In the past eight years, Buhari has been magnanimous in granting us some power. He knew if he took everything away from us, we’ll no longer be under his power. At least in our own brand of democracy operated by an elected tyrant, we are still allowed to breathe, brush our teeth, take our shower, speak our various languages, eat what we like if we’re lucky to find food and sleep with our wives.
In all of history, every tyrant is revealed as a fool. There’s nothing hilarious about tyrants. But laughter is a good way to retain your sanity when dealing with or talking about a tyrant.
In the past eight years, Buhari has been magnanimous in granting us some power. He knew if he took everything away from us, we’ll no longer be under his power. At least in our own brand of democracy operated by an elected tyrant, we are still allowed to breathe, brush our teeth, take our shower, speak our various languages, eat what we like if we’re lucky to find food and sleep with our wives.
Buhari made our minds abandon vacant lots. In the face of his tyrannical regime, Nigerians gave him a silent acquiescence as an approval of our outright surrender to tyranny. Buhari rewards every crime and punishes every virtue. To him, reading, writing, thinking, questioning, and investigating are punishable crimes. Through him, Nigerians now know that a military general can be dangerous as an insane leader. To a large extent, he moulded Nigerians into ants that can fit through a keyhole. He successfully forced everyone around him, even those closest to him, to assume the posture of a slave.
For Buhari, power is everything and absolute power is absolute. He’s blindly fixated on power and pursued it recklessly. He rendered the judiciary toothless. He exercised the kind of power that Louis XIV who is reported to have said, “I am the state,” would have envied. Buhari, bloated with power, downgraded Nigerians into subjects. He ruthlessly demolished or subverted every provision of the political contract that creates a bond between the people and their ruler. Muhammadu Buhari is a lesson about an elected tyrant.
It is evident that Buhari never read at all. If he did, he would have read Macbeth to understand the futility of power gained at all costs. Buhari’s hold on power is strewn with corpses of innocent poor Nigerians. On May 29, 2023, Buhari’s eight years reign of terror ends. it is instructive to remind him of Shakespeare’s Macbeth’s poignant statement on brevity and uncertainty of life: “Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”
As Buhari fades into the past, Nigerians might do well to learn some lessons about an elected tyrant. Perhaps.