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Having won the ruling party’s ticket to contest for a second term, President Muhammadu Buhari does not only have 32 other candidates to contest against, he is also faced with some issues that may work against his re-election
By Olu Ojewale
The coast is now clear for President Muhammadu Buhari to contest for a second term in office. Buhari formally got the mandate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in the party convention held on Saturday, October 6. By the mandate, Buhari will have to contest against 32 other presidential candidates of various parties who also received their mandate the same day. In any case, contesting against such a big number of candidates is one of the major issues facing the president. Those who may not wish to vote for his main opponents may decide to vote for others even when they know that their choice candidates may not win election.
Interestingly, there are two women in the same presidential race. They are Oby Ezekwesili, a former minister of Education, who is running on the platform of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, ACPN, and Eunise Atuejide, candidate of the National Interest Party, NIP. The two women don’t seem to pose any problems for the president in the contest.
But former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is arguably, the foremost opponent of the president in the 2019 election. So far, the two candidates stand tall shoulder-to-to shoulder towering above others in the race for the Aso Rock Presidential Villa. Both Buhari and Abubakar are seen as the most prominent among those who want the job, even though all others are eminently qualified, considering their credentials and leadership qualities in their respective chosen fields. But they don’t seem to match the political machineries of Buhari and Abubakar.
So for the president to be re-elected back into office, he has to beat Abubakar in the ongoing political campaign by demonstrating that he has a better plan for Nigerians and Nigeria. He has to be able to persuade Nigerians that he is better than Abubakar, an experienced politician who has been in the presidential race as many times as the president himself. So, the presidential election slated for 2019 is not going to be walk in the park for President Buhari because from all indications, the former vice president appears to have all it takes to beat the president if care is not taken.
Even if the election campaign is devoid of personality and based on issues, the president is unlikely to have it easy. One of the germane issues that may block his chances of getting votes is on restructuring of the country. The clamour for restructuring of the country has dominated the polity in the past two years and thereabouts because of incidents bordering on ethnicity, resource control, state police, socio-political intolerance, among others. It is not fizzling away as some politicians, especially from the ruling APC, may wish it. In fact, it appears to be gaining a new currency.
On Sunday, October 7, shortly after Abubakar emerged as the presidential candidate of the PDP, the issue of restructuring was given a new impetus. Reacting to the former VP’s victory, the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, SMBLF, in a statement on the day, by Yinka Odumakin for South-West; Bassey Henshaw, South-South; Chigozie Ogbu, South-East; and Isuwa Dogo, Middle Belt, reminded Abubakar about his commitment to the restructuring of the country. The forum in its congratulatory message to Abubakar said pointedly: “It is never too early to remind the presidential candidate of the clear commitment to the fundamental issue of restructuring he has made overtime and which the former chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the Party, Senator (Ahmed) Makarfi confirmed as the party agenda.
“It is clear today that no amount of good governance can get Nigeria out of the woods without a proper structure that can restore Nigeria to productivity under federalism.”
The Afenifere, a Yoruba cultural group, categorically said that it would support any presidential candidate committed to restructuring of Nigeria. Odumakin disclosed this after Afenifere leaders held a closed-door meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo at his Olusegun Obasanjo Library, OPL, in Abeokuta, Ogun State. Odumakin said: “The 2019 election is going to be interesting, the most important thing for us is restructuring and clearly, you should know that Afenifere will always support a candidate that is ready to restructure the country because without restructuring we are going nowhere. We are going to make a pronouncement very soon. The pendulum is swinging and we know where it will swing.”
Indeed, in the past three and half years there have been unprecedented separatist agitations for the Republic of Biafra, Niger Delta Republic and Oduduwa Republic. But it was the agitation for the Republic of Biafra led by the now proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, which got the full wrath of the government anger. The government designated the group as a terrorist organisation and proscribed it from existence in September 2107. Leaders and members of the group are now persona non granta.
In the course of the crisis between government and the IPOB, the Arewa Youths Coalition issued a notice to Ndigbo to leave the North by October 1, 2017, which again brought about political tension across the country. Mercifully, the tension did not blow over.
