The message Buhari passed

By Obi Nwakanma

President Muhammadu Buhari returned to Nigeria after an extended medical stay in London, to a country that was far poorer, far more divided and restive, and far more confused about the meaning of its “nationness” and sovereignty, and far less convincing about its status in the world.

The factors of Nigeria’s indeterminacy had been exacerbated with the election of President Buhari in May 2015, and two years going, since he was invested with the mandate to govern, the Buhari presidency has moved from crisis to crisis, and from one firestorm to the next. After a campaign that promised that he would put an end to “medical tourism” in Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari became the ultimate medical tourist. He has spent nearly 75% of his term on medical leave abroad, which basically is to say, that he has never really governed.

Too distracted by his ill-health, the President has either left things to fester, or he has been too ill-prepared to give his fullest attention to the challenges of governance. A nation like Nigeria with its complex architecture and problems demands the kind of full attention which Muhammadu Buhari, in his current physical state is unable to provide. Nigerians protested his absence, and his dereliction of duty; the presidency told a lot of fib about the president’s health; over the last three weeks more public protests began to rise to pressure the President to either resign from office, or return from his medical vacation.

The last week of public protest in Abuja led by the musician and entertainer, Mr. Charles “Charly-boy” Oputa was beaten back with sheer police brutality signed-off by the presidency. Police attacked anti-Buhari protesters but shielded the arranged crowd of pro-Buhari demonstrators, in a move that should have earned that office, were Nigeria a normal, civilized, and serious nation built upon the rule of law, serious investigations by the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney-General’s office, which is the office charged with the task, constitutionally, of protecting the rule of law in the nation. But the office of the Attorney-General has always been, over the years, since Taslim Elias last occupied Obi it, the appendage of the executive branch, not the independent guardian of the constitutional mores of the nation.

The current Attorney-General is even more, if I may be excused to presume, unconscious of the role of the Attorney-General’s office in the federation. But be that as it may. What is rather obvious, though the President’s Chief of communications, Garba Shehu, denied it, is that the serious pressure mounted on the President to return had become too much of a public issue, with the first public protests starting to build-up with the protests in Abuja, and the protests in front of the Nigerian house in London, and the one’s already planned for Lagos.

Clearly, this forced the president to return to Nigeria. Now, the president is back, and two things are very obvious: Muhammadu Buhari is still recovering. Nigerians could see the man who addressed them last Monday – this was not just the Buhari with his familiar look of Cassius – that lean and hungry look of the ascetic, the pious, the intellectual, and planner – but a gaunt look, whose voice as a matter fact seemed a bit like a violin that is out of tune. It was that type of voice that Nigerians heard over the national broadcast on Monday, and felt disappointed.

I do not know what more Nigerians expected from the message Buhari delivered in his Monday public address to the nation, but I do seriously disagree with the critics of that message. What was lacking was not substance, but the force of delivery, because the President’s voice has been acted upon seriously by his debility, and it no longer carries the timbre that would have underscored the very meaning of his statement. But Buhari’s message was apt; precise, timely, patriotic, and even presidential. It did not have too much fat. It was lean with purpose. It did not beat about the bush. It was direct and appealing. It was Buhari’s attempt at rallying the nation, and expressing his gratitude for life, and for being back among “my brothers and sisters” as he called Nigerians.

I wish that this was the speech that Buhari gave soon after his inauguration – the speech that recognized that Nigeria needed healing, and that no part of Nigeria must feel left out under his presidency. But Buhari’s speech failed to connect because he began his presidency on the wrong note; he wrong-footed himself in some of his most fundamental early steps, which excluded, and even criminalized a part of the nation – specifically the Igbo, and much of the old East – over petty election issues.

He came across as a man who despised the Igbo and was out to get them. He wanted nothing to do with them. He continued the policy of alienation and exclusion of the Igbo which had been perfected under the military rule of which he had been an important part.

He ignored the rising protests out of the East, and by the time he acted  he did so with little information, and little context because he presumed without justification that you could just beat back this segment of Nigeria, which had been often described as “disunited” and incapable of organizing: he arrested an upstart called Nnamdi Kanu, and turned him into a folk hero among the vast urban youth, whose discontent is still the most dangerous aspect of Nigeria’s national life today.

But on Monday, Buhari gave the best speech of his presidency. It was as though it was Buhari’s ghost speaking. He started with a conciliatory gesture – as if to remind the Igbo especially that he was not their enemy: after all, he had spent two days with the late Dim Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Ikemba Nnewi, discussing Nigerian unity in Daura, at the onset of his presidential aspiration. This is quite true. They had exchanged visits: Buhari even came to Enugu also to visit Ojukwu on the subject of Nigerian unity. Also true is that Buhari came closest to winning the presidency once with the late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo as his running-mate. They had a fantastic relation, and had articulated a clear political program – that was national and far reaching.

He did also run with Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, who had been Speaker of the House of Representatives in the 2nd Republic. The question therefore was, why did Buhari forget the minutes of our last meetings? Why did he then turn to adversarial politics at a time when the nation wanted just to heal after a fractious election, which had been graciously conceded to him? Why did he begin to play the Northern and religious cards as his critics have since accused him? Is it too late to make these gestures seeking and proposing the ineluctability of Nigeria “unity”? Well, it is good for Nigeria to be united, but it must not be “unity” at the expense of any one part of Nigeria. That is why we must have negotiated and peaceable unity.

President Buhari must not let his legacy ultimately be that he led to the final dissolution of Nigeria both by his actions or declarations. The principal basis of national unity must be secured on consent – the so called consent of the governed which is part of the “social contract.” Once a vast swath of the population no longer believes in the reason for nation, or no longer consent to be governed under the conditions which they deem deleterious to them, no force of ammunition can still their cry or quench their desire to be free.

This government must begin to take both symbolic and practical steps to restore belief in “one Nigeria” – through social programmes; through actions that validate the supremacy of the citizen under the rule of law and the givens of equity, but not by threat or deceit or force. Unity is not a form of addiction. It comes with recognition of mutual interest.

 

 

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