It is not
that we have ever doubted the thespian talents of President Muhammadu Buhari
that render him eligible to assume the role of an actor before any audience. We
have always known that he is like any other wily politician, especially in
these climes, who can fit into any dramatic role before a given audience.
Remember, in 2015 when Buhari had before him citizens who were desirous of a
leader with democratic credentials, he offered himself as perfectly fitting
that role. He regaled them about his mutation into a democrat since he was
forced by Ibrahim Babangida and his co-travellers to pull off his military
uniform and jackboots.
Again,
before a south-east audience, he identified with them by dressing like an Igbo
man. Still, before the general population as his audience, Buhari played the
role of a charmer, the man with a magic wand to solve the nation’s problems and
root out corruption in a short time. He made the audience swoon over him. And
he was rewarded with the prime prize – the presidency – as the encore continued
until it was disrupted by the subsequent months of the reality of hardship.
Now, Buhari
has taken these dramatic skills onto the global stage. At the 72 session of the
United Nations General Assembly, Buhari took on a role that was totally alien
to his personality. The meeting was about the wellbeing of people. It had the
fitting theme of “Focusing on People: Striving for Peace and Decent Life for
All on a Sustainable Planet.” Thus, Buhari played the role of an actor who
wants to improve the wellbeing of the people and make them to live in peace and
live a decent life.
In this
role, Buhari stressed the need for expanding the frontiers of democracy and the
rule of law. Buhari indeed must be acting; that was why he could talk about
this. If Buhari stopped acting, he would not hesitate to tell you that
democracy and the rule of law are misguided notions that trammel his own idea
of governance. Or is this not the same Buhari that forgot a major bulwark of
democracy, the separation of powers? In his contempt for democracy and rule of
law, Buhari raided the homes of judges who constitute the third arm of
government and attempted to terrorise them into accepting his vision of
fighting corruption. In fact, to Buhari, the judiciary is not necessary in his
concept of democracy. He would like to appoint his own judges who would
dispense his own kind of justice. Because the existing judges do not dispense
the kind of justice he wants, and because he cannot decree the judiciary out of
existence, he can only tolerate them.
But clearly,
not for him the sanctity of their judgements. He selects the judgements to
obey. If the judgements favour him, as the case of law courts ordering the
forfeiture of the assets of suspected corrupt persons, he can obey them. But if
the courts rule that suspects should be granted bail, then the judges have
failed to deliver his kind of justice and he is not obliged to obey them. That
is why Buhari has failed to obey the court rulings granting bail to former
National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki and the leader of the Nigeria’s Islamic
Movement, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky. And that was why for a long time, he also refused
to obey the court rulings that the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra
(IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, should be released from detention.
This brings
us to the issue of inequalities that the president spoke about. Buhari spoke
like a man who was pained by the inequalities in societies. But in speaking
this way, Buhari was acting on the UN stage. For, if Buhari were not acting, he
would have acknowledged that back at home his administration has become a
breeding ground for inequalities. This is why Buhari would easily prosecute
others, especially the members of the opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), who are accused of corruption, while shielding his associates and
members of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) on whom are hanging
egregious charges of corruption. Buhari encourages inequalities by supporting a
system that makes the oil resources of the south-south to be appropriated by
the ruling class and its accomplices while the people of the region are
impoverished.
Inequalities
in Buhari’s society are stoked by ethnicity and religion. Thus, when Buhari
warned against the perils of ethnicity and religion, he was only playing the
role of an actor. Buhari has become a source of strength for rabid ethnicity
and religion by not tackling the Fulani herdsmen menace.
These
herdsmen can go ahead to destroy farms, rape, maim and kill. Buhari would not
see the need to check them. He would not support the proposal that the herdsmen
should embrace ranching as it is done in other parts of the world. When the
herdsmen attack innocent farmers, Buhari would consider them as clashes between
two lawless parties. Worse, if the farmers are outraged at their crops being
destroyed by the herdsmen, then Buhari would legitimise this destruction. It is
in this regard that Buhari has supported the grazing bill that would take land
from others and give it to herdsmen to graze their cattle. Buhari’s
ethnocentrism is further seen by his appointments which only go to people of
the same tribe and religion with him. All security agencies are headed by his
fellow northerners and Muslims. Again, Muslims without provocation can kill
Christians as in the cases of Mrs. Eunice Elisha in Abuja and Mrs. Bridget
Agbahime in Kano and they would not be punished.
If by now
you still do not accept that the president is an actor, this point would
convince you. Did you not hear Buhari make a case for dialogue with North Korea
over its nuclear deal? Yes, this is the same president who does not believe in
dialogue. Citizens from every part of the country have been pleading with him
to allow dialogue over the destiny of the country. But he has refused. He does
not want any dialogue through which Nigerians would arrive at a constitution
that would guide their existence. They want a constitution that would carry the
imprimatur of the citizens, “we the people,” like that of the United States.
But he would not allow this. He wants inequalities in the society to be
perpetuated by the military-imposed constitution that is blithely bereft of the
input of the citizens. It is because we have a president who has anathemised
dialogue that he thought and still thinks that the best response to the Biafra
question is the liquidation of the Igbo.
But for the
close observer, Buhari did not succeed in disguising the fact of his being only
an actor and not as a person who spoke from his heart. Throughout Buhari’s
speech, he used the word “people” only twice. The only other occasion was when
it appeared as part of the theme of the gathering. On the two occasions when
Buhari deliberately used the word, he never had his people in mind. He had
Palestinian and Rohingya people in mind. Compare this with the speech of the
United States President Donald Trump that referred to the “people” 45 times.
Forget the
notion that Trump is a warmonger and that his speech is longer than Buhari’s.
What matters is that he articulated the interests of his people. He was
unequivocal while declaring that he would subordinate the interests of other
peoples to those of the American people. This makes the difference between the
two countries: In America, “the people govern, the people rule, and the people
are sovereign.” But in Nigeria, Buhari governs, Buhari rules and Buhari is
sovereign.
For Buhari
to be among those leaders who would ensure a better world that is marked by
peace and decent living for their citizens, he must allow restructuring. He
must allow the citizens to negotiate how they want to live. Or did Buhari not
listen to Trump when he declared that ‘‘Strong sovereign nations let their
people take ownership of the future and control their own destiny’’ ?
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