By Ikechukwu Amaechi
Most Nigerian politicians are neither creative nor ingenious. Because they are not imaginative, there is no originality of thought, which explains why they are very predictable. Call it herd-mentality and you have hit the bull’s eye. Every political stunt, no-matter how fatuous, sooner than later becomes a fad.
That is why they must cloak their ambitions in celestial apparels. Elsewhere, politicians seek public office because they are convinced they have something positive to offer. Vision drives ambition. The mission is properly defined, making choice less herculean when they seek the people’s buy-in.
The reverse is the case here. There is no conviction, no vision and, therefore, no mission. And since nature abhors vacuum, that vacuity is garnished with the god-factor.
‘God’ decides for the average Nigerian politician when to throw his or her political dice and after that, they arrange for their people to beg, cajole and persuade them to run for public office. Choreographed circus!
No conviction. It is never their will. Nigerian politicians are always hearkening to the clarion call of their beleaguered people. So, they claim.
Senator Arthur Nzeribe remains an early purveyor of this shenanigan. In fact, it could be said that he blazed the trail in this brand of deceitful politics in the 1980s.
I remember one of his campaign jingles in 1983 when he ran for the Senate:“Obu m bu Arthur. Arthur Nzeribe. Okwa unu sim puta, aputala m,” meaning “I am Arthur Nzeribe. You asked me to come out, here I am.”
Impudent! Patronising! Conceited!
Yet, in all the years he was in active politics, Nzeribe never represented anybody but himself. Common good was anathema to him.
But his was a political sleight of the hand that has subsisted. It has become the norm for the masses to beg their oppressors to run for public office.
I had a good laugh on Tuesday when the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, announced he would seek re-election to assuage the anxiety of his Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa Federal Constituency, Bauchi State constituents.
Dogara said he was already contemplating stepping aside, having represented the constituency for almost 12 years but changed his mind because of the show of support and solidarity by his people who travelled from Bauchi State to Abuja to impress on him to run again.
“Because you came, because of your sacrifice, I want to announce to you that I will run to once again represent our constituency,” he told his constituents.
But recent events suggest that the politicians have decided to up the ante, having moved beyond the Nzeribemania of orchestrating seeming public clamour for their candidacy. The new political fad is the people pooling their meagre resources to buy nomination forms for the politicians.
On August 31, former vice president and presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, was said to be on his way to purchase the N12 million nomination and expression of interest form at the PDP national secretariat when his loyalists – Atiku Support Group – arrived at his campaign secretariat with the form duly paid for. They bought it on his behalf. Atiku wept.
Since then, other politicians have hitched a ride on the theatrical wagon.
In Adamawa, Atiku’s home state, a governorship aspirant, Dr. Mahmood Ahmed, said his “friend” purchased the All Progressives Congress (APC) N22.5 million nomination and expression of interest form for him.
In neighbouring Taraba State, a group, New Taraba Agenda, claimed to have bought the APC gubernatorial form for a former commissioner, Mr. Aliyu Umar.
But the big elephant in the room remains President Muhammadu Buhari, who decided to join this rat race to prove that the people also love him.
But to fully appreciate the import of what the president did and the inherent lack of principles, we have to cast our minds back to what happened during the 2015 elections.
In October 2014, the then APC presidential aspirant, General Buhari, who perpetually performs poverty in a desperate but false-hearted bid to make the acquisition of wealth look like a criminal enterprise, claimed that he used a bank loan to buy the party’s N27.5 million expression of interest and nomination form, lamenting that the cost was too steep.
“It is a pity I couldn’t influence this amount to be put down as in the case of ladies and the disabled that intend to participate. I always looked left and right in our meetings but I could not read sympathy, so I kept my trap.
“But I felt heavily sorry for myself because I don’t want to go and ask somebody to pay for my nomination form, because I always try to pay myself, at least for the nomination.
“N27 million is a big sum, thankfully I have personal relationship with the manager of my bank in Kaduna and early this morning, I put an early call (and) I told him that very soon the forms are coming, so, whether I am on red, or green or even black please honour it, otherwise I may lose the nomination.”
The three takeaways from the president’s narrative four years ago are: At N27.5 million, the form was very costly; He wanted a reduction but didn’t have the political muscle; Because he didn’t want others to buy the form for him, he took a bank loan.
But in 2018, Buhari is not an APC aspirant but the president of the country. By virtue of that position, he is the de facto and de jure leader of the APC. He calls the shots and everybody defers to him.
Yet, under his watch, the form which was too expensive at N27.5 million in 2014 now costs N45 million. Not a word of condemnation from him.
In 2014, a “poor” Buhari who could not afford the form opted for bank loan rather than lean on others to procure it for him.
Yet in 2018, President Buhari did not see anything wrong when some 60-year-old Nigerian “youths” under the aegis of the Nigeria Consolidation Ambassadors Network (NCAN) paid the mandatory N45 million to buy the form for him. The anti-corruption czar did not ask how the “youths” raised the money. Perhaps, he has no idea what conflict of interest means.
Maybe President Buhari has never read Section 91 (9) of the 2010 Electoral Act, which says no individual or other entity shall donate more than N1 million to any candidate of a political party, and imposes punishments ranging from nine months’ imprisonment or N500,000 fine (or both) for any breach. Or even if he is aware, what does it matter? Is Buhari not the State writ-large?
Meanwhile, the president didn’t tell us what he used as collateral for the N27.5 million loan. Could he have used Nigeria’s presidency in lieu? What if he had lost the election? Which bank executive would approve such huge sum of money as loan on the basis of a possible electoral victory? How and when did he liquidate that loan? And how will he pay back those who bought the N45 million form for him this time?
Truth be told, President Buhari’s hypocrisy rankles.