Nevertheless, that cannot be said of the menace of Fulani herdsmen rampaging the whole country, killing and maiming innocent people including priests and destroying farms and property. The herdsmen attacks on innocent Nigerians have divided the country somehow. A lot of Nigerians, especially from the South have raised alarms that Buhari is tactically supporting the herdsmen. No explanation seems to have convinced many Nigerians, especially from those of the affected areas to believe that the Buhari government cares about them. This also is another strong point for proponents of restructuring.
But the president appears not to be interested. Actually, the position of the Presidency on the matter was made manifest in Buhari statement on Monday, June 18, 2018, when he told a delegation of Urhobo Traditional Rulers and Urhobo Progress Union, who visited him in Abuja, that the calls for the restructuring of the country was parochial and laced with self-interests, hence discussions and arguments on the matter failed to capture his attention.
President Buhari and his supporters would need a lot of work to persuade other geographical areas apart from the North that restructuring is the last thing the country needs.
The president is equally seen as a bigot in federal appointments. His appointees are strategically in favour of the North. Of the altogether 31 such appointments, 24 or nearly 80 percent, go to Muslims from the North, seven to the South, distributed four to the South-West, three to the South-South and nil to the South-East.
The strategic nature of the 24 appointments, include secretary to the government of the federation, SGF; national security adviser, NSA; chief of staff to the president; attorney-general of the Federation, AGF; chairman, Independent Nation Electoral Commission, INEC; managing director, Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA; group managing director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC; inspector-general of Nigeria Police Force; director, Department of State Security, DSS and most of the top offices in the department; chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC; among others.
The Northernisation agenda has also been given impetus through appointments to 15 top offices in the NNPC. The North has 10, South West has three while two places went to the South West, and nil again to the South-East.
“The Islamisation/Northernisation agenda, as it is faithfully being implemented by the Buhari Federal Government, shows the government to be for one section of the country, the North, to be precise. It is not the all-inclusive government that Nigerians desire.
“These appointments, the concentration of 80 percent of them in the North and the total exclusion of the South-East from them, is an affront to justice, social justice and equality in the administration of government,” Ben Nwabueze, SAN and an elder statesman, once said in a newspaper interview.
Besides, the professor of Law, noted: “President Buhari owes it to the Nigerian people to admit that the divisions tearing the country apart are caused by his actions and utterances; he should now begin the process of self-correction which involves the making of amends for his misguided past actions and utterances.
“His actions and utterances under reference manifest a pre-determined Islamisation/Northernisation Agenda with the war against corruption serving as a cover.
“The existence of such agenda is not something conjured up just to discredit him; on the contrary, it is an irrefutable fact.”
Nwabueze is not the only the elder statesman that has an axe to grand with the president over some of his policies. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had late last year, publicly advised the president not to seek for a second term in office. He accused Buhari of incompetence, clannishness, and failure to deliver on his electoral promises.
On a number of occasions, Obasanjo had criticised Buhari’s handling of the economy. In January this year, he wrote to Buhari, scoring the president’s performance low and again, advising him not to seek re-election. To show his seriousness to wrestle power from the president, Obasanjo subsequently formed Coalition for Nigeria Movement, CNM, which collapsed into the African Democratic Congress, ADC, a political party in May.
The same former president has come out to tactically tell Nigerians how to cast their votes next year. He said Nigeria requires a president with a sound knowledge of the economy to make headway. This, he said, was what the late Helmut Schmidt, a former German Chancellor, who was one of his international friends, told him during a discussion about African countries. He argued that there was no way that a president with poor knowledge of the economy could meet the needs of the citizens, adding that even Jesus Christ understood economy.
Obasanjo spoke in Lagos at this year’s edition of the Foursquare Gospel Church annual public lecture, which held at the church’s national headquarters in Yaba, on Tuesday, October 9. He chaired the lecture with the theme, “The Trying Triangle of Economy, Faith and Politics – Looking through the Eye of the Needle,” which was delivered by Mathew Kukah, the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto.
He said: “There is no doubt at all that if we have to get it right, the three (economy, faith and politics) must go together… As a fact from Bishop Kukah, even Jesus Christ understands economy and if you have a leader who does not understand economics, then you cannot have a leader that will satisfy the need of the people, the physical and the material needs of the people.”
