As 2015 presidential election was approaching, it was clear to any keen observer of Nigerian political scene that the then President Goodluck Jonathan was overwhelmed with the issues of governance of the country. He looked tired at campaign rallies and was unsure of himself and suspicious of people surrounding him. Under his watch, the country was ravaged in the northern part by the insurgency of the deadly Boko Haram which abducted more than a hundred school children at Chibok. Added to these, there were allegations of corruption at low and high places in the country and generally there was pervasive low morale among the people. At that time, people felt the need for a change of direction in the governance of the country. Despite the odds against Jonathan’s election, millions of Nigerians were not wormed to the possibility of the alternative candidate, Muhammadu Buhari of APC, becoming the president of the country.
The reason for the skepticism for Buhari was simple. Nigerians who often possess elephantine memory referred to the draconian military rule of then General Buhari between 1984 and 1985 with trepidations. Added to their fears, were the utterances of the General when he was out of power on issues like Sharia, Boko Haram insurgency, ethnicity and religion. To many people, his utterances on these issues portrayed him as a sectional leader unfit to rule a multi-religious and multi- national country like Nigeria. However, the awesome propaganda machinery of his party, the APC blunted these fears and presented Buhari as a man of integrity who had no stomach for corruption and who would use his military background to destroy the Boko Haram insurgency within a short period of taking over power. These propaganda stuffs impressed millions of Nigerians and Buhari defeated the incumbent President Jonathan of PDP, that had then ruled the country for 16 years. This was the first time that an opposition party would wrestle power from the governing party in Nigeria. It was a glorious era for democracy.
On becoming president in May 2015, President Buhari started on a very low key and the situation was not helped by ill-health which hobbled his performances for some months. However, later in his first time in office, thanks to God, his health improved and people were able to see positive actions on infrastructure development, renewed efforts on combating the insurgency of the persistent Boko Haram, and high profile war on the debilitating plague of corruption that had rendered our country prostrate. Many people felt that he could have done more if one judged by the promises of change made in his party’s manifesto.
However, out of the blues, and with deft political masterstroke, he jolted his supporters and opponents alike by bringing the issue of June 12 debacle to the political front burner. Last year, he recognised the June 12, 1993 election which was annulled by the military administration of Ibrahim Babaginda, and in addition gave posthumous award of GCFR, the highest honour in the land reserved only for the president to Chief Moshood Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the freest election ever conducted in our country. The vice-presidential candidate to Abiola in the election, Babagana Kingibe, despite his perfidy in the June 12 debacle was given GCON, an award reserved for the vice-president in the land. With this singular act, President Buhari was adulated and won many people to his side politically.
This adulation increased again this year, when he declared June 12 henceforth as Democracy Day instead of May 29 foisted on the people by President Obasanjo. This month, the first Democracy Day was celebrated with pomp and pageantry in the presence of many African heads of states and foreign diplomats.
The action of President Buhari in resolving the June 12 debacle to the satisfaction of most Nigerians raises a pertinent question on how knotty political problems are solved in this country over the years. However, the Obasanjo administration could not be totally absolved for its non action on the matter because President Obasanjo refused without any obvious justification, to assent to the bill passed by the then National Assembly to name the National Stadium after the late Abiola for his role in promoting sport not only in the country but in the whole of Africa.
President Buhari unlike his predecessors was able to take action on the June 12 debacle without any rancour, because he is a prominent member and now the leader of the formidable northern political establishment that had been dictating the political agenda in the country since independence. At independence, the departing colonial masters consolidated power in the hand of the northern political establishment through a skewed geo-political configuration foisted on the country. The many years of military rule in the country which was dominated by people from the north strengthened and reinforced this configuration. This setup has put the northern political establishment in an unassailable position to dictate to the rest of the country the following, year of our independence, their favoured census figures, the time for the creation of states and the number of states and local governments to be created in the country and the mode of governance in the country.
This is the reality of our country from the time of independence.
President Buhari has a unique advantage which his predecessors did not have. As somebody from the powerful northern political establishment, he should use his position and clout to free Nigeria from the shackles repressing good governance in the country. We do not need to go far to see that Nigeria is bogged down presently with suffocating over-centralised system of governance which has bred resentment and bitterness with attendant disunity in the country. Nigeria needs true federalism so that governance can be effective as we had immediately the country became independent before its truncation by the military in1966. In addition to getting us out of the present ponderous and ineffective system of governance, President Buhari has a duty to this country to step up the fight against the virus of corruption with vigour without caring whose ox is gored. There is need also to strengthen our security and prosecutorial institutions by removing them from the apron-string of the presidency.
Mr President, history beckons to you and you should do the needful for Nigeria to secure your place in history. All you need is the will to continue what you did with June 12 debacle with other seemingly intractable political and economic problems facing the country. Kemal Atartuck in 1923 did what was right for Turkey; Konrad Adenauer did same for Germany after Second World War and Franklin Roosevelt lifted his country during the depression of 1933. You too can stand up and pull Nigeria out of its present socio-economic quagmire.
Professor Lucas writes from Old Bodija, Ibadan
