Again, Buhari Got It Wrong

22 Feb 2016

Muhammadu Buhari

Perspective

President Muhammadu Buhari’s penchant for riding roughshod over the rights and liberties of citizens will ultimately undo his administration, writes Bola Bolawole

I have lost count of how many times President Muhammadu Buhari has got it all wrong and terribly mixed up on sensitive national issues since he came to power on May 29, 2015. I will mention a few instances, especially on his core election promises of security, anti-corruption, and the economy.

The president has in addition to intensifying the war against Boko Haram, also insisted he would negotiate if he found authentic insurgency leaders and are ready for negotiations. This, I think, is the “carrot-and-stick” counselled by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, which led to a shouting match between him and his estranged godson and immediate past president, Goodluck Jonathan.

But why Buhari fails to understand that it is in his best interest as well as that of the nation to apply the same approach to the burgeoning Biafra resurgence and coming back of Niger Delta militancy surprises me. The authorities are relying only on the stick to whip Biafra agitators and the neo-militants of the Niger Delta into line. In an interview, Buhari described as “irritating” the renewed agitation for Biafra after the country had fought a grueling civil war (1967-1970), which claimed two million lives.

As far as the president and those of his mindset are concerned, Biafra is a settled issue while the sanctity of Nigeria’s unity is beyond any debate. No group or person within the polity may question the indivisibility of the country. Like they are wont to say, the unity of Nigeria is not debatable. This, I dare to say, is wrong! It is a mindset that hurts, rather than helps, the matter.

The president’s choice of words in describing his feelings – “irritation” – is emotive and speaks from the heart. It escapes from his innermost recesses and such cannot allow for a dispassionate and objective interrogation of the issues involved. I dare to say that the problem will, this way, not be nipped in the bud but will be allowed to fester until it becomes, like Boko Haram, another Frankenstein monster that will, in future,  get us running from pillar to post.

Everywhere, the national question is not satisfactorily settled by fiat as the president wishes to do here. The United Kingdom recently settled the Scotland issue through a referendum. Where force has been the preferred option, solution has been elusive. It is my considered opinion that political solution is to be preferred to tough talks and strong-arm tactics which will exacerbate rather than resolve the issues. The sanctity of Nigeria’s unity cannot be shoved down everyone’s throat. This is akin to the case of someone, who seeks to perpetually hold down a recalcitrant fellow.

On the war against corruption, the president, at his first media chat, was equally irritated – even offended or wounded – that some people asked that graft be fought under the ambience of due process and the rule of law. How dare anyone ask for bail for those accused of looting the nation’s treasury? As far as the president is concerned, such Nigerians have no rights that deserved to be respected by the state. He got it all wrong! A citizen is a citizen for life, regardless of whatever “sins”.

A citizen has the rights as prescribed by the laws governing a particular polity and such rights as protected by law supersede the duties, obligations, and rights of government.  Government, in the exercise of its duties, may not abridge, tamper or interfere with the rights and privileges of a citizen as preserved by law. The government has no choice in this matter.

It is bound by law to respect the legally-prescribed rights of the citizen. Where a citizen falls foul of the law and government moves to hold him accountable, the government in doing so must itself act strictly under the law otherwise we have a case of one criminal trying to subject another criminal to the law.

It is trite that you cannot give what you do not have and he who comes to equity must come with clean hands. In fighting corruption, which is laudable and which this writer supports, government must do so under the law. A lawless government is a danger to the entire society – the lawless and lawful equally.

Therefore, it is wrong to presume that government, just because it is fighting corruption, will ride roughshod over the rights and liberties of citizens. The fact that Nigerians are angry at the depth of corruption does not confer on government the right to be lawless. A legitimate government, which is what an elected government is supposed to be, must subscribe to legitimate means in character and conduct.

Again, the president got it all wrong on his response to those challenging his “Ajala travel” disposition since he came on board. Without exaggerating, he has travelled all over the world – Europe, America, Asia, Arab and Middle East, India, Africa (West, East, Central and South); some, more than once! And he is yet to clock one year in office! The question is not whether his trips had political and economic benefits but that no nation, in times past and now, achieved greatness by focusing their attention outside.

On the contrary, they locked themselves inside and galvanised themselves from within. Whether or not each of his foreign trips cost US$1m as alleged by Governor Ayodele Fayose is not the issue; although the president will do his own image a world of good if he opens the books for all to peruse. Buhari also got it all wrong when, in answer to a question, he said he had been seeing his doctors in London since 1978.

The issue, I dare to say, is: Why does the president not have confidence in his country’s medical facilities and personnel? Nigeria has some of the best medical personnel in the world, able to hold their own and performing excellently well in medical fields abroad. If the problem is facilities, how about the Aso Rock clinic that successive governments every year voted billions of Naira for?

In the 2016 budget under consideration, N4billion, more that the total for the country’s teaching hospitals put together, was voted for the presidential clinic. If the president will not use this hospital despite the humungous amount voted for it, why waste resources?

Leaders worldwide that we should emulate patronise their own goods, services, and facilities and express confidence in the abilities of their own people. But here, we neglect our own and waste scarce resources developing other places. When will CHANGE affect all the important facets of our national life?

-Bolawole wrote from Lagos