As the old saying goes, a prophet is not recognized in his home but often times, revered outside. As President Muhamadu Buhari is increasingly being loathed at home-if social media activities are anything to go by- he is now being courted abroad.
On Monday, May 9, he jetted off again to the United Kingdom for a conference on anti corruption- a subject he is very passionate about.
This is ironic because, president Buhari was first very well loved at home, which is the reason he was overwhelmingly elected president barely one year ago.
We shall come back to the reason he is now a darling of Western heads of govt and supra national institutions-when opposite was the case, some 32 years ago-when he was military head of state -but first, let’s take a cursory look at why he was so revered about a year ago at home.
General Buhari, as he was known a year ago, was a cult figure amongst the talakawas or the masses in his homestead, which is the core northern part of Nigeria, but arising from his draconian rule as military head of state -Dec 1983- August1985-Nigerians across tribal divides, started loving and disliking him in equal proportions. Hence he ran for the presidency thrice, 2003, 2007 and 2011 unsuccessfully.
But following a political re alignment that made him the candidate of a broad coalition of political parties, his candidacy was so popular that he had the appeal of 10 A-list Nollywood stars put together, and could pull crowds to his campaign rallies that only evangelical preachers like Reverend Bonkhe could attract to a religious crusade.
The reason for his magnetic appeal is because he was a symbol of integrity and epitome of probity contesting on a nationally spread political platform. Buhari brooked no nonsense and he never compromised his rigid principles.
At a time when mind boggling embezzlement of public funds like $49 allegedly un remitted oil proceeds by NNPC, ostensibly aided by politicians in the executive arm of govt and stealing of trillions of naira from civil servants pension funds by fellow civil servants-Abdulwalid Maina and John Yesufu-was pervasive, Nigerian voters were looking for a messiah.
More so, Boko Haram terrorists were decimating lives in the north eastern parts and rampaging through huge swathes of land and claiming Nigerian territories by hoisting their flags. While the frightened women saw a ‘knight in shining armour’ coming to save them, men envisioned ‘captain America’ coming to their rescue and the youth fantasised about ‘superman’ in his trademark red cape lifting them out of danger.
Comics aside, Nigerians actually totally embraced Buhari as evidenced by the over 15m votes cast in his favour nationwide, which was about 2.5m more than the roughly 12m cast in Favour of Goodluck Jonathan.
So, truly, it was the votes of the masses that swept Buhari into office as President on March 28th 2015.The sense of expectations of Nigerians from Buhari’s presidency was as huge as the wave of sentiments that swept him into office.
But soon after taking office, a dirty war ensued within the ruling party, APC, as the National Assembly, NASS commenced electing or selecting principal officers. Opposing camps emerged and the battle of supremacy raged with many Oxen being gored in the process of office contestation, leaving APC-the party that Buhari leads-badly bruised.
While the APC was writhing in pains, Buhari’s super human image was dented as he was expected to have managed the NASS situation more dexterously.
Then it took awfully long time-five months-to name a cabinet. Nigerians grew more impatient and that took a toll on Buhari’s image, too. Along with the long delay in setting up govt came anxiety of voters, in addition to fellow politicians, who started feeling frustrated that the reward of appointment of other political stake holders, into political offices like boards of parastatals etc, had became elusive.
As a result of the foregoing, the sense of joint ownership of the successful take-over of govt by the APC, with Buhari at the helm, also started evaporating rapidly.
Another critical Buhari appeal repellent is the fact that the Chibok girls abducted in April by Boko Haram terrorists about two years ago have remained in captivity.
Although the dastardly activities of the Boko Haram group have been greatly curtailed and most of the territories earlier captured are being recovered by gallant Nigerian army bolstered by sophisticated equipment, the danger faced by the victims and misery of the families left behind still leave bad taste in the mouth. That too has rubbed off badly on Buhari’s stellar image because getting rid of Boko Haram and bringing back the estimated 218 kidnapped Chibok school girls home were campaign promises, which voters took very seriously and they have remained unfulfilled.
To crown all the missteps or sins of Buhari listed above, 2016 national budget, which is a routine record of planned income and expenditure for a designated period has been bogged down in parliament since last December. Not only that, the document has also been dogged by accusations and counter accusations of ‘padding’ by the executive and the legislative arms of govt.
Again, though he has apologized for the budget mess, president Buhari is being held accountable for the poor handling of the budget fiasco, thus demystifying his superhuman toga-such as body language and new sheriff in town-earlier conferred on him at inception of his regime.
Magnus Onyibe