That, perhaps, prompted Obasanjo on Thursday, October 11, to endorse Abubakar. After holding a closed-door meeting with his former deputy, Obasanjo said among others: “For me, relatively, of all the aspirants in the PDP, you have the widest and greatest exposure, experience, outreach and possibly the best machinery and preparation for seeing the tough and likely dirty campaign ahead through. From what I personally know of you, you have capacity to perform better than the incumbent. You surely understand the economy better; you have business experience, which can make your administration business-friendly and boost the economy and provide jobs.”
In fact, the bad economy, which is greatly felt across the country, has been one of the Buhari administration’s undoing. This has been so much that there seems to be a feeling of nostalgia among Nigerians that during the Goodluck Jonathan government from who he took over, the exchange rate was between N170 to N190 to a dollar. Now the Naira is now exchanged for N360.
The result is that many states in the nation are struggling to pay salaries to workers. Many owe workers months of payments and hunger has continued to afflict government workers who rely entirely on government salaries for their livelihood. Local government workers in many states are owed more than seven months’ salaries by their local government administrations. But this was not so in the days of Jonathan when the perceived corruption held sway.
Irked by the economic effects of the Buhari administration, Tunde Bakare, senior pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly, early this year, launched an attack on the Buhari-led federal government. In Ogba area of Lagos State, the pastor said despite government’s promises on security, job creation and anti-corruption fight, the reversed has been the case. He charged: “This administration anchored its policy outlook on three main thrusts, including security, job creation through diversification, and anti-corruption, yet all around us are signs of retrogression.
“As at June 2015, the unemployment rate was 8.2% of a labour force of 74 million, meaning that about six million Nigerians were unemployed. By September 2017, despite such efforts as N-Power and a range of policies aimed at improving enterprise development and facilitating job creation, the unemployment rate had risen to 18.8% of a labour force of 85.1 million, indicating that between 2015 and 2017, the number of unemployed Nigerians rose from about six million to almost 16 million.”
Apart from the economy, the president’s war on corruption, no matter how noble it may sound, is still regarded as being lopsided. Indeed, since he took over power, many politicians and government officials have been arrested over alleged corruption. But sadly not many so-called high profile cases have received a conviction.
That was not the impression he gave when he assumed office in 2015. Then he said: “Corruption is a hydra-headed monster and a cankerworm that undermines the fabric of all societies. It does not differentiate between developed and developing countries. It constitutes a serious threat to good governance, rule of law, peace and security, as well as development programmes aimed at tackling poverty and economic backwardness.” Hence, he said it must be fought on all fronts.
Hence, among those who have been prosecuted for corruption are Sambo Dasuki, a retired colonel and former national security adviser, who is on trial for squandering $2.5 billion meant for the purchase of arms for the Nigerian Army to prosecute the war against Boko Haram insurgents in the North East of the country.
From the trial of Dasuki, others suspects emerged. Alex Badeh, the former chief of Defence Staff, is facing trial over alleged $930 million contracts he allegedly awarded while in office. Under Badeh’s leadership, Boko Haram dealt a severe blow to the Nigerian armed forces, partly due to the superior firepower the terrorists possessed.
Others are Raymond Dokpesi, the chairman of Africa Independent Television, AIT, who is followed, accused of money laundering to the tune of N2.1 billion and breach of public procurement law and Olisah Metuh, the former publicity secretary of the PDP, was arraigned for allegedly collecting N400m from Dasuki’s office.
Alison Madueke, former minister of Petroleum Resources, who has been residing in the United Kingdom, has been accused of stealing and misappropriation of government money running into billions of United States dollars.
In recent time, the case of Abdulrasheed Maina, the former chairman of Pension Reform Task, took the nation by storm. Having been declared wanted by the EFCC, Maina, who was reported to have scampered out of the country was allegedly smuggled back into the civil service and even promoted to a higher grade.
Maina is again on the run but with active suspected connivance of some government officials, thereby calling into question of the government seriousness to fight corruption.
As if that is not bad enough, Buhari singlehandedly reinstated Usman Yusuf, the suspended executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, on February 6. Since the news about Yusuf’s reinstatement surfaced, a lot of Nigerians have been asking what criteria the president used in recalling him back to his post having been indicted by a ministerial panel on allegations of corruption and abuse of office.
