No living politician in Nigeria today draws the kind of followership, fanaticism and passion Buhari draws. He cultivated this, not through the amount of stolen money he throws about. On the contrary, his appeal is well rooted in the aura of a good, clean, untainted man who tasted, felt and romanced power and authority and never allowed it to dent him. He built his catholic discipleship through adhering to the age old values of chastity when others dared not resist the temporary lure and allure of pilfered and ill gotten wealth. He is ramrod straight, Spartan and frugal.
The emergence of General Muhammadu Buhari from the pulsating, rigorous but spectacular presidential primaries of the All Progressives Congress has shaped up the politics of the 2015 presidential election. With his emergence, the leaders, members and supporters of APC have shown the way on what the coming presidential election should be. Buhari weathered many formidable odds to emerge. Here is a man, with nothing but his spectacular personage to give the delegates for their votes; a man with his integrity, his discipline, his straightforwardness and his honesty to give in place of cash and privileges!
No living politician in Nigeria today draws the kind of followership, fanaticism and passion Buhari draws. He cultivated this, not through the amount of stolen money he throws about. On the contrary, his appeal is well rooted in the aura of a good, clean, untainted man who tasted, felt and romanced power and authority and never allowed it to dent him. He built his catholic discipleship through adhering to the age old values of chastity when others dared not resist the temporary lure and allure of pilfered and ill gotten wealth. He is ramrod straight, Spartan and frugal.
His suitability for the present is heeled on the rot and decay that have been brought to debase governance, the wanton corruption and sleaze that have been made integral components of the directive principle of state policy, the deliberate subjugation of the mores and values under a culture of byzantine stealing, cronyism and other forms of influence peddling that have all combined to force Nigeria down on all fours. Buhari remains a lodestar just for choosing to be different from the madding, looting class; for shunning the artificial glamour and allure of the thieving cabal, which had been employed to intern the sense of good and noble in our fast decaying society. So in his candidacy is the expression writ large among Nigerians that an avatar should rise to force a prodigal country back to the paths of moral rectitude and integrity.
By deciding to refrain from feeding himself from the common barn he was entrusted to guard, Buhari made an indelible investment that is yielding long after his compatriots who made a feast of the same commonwealth have gone into oblivion. He freely chose to make a name for himself than freeload himself to instant splendor when he was positioned to do so.
Because he believes deeply in the aphorism that a good name is better than riches, he refused to empty the treasury to his private coffers but chose rather to set a benchmark in integrity and discipline, which is yet to be surpassed by any public office holder in Nigeria. What Buhari is harvesting today is the goodwill an honest and upright man stands to reap for living just in an era where prebendalism is being celebrated as a virtue. Buhari chose to be different and that is what has kept his name revered and his personage much feared by the moths and rodents that have worked so hard to debase public office in Nigeria.
Against the pervasive feeling and the dominant mindset that public office is for the highest looter, the biggest spender and the deepest pocket, Buhari elected to throw his hat into the ring given the hopelessness the Nigerian situation reeks as at today. He was taking a big risk, a huge gamble in betting his good name against the suffocating cash and other influences thrown into the political battle in a land where it has been taken as a given that politics is meant only for the wealthy and the rich.
In the run up to the presidential primaries of the APC, there was no doubt that the commoners, the hoi polloi and the weak were yearning for Buhari. But the snag was that he had no money. He left office a poor man and has thus, become the butt of the jaded ribaldry of those that have eviscerated governance and made it an avenue for mindless purloining of the commonwealth. Most of those that frantically urged Buhari on were the moneyless victims of a predatory state, the displaced victims of rogue governance and the foot mats of irascible leaders who dignify and worship corruption. They had no money to give but their goodwill. They are so deprived and powerless that the only thing they have is their vote. Again, they know that votes hardly counts so they are backing their efforts with raw will and determination to stop the marauders at the door come February 2015.
In the primaries proper and as hopes for a consensual agreement between the aspirants waned, there was this looming fear that ravaged Buhari’s supporters that their man will lose to heavy cash during the primaries. But the God that has programmed Nigeria for a change come 2015 was at work and through the APC governors and leaders intervened on the side of Buhari.
The man without cash became the darling of the rank and file of the party and Nigerians across the length and breadth of this country saw sure signs of the imminence of change in a serially abused country. Even as the tedious but posh primaries continued and an anxious nation watched display of real democracy, ordinary Nigerians still entertained trepidation that things might go wrong for their man just because the Nigerian political process is heavily cash based. But thank God, he emerged to send his teeming followers a grand reverie and the pests to a morbid scare of what is to come.
Buhari’s candidacy is a protest against continued debauchery, impunity and corruption that have practically flattened a well endowed country and made it a sick caricature of nationhood. It is a frantic call to arrest a situation where Nigerians have become living ghosts while unconscionable leaders grow fat from the penury of the rest. It is a demand to come rescue the fast withering culture of public accountability and selfless commitment to the good of the whole. His victory at the primaries is in clear hearkening to the loud groans of Nigerians for a leader that, by his life and acts, can rescue the sinking nation from the gluttony of insatiable and unscrupulous leaders. The emergence of Buhari is a statement that Nigerians are prepared to effect the badly needed change in their desecrated polity to install honesty, integrity, dignity, truth in the conduct of official and private affairs. It is a clarion call, akin to that the Macedonians sent to Paul to come over and bail them from despair.
That Buhari triumphed even when he had no loads of cash to induce votes for him shows that money has its limits. It is a great statement to Nigerians that we need to brace up to rescue this country from ghouls, even if they have all the money in the world to bribe us to the contrary. It is a loud statement that Nigeria needs rebirth, recovery and rescue from amoral fiends that have done a lot to bury our hopes for a sane polity where thieves and vandals will not employ the structures of the state to abuse and despoil us.
For their stellar performance, the APC has set a critical ball rolling. His opponents at the primaries and top party leaders, no doubt, have sacrificed their personal privileges to get for Nigeria their wish to have someone that will not see government as business as usual. They have lost the privilege to position for future business because Buhari is not one that plays business in politics. The ball is now in the courts of Nigerians to play.
Buhari has emerged with his sure footed promises to cleanse the Augean stable and set Nigeria once again on the paths of rectitude and accountability. We, all who feel ashamed and rebuked by the grand larceny of the present, must take it up from there and prosecute the desired change we have yearned for. Nigerians will rightly see any vote for Buhari in 2015 as a protest against the present rotten order and also a reward for honesty, integrity and discipline. In short, it should be a payback for he who chose not to plunder and wreck the country when he had the opportunity to do so. That is the best way to set a moral agenda for the recovery of the lost soul of Nigeria.
Peter Claver Oparah is the author and writes from Ikeja, Lagos. Email: [email protected]