Opinion: Why General Buhari Is A Bad Choice For President

by Ahmed Gambo

The candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), has some good qualities, but the problem is that he has some strong negative qualities that are ingrained in him and will work against the progress and peace of Nigeria. One does not know if he even makes any attempt to drop these qualities, for they have been with him since his days as a military head of state 30 years ago. These qualities make it a high risk to have him as the civilian president of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-cultural and multi-linguistic country like Nigeria.

Buhari has shown, without any atom of doubt, that all ethnic groups and religions in Nigeria are not equal in his sight. This is what the New York Times wrote about his regime in 1986: “Under the Government of the previous President, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Buhari, many Christian schools were taken over by the state, and permits to build churches were held up while the construction of mosques was stepped up.” (New York Times, FEBRUARY 21, 1986).

It is unimaginable that a head of state of a country would vote against his countryman in an international gathering, but Buhari did that in 1985 when he voted for a Fulani man from Niger Republic for the post of secretary-general of the Organisation of African Union against a Nigerian, simply because he was a Christian and Igbo. The advice from other presidents that he should support his compatriot, who was already the acting secretary-general, yielded no results. (See here).

In 2002, with his eyes on the presidential elections of 2003, Buhari said: “Muslims should vote for fellow Muslims who can defend their faith”. (See here)

The different types of treatment Buhari meted out to Dr Alex Ekwueme as vice president and Alhaji Shehu Shagari as president after the coup of December 31, 1983 is well known: he kept Ekwueme in Kirikiri maximum prison but kept Shagari under house arrest, even though Shagari was the chief executive officer of the nation. Although nothing incriminating was found on Ekwueme, yet he refused to release him until his regime was overthrown. In fact, Justice Samson Uwaifo, who tried Ekwueme later, said in his ruling: “Dr. Ekwueme left office poorer than he was when he entered it, and to ask more from him was to set a standard which even saints could not meet.”

Ekwueme explained his detention thus in an interview: “I kept hearing some of the things that were being said about us and what we did; it was disheartening. The worst one was a press statement made by General Muhammadu Buhari, then Head of State, that the President didn’t really know so much about what was happening, that it was the Vice President who was in charge of petroleum, and was in charge of Abuja. But of course the President was the minister of petroleum then and he had a minister for Abuja. As I explained to you earlier, I was the only person who could not award a contract during the Second Republic. But Buhari came out to say that I was in charge of Abuja and I was in charge of petroleum and that they had all the facts, and that whenever they were ready to present the facts to me, there would be no way I could get out of it.“Buhari was my accuser, he was the judge and he had concluded that there was no way I could get out of it. So, I was put away for 20 months, waited for those 20 months for them to present the facts or to come and question me – for 20 months. They did not come and ask me any question at all until after 20 months (until after he was overthrown). And the facts that they said they had, nothing was brought to my attention – for 20 months.” (See More)

Furthermore, Buhari does not understand the economy, neither does he understand governance and administration. His vacuous statement that if voted as president, he would stabilize the price of petroleum gives one an idea of his understanding of the economy. This is why he does not speak for more than two minutes at rallies. This also is the real reason why he refused to participate in the presidential debates even when different non-partisan groups offered to organize non-partisan debates. He simply does not want to give Nigerians the opportunity to see the depth of his understanding of the economy or governance.

In addition, President Goodluck Jonathan has laid the foundation for Nigeria’s economic transformation. A lot of work has been done on infrastructure like roads, railway, aviation, etc. The automotive policy and support for local production are projects that need to be sustained to take Nigeria to the 20 biggest economies in the world. To prove that he is a president with his own mind, a Buhari may cancel many of the current projects like he did the Lagos Metro Line in 1984. The1,402-kilometre east-west rail line from Calabar through Onitsha and Benin City to Lagos is a $12 billion project that is said to be China’s biggest investment outside China. Cancelling such a project, or the Second Niger Bridge or the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway project or the privatisation of PHCN for any reason will have a terrible effect on Nigeria. But it is not beyond Buhari to hide behind the excuse of something like lack of transparency to truncate such projects, because these are projects that will directly benefit the South more than the North.

Beyond the fact that he is 72 years ago, Buhari does not look strong. He does not seem to have the stamina to withstand the demands of the office. The alternative is that he will be a president that is heard of but not seen, while the vice president will be doing the work of the president. That will not sound well for the nation, and given the diversity and ethnic rivalry among the peoples of Nigeria, this may lead to a crisis.

In addition to that, Buhari has surrounded himself with politicians with questionable character. Many of these politicians, who are alleged to have acquired their wealthy through embezzlement of public funds, are said to be sponsoring Buhari’s campaign. These are the same people that will hold him hostage if he ever becomes the president. The promised change that he and APC are mouthing will end up being a mirage.

Also, Buhari has a self-righteous, arrogant disposition. This makes it difficult for him to work well with others. He fell out with his party APP in 2003, ANPP in 2007, and some members of the CPC in 2011. Now he is presumably working well with his party APC. As a military head of state, that trait could be an advantage, but for a civilian president, that would be a constant source of tension and lack of progress. Civil rule needs politicians with good inter-personal skills to broker understanding among different viewpoints and opposing groups, so as to achieve results.

Finally, great speeches don’t make a great president but they help to galvanize the citizenry to nation-building. Sadly, 30 years after being sent out of office, Buhari has not developed himself by getting trained even on effective speaking. Currently, it is difficult to understand what he says and his grammar is mediocre. A nation should be able to look forward with pride to hearing their president speak, so that they will constantly be abreast of his thought process as well as his expectations. Rather than that, the nation was served the embarrassment that Buhari could not even show a secondary school certificate to INEC. One wonders how someone who does not like to develop himself academically will be interested in the education and development of his nation.

In many ways, Buhari is a dangerous option to be considered as president. Nigeria needs someone with a vision to build on the foundation Jonathan has laid after 5 decades of rot.