On Thursday, February 8, the workers’ union of the NHIS demonstrated showed their discontent by staging a peaceful protest against the reinstatement of Yusuf. They sang protest songs and argued that the reinstatement of the ES would thwart the investigation being carried out by EFCC on corrupt allegations against him.
But this did not bother Buhari. He insisted that Yusuf should return to office, while investigation by the EFCC on his alleged corruption should continue. Nobody has heard about the case ever since.
It is also on record that Buhari’s attitude to corrupt allegation against some of his lieutenants may also come haunt him in future and become a major stumbling block to his re-election. Indeed, a lot of Nigerians would recall how Nigerians have called for the prosecution of Rotimi Amaechi, the minister for transport; Babatunde Fashola, the minister of Works, Power and Housing; Abdulrahman Dambazzau, the minister of interior, and some others who are serving the Buhari’s government that were accused of corruption. But the president has not been forthcoming in ordering for investigation against them not talk about prosecution.
Little wonder Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP national publicity secretary, in an interview said the president’s fight against corruption is a ruse. “Presidency stinks of corruption and has lost all claim of fighting graft, as long as it continues to protect alleged indicted officials of the administration.”
Similarly, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, a human rights lawyer based in Lagos, in an interview, said the impression being created by the Buhari government in fighting corruption has left much to be desired. “The impression we get is that government is very soft on the members of the executive. If you recall the case of the past SGF, the allegation against the chief of Army Staff, the allegation against the chief of Staff, and when you recall the case of Maina, clearly, the impression has been created that the ruling government is soft on members of the executive, whereas the leadership of the Senate is facing trial, whereas judicial officers are facing trial. It all lends credence to the fact that the anti-corruption war is lopsided. It has different standards for different people, which should not have been the case,” Adegboruwa said.
Another policy of the Buhari administration which may haunt the president during the election is that of his desire to reduce the presidential fleet and float a national carrier. The president had said in February 2015 to a United Kingdom audience: “Let me give an instance, presently, there are more than six aircraft in the presidential fleet. What do you call that? Billions of naira is budgeted every year for the maintenance of these aircraft not to talk of operational cost and other expenses.
“We intend, for instance, to bring back our National carrier, the Nigerian Airways. We shall do this by bringing all the aircraft in the presidential fleet into the Nigerian airway and within a year increase the fleet into about 20.” But none of these has been done.
First, a Falcon 7X executive jet and Hawker 4000, the two presidential aircraft, that were advertised for sale in October 2016 are yet to be sold. Garba Shehu, the senior special assistant to the president on Media and Publicity, told Saturday Punch correspondent in an interview that the bid amounts agreed to be paid by the two preferred bidders for the two aircraft stood at $24m, which was the projected sales figures. He said, unfortunately, the winners of the bids, whose identities he did not disclose, reneged when they were asked to come and pay. He said they came up with a new figure of $11m for the two jets.
The national carrier on its part was suspended recently because its establishment was said to run contrary to the recommendation of the Economic Management Team headed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo. It was leant that the EMT recommendation was that the Nigerian government should not set up a national carrier with public funds.
Hadi Sirika, Aviation minister, announced the cancellation on Wednesday, September 19, shortly after the cabinet meeting. He later posted the announcement on his Twitter page, saying: “I regret to announce that the Federal Executive Council has taken the tough decision to suspend the National Carrier Project in the interim. All commitments due will be honoured. We thank the public for the support as always.” The minister gave no further explanation for the development.
No doubt, Buhari is not a popular person among the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, NIM. Since December 2015, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, their leader has been in detention and all efforts to get him out on bailed have been blocked by the Buhari administration. The Shiite leader and his wife are being kept in the custody of the Department of State Services, DSS, ever since despite court orders for their release.
El-Zakzaky and his wife were arrested following a clampdown on Shiite supporters who blocked Tukur Buratai, a lieutenant-general and chief of Army Staff, from using a public road. More than 340 members of the Shiite group were killed by the soldiers in attacks condemned by local and international rights groups. One soldier was also killed.
While no soldier is being prosecuted for the mass killings of the Shiites, the Kaduna government is prosecuting the religion leader for the death of the soldier.
Indeed, from all indications, Buhari has a lot of hurdles to scale to regain the confidence of Nigerians to vote for him as Nigerians enter into elections next year. There is no doubt, all the issues will come into play.
