BusinessDay 15 April 2018

Sunday 15 April 2018
C002D5556
2019 Watch Presidency
17
ZEBULON AGOMUO
The declaration last Monday by
President Muhammadu Buhari
to seek a second term did not
come to many people as a surprise.
Before the National Executive Committee
(NEC) meeting of the All Progressives
Congress (APC) where the President
declared his intention, his body language
had said it all.
By the constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria, and the constitution of his party,
President Buhari has committed no offence.
He is entitled to seek re-election.
Buhari was sworn in on May 29, 2015 after
an electoral victory at the presidential election
held on March 28, 2015.
The declaration may have cowed some
other members of the party who may be
nursing presidential ambition as anyone who
insists on contesting the ticket with him on the
party’s platform may be running a lost battle
and futile mission.
Buhari, a 75-year old former military leader,
was overwhelmingly voted into power following
a loss of confidence by the Nigerian
electorate of the Goodluck Jonathan administration
who was of the People’s Democratic
Party (PDP).
Buhari was sold to the voting population
of Nigeria as a man of integrity and austere
person whose sole interest in seeking the
highest political office was to serve selflessly
and right all perceived wrongs.
Before clinching the position in 2015, Buhari
had contested for the seat three times
and had declared that he would never ever
again do so.
The man Buhari
Muhammadu Buhari was born on 17
December 1942, is the President of
Nigeria, in office since 2015. He is a
retired major general in the Nigerian
Army and previously served as the nation’s head of
state from 31 December 1983 to 27 August 1985,
after taking power in a military coup d’état. The
term Buharism is ascribed to the Buhari military
government.
He unsuccessfully ran for the office of president
of Nigeria in the 2003, 2007 and 2011 general elections.
In December 2014, he emerged as the presidential
candidate of the All Progressives Congress
for the March 2015 general elections. Buhari won
the election, defeating the incumbent President
Goodluck Jonathan. This marked the first time in
the history of Nigeria that an incumbent president
lost to an opposition candidate in a general election.
He was sworn in on 29 May 2015.
Buhari has stated that he takes responsibility for
anything over which he presided during his military
rule, and that he cannot change the past. He has
described himself as a “converted democrat”.
Early life
Buhari was born to a Fulani family in Daura, Katsina
State, to his father Hardo Adamu, a Fulani chief,
and mother Zulaihat. He is the twenty-third child
of his father. Buhari was raised by his mother, after
his father died when he was about four years old.
He attended primary school in Daura and
Mai’adua before proceeding to Katsina Model
School in 1953, and to Katsina Provincial Secondary
School (now Government College Katsina)
from 1956 to 1961.
Early military career
Buhari joined the Nigerian Army by enrolling at
age 19 with the Nigerian Military Training College
(NMTC) in 1961. In February 1964, the college
was upgraded to an officer commissioning unit of
the Nigerian Army and renamed the Nigerian Defence
Academy (NDA) (prior to 1964, the Nigerian
government sent cadets who had completed
their NMTC preliminary training to mostly Commonwealth
military academies for officer cadet
President Muhammadu Buhari
In February 2011 he vowed he would serve
for only once if he won that year’s election. He
told the media at that time that his decision
was based on his age.
“I am not getting younger. If I succeed and
do one term, I will be 73 years old,” he said.
At that time he said his main focus would
be security and infrastructure- mainly power.
training). From 1962 to 1963, Buhari underwent
officer cadet training at Mons Officer Cadet School
in Aldershot in England.
In January 1963, at age 21, Buhari was commissioned
a second lieutenant and appointed Platoon
Commander of the Second Infantry Battalion
in Abeokuta, Nigeria. From November 1963 to
January 1964, Buhari attended the Platoon Commanders’
Course at the Nigerian Military Training
College, Kaduna. In 1964, he facilitated his military
training by attending the Mechanical Transport Officer’s
Course at the Army Mechanical Transport
School in Borden, United Kingdom.
From 1965 to 1967, Buhari served as commander
of the Second Infantry Battalion and appointed
brigade major, Second Sector, First Infantry
Division, April 1967 to July 1967.
Northern counter-coup of 28 July 1966
In July 1966 Lieutenant Muhammadu Buhari was
one of the participants in the “July Rematch” or
so called “Counter-Coup”, led by Lt-Col Murtala
Muhammed, that overthrew and assassinated Nigeria’s
first self-appointed military Head of State
General Aguiyi Ironsi, who had assumed leadership
of the Nigerian government after a failed coup
attempt on 15 January 1966, which overthrew
the elected parliamentary government of Nigeria
(also known as first republic). Other participants
in the coup on 28 July 1966 included 2nd Lieutenant
Sani Abacha, Lieutenant Ibrahim Babangida,
Major Theophilus Danjuma, Lieutenant Ibrahim
Bako among others. The coup was a reaction to
the January coup where a group of mostly Igbo officers
led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu
overthrew the democratically elected government
of Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. Many
Northern soldiers were aggrieved by the murder of
senior politicians, Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa
Balewa, northern regional premier, Ahmadu Bello,
and four senior officers from northern Nigeria:
Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari, Colonel Kur Mohammed,
Lt-Cols Abogo Largema and James Pam.
