::::::Femi Adesina Column::::: http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/columnists/femi/2010/femi-ap...

2011: The North must put its best foot forward (3)
Buhari: When integrity is sin
By Femi Adesina (kulikulii@yahoo.com, 08055001928)
Friday, April 30, 2010

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, let me repeat my position on power rotation. It is
unconstitutional, maybe even undemocratic, and just a child of necessity spawned by our experiences of the
past, in which a certain region–the North–has held power for the greater part of our national life.
It is convenient, at least for now, to rotate power between the North and South for a maximum two terms of
eight years, but as our democracy grows, we will move on to maturity, and leave childish ways.

Anyone can then rise from any part of the land, run for any office, and get it by virtue of majority votes, as
democracy is a game of numbers. But before then, I feel 2011 belongs to the North. Yes, candidates from
other parts have inalienable rights to run since we’re in a democracy, they will have their say, but the voters
will have their way. No hassles, as they say. Therefore, let Goodluck Jonathan’s posters flood not just Abuja,
but the nooks and crannies of the country. It’s his right. Dreams are free, no one can deny him of his right to
envision or visualise his own political future. But a southern president in 2011? An uphill task, a mere chasing
after the winds, if you ask me. But then, I may be wrong.

For the third week running, we are looking at aspirants and candidates from the North, a region we’re asking
to put its best foot forward this time. In 2007, they were clobbered senseless by Olusegun Obasanjo, who
foisted on them a candidate who was hardly the best the region could produce, a development that led the
country into serious trouble.
We have talked about Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida in passing. His payday cometh soon. We have mentioned
Bamanga Tukur, Murtala Nyako, and dwelt extensively last week on Gen Aliyu Gusau. All we’re saying is,
the best, the best, nothing but the best from the North for the 2011 race. Otherwise, they’ll fritter the golden
chance once again, as they’ve done from 2007 till now.

Muhammadu Buhari. Two times candidate on platform of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), now
possibly the presidential flagbearer of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). A very viable, feasible,
vibrant possibility from the North. But can he be president? Will certain forces let him?
Plenty reactions have trailed this series in the past three weeks. The respondents will equally have their day
soon. And what some people have said is that Nigeria, not just the North, must put its best foot forward in
2011. To me, one of those best feet is Muhammadu Buhari, the former military head of state from Daura, in
Katsina State. But can he be an elected president? Will certain forces let him?

Buhari will be running third time for the nation’s number one position, and who says he may not be third time
lucky. Didn’t Attah Mills of Ghana get it at the third outing? Some people are already asking Buhari to retire,
having aspired twice unsuccessfully. No, it’s the man’s right to run, particularly seeing the circumstances of
the last two presidential elections, the validity of which he contested up to the Supreme Court. He only lost
narrowly (4 – 3) in the last one.

What strengths will Buhari bring to the table? And what inherent weaknesses? I have never hidden my love
for the man who ruled us with an iron fist between December 31, 1983 and August 27, 1985. It was one
regime Nigeria needed then, and despite some shortcomings, it had enough strength to have taken us out of
the woods in different spheres of our national life. But the forces of reaction toppled the regime, and we are
where we are today. In March, 2009, I did a piece with the title, ‘Maybe we should apologize to Buhari.’ I
still stand by what I wrote:

“He was whipping us into line, but we revolted, and rejoiced when a gap-toothed General came, flashing
smiles that eventually turned out to be daggers in our underbellies… Does Nigeria owe Buhari an apology? I

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::::::Femi Adesina Column::::: http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/columnists/femi/2010/femi-ap...

smiles that eventually turned out to be daggers in our underbellies… Does Nigeria owe Buhari an apology? I
think so. He wanted to reconfigure us as military leader, we said no. He sought the position twice through the
ballot box, twice we schemed and wangled him out. Pity.”

What is Buhari’s greatest strength? For me, it his sterling display of integrity and incorruptibility. Imagine the
positions the man has held. Governor. Minister of Petroleum. Head of State. Chairman, Petroleum Trust Fund
(PTF). And yet, during the last campaigns, there were rallies and meetings Buhari could not attend both home
and abroad, simply because there was no money. Despite all those posts he held? Some others were never
governor, never minister, never PTF chairman. They were only head of state (which Buhari also was) and
they are today richer than many West African states put together, and have obscene mansions built on
several acres of hilltop.

Do they still make people like Buhari anymore? I doubt.

Let me give you a snippet from an essay on Buhari written by eminent virologist, Prof Tam David-West, and
scheduled to be published in Saturday Sun tomorrow. “ In 2007, General Buhari, as a not-to-be- ignored
candidate for the Presidency, was scoffed at and mocked by his political adversaries that he couldn’t raise
even N10 million for a particular scheduled rally. Others raised ten times, hundred times… Most staggeringly
unbelievable in Nigeria. A former Head of State? A former military Governor of a state (North- East State)
that is now broken into six states? A former Petroleum Minister? Indeed, an extra-ordinary Nigerian in and
out of uniform…”

Buhari had many opportunities to steal us blind in the very plum positions he held. He did not. We now have
every cause to believe that our treasury will be safe with him. He will utilise the resources of the land for the
good of the larger number. But then, can he be president through the ballot box?
Yes, I love Buhari, I would want him as my president. He’s frank, forthright, honest. But can he be president?
Does he have the platform?
Whatever we say of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it is the nation’s largest party today, and whoever
has the ticket of the party may be as good as being president. Of course, I don’t like that fact, but I must be
honest enough to admit it. Therefore, to get rid of this army of occupation called PDP, we need a coalition, a
broad based political alignment, which was attempted through the National Democratic Movement. There
was an attempt to form a mega-party, and politicians like Buhari, Atiku Abubakar, Bola Tinubu, Attahiru
Bafarawa, Balarabe Musa, and many others, came together. Of course, they were strange bedfellows in terms
of political ideology, but they needed that closing of ranks if the PDP would be torpedoed. At the end, the
move collapsed, due to lack of capacity to subjugate personal ambition for the greater goal, by the
individuals. Today, they are all scattered into weak platforms, which cannot give the PDP a run for its money.
Atiku is back in PDP, ensconced in the same chair he once defaecated upon, pontificating from both sides of
the mouth.

Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). Can this raise a finger against the almighty PDP? The ANPP was
the next largest party in the country, Buhari could not wrest power from the PDP on its platform. Will he now
do it through CPC? Tough, surely.
Many other issues are raised against Buhari by some of his antagonists. He’s a religious zealot. He’s a Fulani
jingoist. His regime killed through retroactive decrees. And many others. Well, there’s a difference between
religious zealotry and fanaticism. And how many of us are not really ethnic jingoists in this country? But my
own other area of worry is something that should really be a strength, which may become a weakness, a good
that may be evil spoken of. Buhari’s inflexibility. Hear what Theophilus Danjuma, a former Chief of Army
Staff, said of him:
“Buhari is one of the most upright officers the Nigerian Army has produced. Very clean, a very strict officer.
A very inflexible person. Too rigid, too inflexible to hold a political post. If you are in politics, you must be
flexible, you must compromise from time to time. In politics, they call it pragmatism.”

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