Published On: Thursday, Dec 18th, 2014

[OPINION]:  Jonathan vs Buhari: Nigerians have a clear choice

“Let him that would move the world, first move himself” Socrates At long last, Gen. Muham­madu Buhari has won his party’s presidential ticket for the 2015 election. Of course, the news did not come as a surprise to ardent observers of the Ni­gerian scene, especially those who have intimately followed the berthing and internal politics of the All Progressives Congress (APC). What surprised many, anyway, was the dismal performance of the former Vice President, Atiku Abuba­kar, who was widely touted to be not only in a position to upset the apple cart, but also defeat Buhari with the help of his stupendous war chest. Atiku came a distant third, polling fewer votes than the Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwa­so, who placed second with 974 votes.


With the emergence of Buhari, the stage is now set for for the 2015 epic contest as the PDP has already welcomed the APC’s standard bearer, saying he posed no real threat to President Goodluck Jonathan.

While we congratulate Buhari and wel­come him to the turf, he should be made to understand that he is now a leader of a shadow government and therefore should not expect the media to continue to treat him with the same kid gloves he has been enjoying all this while as a yet-to-be con­firmed presidential flag bearer.

Therefore, in the next couple of weeks, not only will his past performances in public posts be brought to critical scrutiny and question, even his personal life and profile will come under critical searchlight.

Again, since the APC claims to be a government in waiting, Buhari should expect no less a treatment as we have meted out to Jonathan and the ruling party. In fact, Buhari ought to expect more critical focus because having so whetted our appetite, the expecta­tions from any APC government are very, very high; more so when Buhari has just re­newed his promise of revolutionary change in the country should he win the 2015 elec­tion. Or, how else do we explain his accep­tance speech tinged as it was with a radical pledge to “to rescue the country from bad government” and finally “end this demean­ing chapter in our nation’s history whereby the lives of the poor are bled dry while those of the wealthy soak in abundance.”

Compared with Jonathan’s humble and unpretentious promise of embarking on the second phase of his transformation agenda, it would appear that Buhari is not remorseful.

Make no mistake about it, Buhari as a bona fide citizen of Nigeria has a right to aspire to any political office in the country, but the rest of us have a right, too, to raise questions about his qualifications. It is said that some of the qualities that stand him out among his peers include his “iron discipline,” his hon­esty and his principled attitude to life. And only last week, he exhibited this by promis­ing to “govern Nigeria with honesty,”
What is Buhari’s definition of discipline given his slapdash and selective attitude to the concept? Besides the outstanding issues about the grievous crating of Umaru Diko by agents of his military government, there is also the mysterious issue of 53 suitcases, to mention but only two such acts that still cry for clarification by Buhari because it is trite in law that time does no diminish crime.

Martin Luther King Jr, taught the world that the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy. We are made to be­lieve that Buhari is a man of iron discipline who actually championed the cause of “national re­birth” by propagating and promoting “nation­alism, patriotism and orderly social behavior through a war against indiscipline and other negative tendencies.

If this is the case, how come in politics today, and aspiring to the highest office in the land, the same man did not only condone or acqui­esce to, but is ultimately reaping from acts exhibited by defecting elements and carpetbag­gers whose methods, demeanors and utterances clearly were at variance with the very ethical values he is said to stand for? In sum, why did Buhari’s moral fibre and sense of discipline fail him at a moment when the country needed it most? Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters, said Albert Einstein, cannot be trusted with the truth in important matters. If Buhari could not condemn the gross political indiscipline and rascality displayed by Aminu Tambuwal and and others like him, can he be trusted to truthfully, honestly and impartially preside over the affairs of this country?

However, all this seems to pale into insig­nificance in the face of a major fear concern­ing the prospect of revolution. We must be careful to avoid military dictatorship.

 Jerry Rawlings spent 19 years in Ghana, Mugabe is in his 36th year in Zimbabwe, Mubarak spent 32 years in Egypt, Mobutu spent 35 in Zaire, Eyadema 38 in Togo and Kerekou 29 in Benin. If these cases in point are anything to go by, will a President Buhari be willing to vacate office in 2023 for a candidate of southeast origin to take over? Besides, being a dyed-in-the-wool champion of the ethnic cause of the Fulani not only in Nigeria but across West Africa, Buhari as Chairman of the Petro­leum Trust Fund reportedly spent about 80% of his annual vote on projects sited in the North with more than half of the 80% going to his Northwest zone. Compare this with Jonathan’s project allocation policy on agriculture generally, for instance, and Irri­gation in particular. Out of 19 such projects embarked upon by the administration under the auspice of the SURE-P with a total ex­pected output of 422,000 tons per annum, 11 are sited in the North, with a total output of 288 while only 8 with a total output of 134 are sited in the South. Out of 17 hydro power projects only 4 are located in the South. The other 13 are in the North. And out of 22 ru­ral/urban water projects, only 8 are sited in the South. The other 14 are in the North.

Given this kind of policy, why should the North be afraid of development when a southerner is in power? Jonathan has clearly demonstrated that he has a pan-Nigerian dis­position.

.Nzeakah, former editor of Sunday Punch, writes from Lagos.

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