For instance, Chidiebere Oti, a businessman, believes that the APC-led government has brought more pains to Nigerians and should not be re-elected. He told Realnews: “Buhari government came with the slogan that he would defeat Boko Haram and more than three years you are saying in your speech that you have degraded the same people you came to defeat. It means that you have technically taken out defeat to use degraded.” Oti said said despite Buhari’s promises of equity and justice, the president had done contrary. “APC is a government that cannot obey the rule of law, a government that cannot protect the masses and a government full of anti-people orientation.”
Bakare, on his part, said though the government had been trying its best, it needs for them to do much more to win the next election. He said the country was facing a lot of challenges which the government needed to offer solutions to, in order to fast track pace of development. “What I have always said is that despite the acclaimed progress in the country, Nigerians are not feeling the impact in their homes. That does not mean the government is not working. Look at the groaning of the people, the government still has to do a lot more before the 2019 elections. They have to work harder to assure Nigerians that they are really up to the task of listening to their yearnings and aspirations.
“The purpose of government is the welfare and security of the people. Take that from the equation, then governance means nothing,” he said.
Bakare urged citizens to vote according to their conscience and elect leaders that mean well for the country.
Similarly, Olawale Olaleye, a political commentator, said to Realnews: “My hypothesis is that now that the two gladiators (Buhari and Abubakar), either by accident or design, are the options open to us in 2019, I, for one, have a good idea about the capacity of both men from a close range, having had the privilege of a one-on-one encounter with both of them, albeit at different times and in the lead up to the 2015 elections.
“Honestly, there was no debating the difference between Buhari and Atiku, speaking the gospel truth. Whilst Atiku was clear about what the challenges were, the likely solutions and how to apply them, Buhari though boasted a huge sense of humour, he “mumbled” through a majority of his answers. In fact, the key issues!
“Even in the area of security and the fight against corruption that were generally considered his strength since the economy was arguably not his thing, Buhari didn’t seem to have clear cut solutions or modus operandi. He relied chiefly on the perception around him or what his people would gladly call the “body language” wonder. Nothing more!”
Olaleye said that more than three years down the line, it had become obvious that Buhari had no clear-cut agenda for his administration. “Today, three and a half years after, it is evident the incumbent had been overrated. For a man, who had managed no known business of his since leaving power in the mid 80s, to say the least, developed and prepared himself for this onerous task, Buhari has proven that sentiment in the choice of leadership is a disaster-in-waiting any day, any time.
“To that extent, his victory in 2015 can easily pass as an error of choice, which is pardonable if seen in that context. But to repeat such an error in 2019 means the stupid one here are the electorate, who do not have a clear cut idea what vision they seek for Nigeria.”
That notwithstanding, in a swift reaction to Obasanjo’s endorsement of Abubakar for president, the Presidency described it as a gang up that won’t stand.
On his Twitter handle, Femi Adesina, the president spokesman, tweeted: “The harder they come, the harder they fall. 2019 presidential election on my mind.”
In a same vein, Garba Shehu, the senior special assistant, Media and Publicity, to the president, said Obasanjo and Abubakar would lose together in next year’s election.
On his part, MM Nguru, the chief executive of Arabic Village, in an article, ‘Why Buhari should be re-elected,’ published by the Daily Trust, October 6, made a case for the re-election of the president. He said: “Nigerians, if we want this country to be repositioned, we want our economy to come out from recession and entanglement, we want our foreign reserve to grow day after day so that our Naira will appreciate, we want to be self reliant and sufficient agriculturally to produce enough food to feed ourselves so that we should not depend on India, Thailand or Cameroun, if we want our country to be respected internationally so that we can answer our names-the giant and leader of Africa, we must revote PMB. Going by his achievements so far, Buhari has done to Nigeria what they did not do in the last 16 years before his advent. This assertion is axiom and postulate, needs no proof. Buhari is the first Nigerian leader who was acclaimed by African Heads of State. He is the first Nigerian president who was applauded by the American president for his fight against corruption.
That notwithstanding, Nigerians are the ultimate judge and based on their conviction would be presented with the choice of picking from 32 men and two women. May the best candidate win!
– Oct. 12, 2018 @ 16:15 GMT |
Tags: 2019 Elections: Hurdles before President Buhari