The counter-coup was very bloody leading to the
murder of mostly Igbo officers. Among the casualties
were the first military head of state General
Buhari and his controversial ambition
It is now seven years when the President
made the statement and at 75 and with failing
health he is still eager to continue with his job
for the next four years starting from May 29,
2019, despite the hue and cry attending his
declared ambition.
Twenty days after his inauguration, precisely
17 June 2015, Buhari told Nigerians
Aguiyi Ironsi and Lt Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, the
military governor of the Western Region.
Civil war
Buhari was assigned to the 1st Division under the
command of Lt. Col Mohammed Shuwa, the
division had temporarily moved from Kaduna to
Makurdi at the onset of the Nigerian Civil War.
The 1st division was divided into sectors and then
battalions with Shuwa assisted by sector commanders
Martin Adamu and Sule Apollo who was
later replaced by Theophilus Danjuma. Buhari’s
initial assignment was Adjutant at Company Commander
2 battalion unit, Second Sector Infantry
of the 1st Division. The 2 battalion was one of the
units that participated in the first actions of the war,
they started from Gakem near Afikpo and moved
towards Ogoja with support from Gado Nasko’s
artillery squad.
They reached and captured Ogoja within a
week with the intention of advancing through the
flanks to Enugu, the rebel capital. Buhari was briefly
the 2 battalion’s Commander and led the battalion
to Afikpo to link with the 3rd Marine Commando
and advance towards Enugu through Nkalagu and
Abakaliki. However, before the move to Enugu, he
was posted to Nsukka as Brigade Major of the 3rd
Infantry Brigade under Joshua Gin who would later
become battle fatigued and replaced by Isa Bukar.
Buhari stayed with the infantry for a few months
as the Nigerian army began to adjust tactics learnt
from early battle experiences. Instead of swift
advances, the new tactics involved securing and
holding on to the lines of communications and
using captured towns as training ground to train
new recruits brought in from the army depots in
Abeokuta and Zaria. In 1968, he was posted to
the 4 Sector also called the Awka sector which
was charged to take over the capture of Onitsha
from Division 2. The sector’s operations was
within the Awka-Abagana-Onitsha region which
was important to Biafran forces because it was a
major source of food supply. It was in the sector that
Buhari’s group suffered a lot of casualties trying to
protect food supplies route of the rebels along Oji
River and Abagana.
in South Africa, after taking part in the 25th
Assembly of Heads of State and Government
of the African Union in Johannesburg, that his
performance would be limited by old age.
“I wish I became Head of State when I was
a governor, just a few years as a young man.
Now at 72, there is a limit to what I can do,”
he said.
Now, he is 75 and knowing his performance
is below par as a result of age, he decided to
declare for another four years when he would
more or less be a liability to the country. Critics
believe that Buhari has been the costliest
president. The country has continued to bear
huge expenses of his treatment.
“If you ask me, I don’t think the decision to
go for a second term is his idea. I think there
are people pushing him but my quarrel with
him is that he should be principled enough to
say No. Where then is the vaunted integrity, a
dummy that was sold to Nigerians in 2015?”
a pundit said.
Following his declaration, the Presidency,
knowing that the integrity of Buhari may be
at risk, came up with a defence that his “one
term” stand in 2011 no long applied.
Buhari administration has been a huge burden
on Nigerians. Since he came to power, the
economy has been at its worst. This is manifested
in the massive job losses across the
country, companies closing shop, businesses
struggling to survive and general poverty in
the land to the extent that many families today
have no means of their daily bread.
But these were the same reasons Buhari
said he wanted to come to contest the Presidency
in 2011 to address- to prevent a situation
where people cannot afford three square
meals a day.
Why declaration evokes anger
Since he declared his ambition, variegated reactions
have continued to trail it. While many
of his party men and women say the President
was the best candidate for the broom party
and should be returned to complete his “good
work”, a host of other Nigerians believe the
President does not merit a day in the saddle
after May 29, 2019.
Critics argue that President Buhari deserves
no re-election for another harrowing
four years. They point to the worsening security
situation in the country, harsh economic
policies, wanton killings across the country
by herdsmen, the refusal of the administration
to stem the tide of the needless massacres,
seemingly deliberate policy to put some sections
of the country down to the advantage of
others; the hate utterances from government
and by government and the fear that another
four years would be akin to hell in Nigeria.
The thinking is that President Buhari would
be more brutal in the next tenure than he is
now since he knows there is nothing any more
at stake for him. Some critics foresee a situation
where the herdsmen issue would assume
a more dreadful dimension and the machinery
of government completely hijacked by the
President’s men without any regard whatsoever
for any other Nigerian.
These fears are not unfounded going by
the awful experience of Nigerians in the last
3 years.
The thinking is: if a government that came
to power on the crest of Change mantra
could be so brutal in its first term, it could
run Nigerians down into the abyss if it wins a
second term.
Segun Anjorin, a Systems analyst, said:
“For me, there is no basis to return Buhari to
power. If you are talking about corruption,
it is also widespread in the current administration.
How can a failed government
be returned to power? Going by what has
been seen now, if Buhari returns it will be
hellish and I think this is why his declaration
is generating serious negative responses.
I think, for Nigerians, it should be a case of
once bitten, twice shy”