General Mohamadu Buhari- Fourth Time Lucky

Forewards
Normally I don't write politics on these pages, but I cannot excise politics from my thoughts at this time, so please bear with me.
This reflection was written as an editorial for a news magazine that I publish in Rivers State called The PH Microscope. It will appear on the next edition that will hit the stands on Wednesday 8th April 2015. You can read an ecopy on www.ph-microscope.com
Meanwhile, Enjoy this.....


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March 28, 2015: 6:00am. General Muhamadu Buhari would have woken up this morning with a familiar feeling. Will this election go the same way the others have gone? Since 2003, General Buhari has been a constant fixture on our political landscape contesting and consistently losing the elections in 2003, 2007 and 2011. An indefatigable fighter, he had doggedly re-contested for the president’s seat each time he lost. He has come to be known as our own generation’s Abraham Lincoln.

On that fateful morning, the General would have woken up, unsure of what Nigerians will do at the polls, regardless of the almost overpowering reassurances that he and his party must have received during their endless campaign treks all over the country. The APC started the campaign with a bit of a lead over the PDP in most of the states of the federation. At that time, PDP was not bothered much and their hierarchy must have thought this was a familiar terrain. If it is the same Buhari, then he is beatable again. But as the campaign gained momentum, it was becoming obvious to the ruling party that this election will not be like others. This was not going to be the same bandwagon voting that overwhelms the opponent. PDP began to take the campaign seriously from that point.

The elections of March 28 will go down in history as the most contested elections in the history of this nation. It was also the most publicized, thanks to our numerous social media platforms. It will almost certainly be the one election that got the frontline candidates canvassing for votes as though their lives depended on it, and it does in way; their political lives and those of their followers depended on them wining at the polls.

Fourteen political parties presented candidates for the elections, but I think the other 12 outside of PDP and APC mostly wasted everybody’s time crowding the ballot papers. I believe that all of them would have come together to form an opposition bloc, but then again this is a democracy and expectedly their ideologies may not be the same.

Ideology! Who really talks about ideology when it comes to Nigerian politics and Nigerian political parties? There is nothing so called. People simply gather together for pecuniary reasons, form a political party and decide to make a grab for power. Ask the key people in the different parties to reel out their manifestoes, they will become uncertain of what is contained in there.

The elections came and went, but it has produced a winner. General Mohamadu Buhari has become the President Elect after the fourth trial, call it fourth time lucky. We have to salute his doggedness, his focus and determination to keep going after every defeat.

A cursory look at the election results and the voting pattern makes one thing clear; whoever wants to lead this nation must be a bridge builder and must be willing to build effective coalitions. From his first outing where he only held sway in the core north west states, this election has seen the General built such an effective coalition that have now seen him winning all the north west and north east but for one state (Taraba), and winning all the north central states but two (Nassarawa and Plateau). He also for the first time won Niger, Benue, Kwara and Kogi states, traditional stronghold of the PDP.

He didn’t do well in the southern states as expected, but even if he was expected to lose to the president in those places, it is rather shameful that all the noises from the APC chieftains in those place could only produce such paltry numbers, both in the south-south and south-east. Those places voted overwhelmingly for PDP. It may be argued that the votes were along religious and ethnic lines, and after all, the President also didn’t do as well in the core north states. Others may also argue that voting was based on the personalities of the gladiators in these states, but the fact remain as clearly shown in the map, that Nigeria voted along tribal lines during the last elections. The southwest and north central are arguably the only regions that voted perhaps based on conviction, but not along any ethnic, religious or personality bias.

President Jonathan made a good showing in a lot of states, particularly the south west. Lagos was particularly close, and it showed that he was not such a lousy candidate as some may want to think.

Let’s leave the fact that he is now the President-Elect, but I don’t think that General Buhari is the real winner of this election, the same way I don’t think that President Jonathan is the loser. Let’s take it one by one. For the real winner, I think this is definitely Nigeria, Nigerians and Nigerian politics.

