that was part fact but mostly fiction.
His ascension to national reckoning started when he, in 1984, toppled the civilian government that was just learning the ropes after the military devastation that had led Nigeria to war and produced a series of inept military leaders with little clue about governance. Having almost destroyed the country and run it aground, it was patently unfair that just after four years, the military , led by Buhari would charge the democratically elected government of ineptitude and corruption. But what did we know? We welcomed Buhari with open arms as he promised to right all wrong of the democratic government.
His new government regaled us by suspending the Constitution and enacting draconian laws including the ones that made us to join queues. He jailed the politicians multiple lifetimes and we clapped. He introduced an economic policy that stood the nations economy on its head. Instead of complaining, we again shouted praises. We knew no better. We were told that without the measures, we would be back on the road to perdition that the democrats were taking us to. His deputy, a fellow no nonsense General called Idiagbon was even worse. Genuinely a disciplined general who brooked no niceties, he and his principal went around riding the country roughshod like a military barrack. But it was not long before this charade started unraveling. A country is not a military barrack. As president, you run country on sound governance principles and not the command and obey of a military barrack. You cannot order the economy to obey your orders.
He was put out of his misery in less than two year and we celebrated . At this point, we were also getting fatigued and miserable . And a few people were getting bold enough to call out the double standards , the inexperience with governance and meddling and experimentation with the economy. But the scourge of the military would continue for the next 14years , in the end leaving the country worse than they found it . But the Buhari image endured. Getting more romanticized as indiscipline, corruption got worse and worse in the country. His spartan lifestyle, his carefully crafted image of a non corrupt person resonated with a section of the society that watched as the leaders after him exhibited a corrupt lifestyle as they bled the country. Despite Buhari serving under Abacha, the most corrupt of them all, and running an institution that was itself corrupt, somehow he managed to look clean.
So when he joined politics in 2003 and ran on an anti corruption platform, he had a large following. This large following got increasingly larger until he won the presidential election in 2015.
Fast forward to 2018. Buhari has unraveled. Those who warned about the real Buhari , and were shouted down by his rabid followers are having a last laugh. What we see today is a repeat of 1984. Made worse because Nigeria was a smaller country in 1984 than today. Smaller economy. Less complex . The world of 1984 was a bipolar world with US and Soviet Union pulling the world in different directions. When military governments were propped up by the super powers and were permitted to ruin their countries so long as it served any of them. Buhari was not a good president in 1984 and time would have revealed this. But he was overthrown by those who were alarmed by what they saw from the inside.
Unfortunately in a civilian government as of now, he has no saving grace. No one to truncate his tenure. Almost four years and all the glitter is gone. Corruption is running riot in his tenure. He has no capacity to manage. To control. To call to order. He cannot solve his problems with a decree. All his failings as a leader are laid before us. The man and the image do not match. Even his mostly rabid supporters are asking what went wrong. From initial dismay, some have abandoned him and today as rabidly against him as they were for him. Those who called me names four years ago when I pointed out that Buhari would unravel are now more anti Buhari than me. In fact, my emotion these days is mostly pity. Pity for his supporters who are caught between apologizing for their folly and still blaming Jonathan for foisting Buhari on us. I laugh at their discomfort. Human beings. Accepting you were blinded by hope and packaging is no easy task.
But the biggest tragedy that Buhari has wrought is his death knell on the anti corruption dream of his supporters. Nigeria is corrupt. Was . And is. When Buhari came to power, his aura, his image , his body language fought and banished the demons of corruption. Without a shot -fired. Nigerians were ready to fight corruption with him . They would have matched and killed for him to banish this scourge. Even non supporters like me were ready to give him benefit of doubt.
But his ineptitude. His perennial blaming of the past. His territorial worldview that created a weak and corrupt kitchen cabinet. His wrong reading of the today Nigeria were to put a stop to the anti corruption momentum. And corruption recovered . And the demons came back. As was said in the good books, when demons come back, they come back seven times stronger than when you first banished them.
For majority of Nigerians , this president was the last hope to redeem ourselves as a country and put us on the path of progress and integrity. It was a misplaced hope. But it was a hope. He claimed the right to their hope without knowing the work that needed to convert it to reality. He owed these his followers to do his best. To deliver on his promise. Otherwise he did not have to make them. I suspect he did not know what the promise meant. That he made it for a different generation and was not aware that society did not exist anymore. And getting to office , he was just one out of touch leader past his prime that had good intention but no plan.
He will leave us worse than he found us. More demoralized . Corruption will grow muscles and wings while he is here. We have to find another hope for the fight that must be. The fight to start the journey of rebuilding Nigeria and claiming its promise . The fight to have hope for a better tomorrow. The hope to be like others . Even in this Africa we claim to be a giant. History will not be kind to him. But we should not be too hard on him. We were guilty as well . The signs were there all along. We just decided to believe.