Nigeria is a winner because this was not the script for the outcome of the election. The whole world expected violence, and even prepared for it. Medicine San Frontiers (MSF), popularly known as Doctors without Borders came to set up a trauma center in Port Harcourt because they expected so many people to come in for treatment from the much expected post-election violence. That did not happen.

The US had always predicted an end to the Nigerian nation in 2015, and the elections were widely thought to be the catalyst that will spark this annihilation. I believe that even the simple minded will be able to confidently say that we will still be a country post May 29. We have survived what would have been the greatest scare of our lives. Thousands ran away from Nigeria. I don’t blame them, they don’t want to be caught in the web of obscene violence. The expats ran away; the investors held their funds; employers delayed recruitment processes; businesses dithered; the super-rich went to their holiday homes in Europe, US and Dubai. Those who could not run out of the country ran to their villages. None wanted to be at the center of things. Prophecies were rolled out, herbalists were consulted, and imams spent hours on the mat, but none of what we thought would happen eventually did. So I think Nigeria came out the better from this election, so it’s a winner.

Nigerians are also joint winners with Nigeria. Now, everybody in Nigeria knows that their votes are powerful, and there can be no doubt that now that the people know that if an administration does not deliver, they will be on their way out. There will no longer be any tolerance for mediocrity. Nigerians have woken up, and I pity this incoming administration if they failed to live up to the expectations of Nigerians who have voted them in with this majority in the next 4 years if they think it is still business as usual. From now on, I can say that democracy will now properly take root in our Nigeria.

Nigerian Politics will also share in this victory. Even though the elections were still marred with irregularities, it was clear that the introduction of dual technologies including the PVC and the card reader made a lot of difference this time around. Suddenly, hoarding voters’ card does not confer any advantages anymore. The rigging methods of the olden days have now become near obsolete. The old order has change and Nigeria is on the go!

Secondly, with the almost immediate conceding of defeat by the president, it will really be difficult in future to haver leaders who will continue to be recalcitrant in the face of obvious defeat. President Jonathan has done something that no other politician will imagine he will do… in Nigeria. I know it is the normal thing to do, to accept your loss and congratulate the winner, but hey, this is Nigeria! The most normal thing elsewhere in the world, becomes abnormal in Nigeria. Ordinarily the act of calling the winner of the election by the looser is so common place that no one baits any eye lid in the Western world when such happens, but in Nigeria, it should almost qualify the president for a Nobel Prize for peace, and if it does, I hope he gets it.

I commend President Goodluck Jonathan for this action, and I think that it makes me want to think to forgive everything that I have considered that he didn’t do well as president in the past 6 years.

It may look trivial to a lot of people, but I believe that God answered the prayers of his saint this time. I think that we all should be aware that the writers of the script of Nigerian destruction missed it at this point. President Jonathan perhaps for the first time said no to his advisers and followed his heart. If he perhaps have said no to them on so many issues from the start of his presidency, maybe he would not have need to make that call to General in the first place. Obviously he is surrounded by people who had less than noble intentions for this country as the President probably has. Of course, one of them almost caused mayhem on the floor of the coalition center when he started delivering messages that he was not sent. These were the kinds of people that shrouded the President from knowing what was going on and how people were perceiving his presidency.

So of course the, losers of course are the political jobbers, whose job is to be parasitically linked to the government in a way that gives them maximum opportunity to milk this country dry. They are the ones who are desperate that the status quo must continue. They are the ones who would stop at nothing to keep the government in power. They are the ones who will not mind that this country breaks apart as long as they are still in power. They are the losers of this election. They will continue to be losers, because for a lot of them, the evening sun is setting over their political careers. The losers are also those within the international community that expected to profit from the destabilization of this country. In Yoruba language, they say, “Olorun O jo yin”, meaning, “God does not look like them!” And surely God does not resemble the enemies of this country. And as Nigeria and Nigerians finally begins to wake up, surely God will continue to frustrate every evil intention they may have for this country. Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.