By Emeka Alex Duru
Not even the most casual interpreters of President Muhammadu Buhari’s body language, were surprised at his declaration for a second term in 2019 general elections.
If anything, the declaration, which he made at the special National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of his All Progressives Congress (APC), on Monday, April 9, 2018, was late in coming.
Since last year, the President had stealthily put up steps that clearly indicated that he had eyes on second term, despite the general perception of his uncertain health and low performance profile of his administration.
At a particular outing on Tuesday, November 28, 2017, in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, while attending the 5th European Union-African Union (EU-AU) Summit, Buhari made a statement that appeared the clearest hint that he would seek reelection.
In an interactive session with the Nigerian community in the country in company of Akwa Ibom State governor, Udom Emmanuel and his Bauchi counterpart, Mohammed Abubakar, among others, Buhari remarked that he requested the two governors to accompany him to the meeting because of their electoral value.
“First I want to apologise for keeping you for too long sitting. This is because I insisted on the governors attending this meeting.
“This is why I came along with them so that when we are going to meet you, when you are going to meet the rest of Nigerians, if you tell them that their governors were in the company of the president, I think that will be another vote for me in the future,” Buhari said.
Somehow, that was what his foot soldiers needed to go to town with, to commence the campaign of his indispensability.
For a President that has curiously governed with a culture of making most of his policy statements while on tour outside the country, the import of his remarks has not been lost on his audience at home.
Incidentally, his Monday declaration, came a few hours before his departure to Britain, days before the commencement of the Common Wealth Head of Governments meeting in London, next week.
In seeking a second term, the President said he was responding to the clamour by Nigerians to do so.
He said, “People have been asking me to declare for re-election and some have been asking me when I am going to declare. I want to give the NEC the honour to be the first to hear it. I have decided to contest the 2019 elections.”
Treading on familiar track
Buhari’s claim of making the move in response to the clamour by the people, is in line with the strategy that had been employed by his predecessors while angling for another term or tenure elongation.
The agenda has always followed a predictable pattern, commencing with obviously instigated faceless crowd and sycophantic office holders making the call, while the beneficiary, initially appearing unexcited, eventually, jumps on the train, in a manner suggesting response to national duty.
The military administrations of Generals Ibrahim Babangida (1985 – 1993) and Sani Abacha (1993 – 1998), stood out easily in setting this odious precedence. The succeeding civilian administrations, have since, taken it to a ridiculous level.
The other day, for instance, Kano State governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, had threatened that his party would sue the President if he fails to re-contest in 2019.
“When he came to Kano, I told him that any time he decides not to contest, we will take him to court. Kano state government will take him to court any time he decides not to contest. So we are waiting for him”, Ganduje tells reporters, in Abuja.
Immediate past Goodluck Jonathan administration, was not spared this show of sycophancy. A comic dimension was even added to the exercise, when some of his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftains purchased nomination form for him.
The earlier administration of late Umaru Yar’Adua, also fell into the plot. In fact, the late Prersident’s strategy in approaching the subject, was more dramatic.
Then, at a Special National Convention of PDP, on April 20, 2009, he had put up an action that endeared him to many Nigerians, even when it turned out a dummy.
At the occasion, he had taken a look at excited party members, coterie of hangers–on and other obviously rented cheer men at the Eagle Square, Abuja venue of the show, brandishing banners and fliers, asking him to re-contest in 2011 presidential election.
Some of the posters roared with inscriptions: “Support Continuity”, “With Yar’Adua, the future is brighter”.
While the showmen entertained themselves, to the amusement of other PDP chieftains, Yar’Adua had painted a picture of indifference to their frenzy.
When it was his time to address the audience, he cut the image of a local Headmaster calling his rancorous pupils to order.
Yar’Adua pointedly told his party men that the clamour for 2011 when the government was hardly two years in office, amounted to grave disservice to the Nigerian electorate. He urged them to concentrate on the delivery of service to the people.
That singular declaration greatly endeared him to even his critics who had hitherto dismissed him as not having control over the party.
But beneath Yar’Adua’s tough posture was a huge dummy sold to unsuspecting Nigerians.
While, for instance, he admonished his party men to exercise restraint in going about their individual ambitions, the Presidency which he headed, was assiduously working for his re-election in 2011.
Part of his strategy was the reinvigoration of the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), the fabled political machine of his elder brother, late Shehu Yar’Adua, to oil the campaign.
Yar’Adua, incidentally could not actualize the agenda as he died barely a year after. But a bold statement had been made in the politics of deception that seems to have become the norm in the land.
Some unemployed youths of Buhari’s APC, have joined this track in pledging to buy his nomination form for him.
The charade will be taken a notch further in the days ahead with rented crowd and praise singers drumming support for the President.
Former Abia State governor, Orji Uzor Kalu and Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, are already sounding hoarse in this respect, aside Ganduje.
Kalu, particularly, has been traversing states in the south, painting a picture of Buhari’s indispensability in what critics have however dismissed as an obvious attempt at worming himself to the president and parrying his case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
What next after declaration?
Given the feat Buhari achieved in displacing a seating president in 2015, the temptation would be to assume that his re-election would be a walk-over.
Perhaps, at the party level, there may not be real contest in his picking the presidential ticket. But the story may not be the same at the main election.
Though the PDP, the leading opposition party, appears lacking in focus and coherence for now, the declaration for a second term by the President, may be what it may take to wake it from the seeming slumber it has been since losing power in 2015.
Other political parties going into coalition, may also make the journey tough for Buhari. Of course, in moving against him, opponents have ready arsenal, if they put their acts together, analysts say.
The President’s uncertain health, for one, has not helped his case. Last year for instance, he was twice, admitted in a London hospital, where he spent more than two months on each occasion.
That was aside being away for the same reason for over six weeks, in 2016. While he was away, governance was slow-paced, with a so-called cabal being on the loose, despite efforts by his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo to steer the ship of state.
But even in the president’s best of time, his job performance rating, has not been exciting. While the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed claims that Buhari is delivering on his election promises to Nigerians, realities on ground differ substantially.
Undoubtedly, the administration had recorded commendable efforts at tackling the menace of Boko Haram terrorists that had before its inauguration, annexed over 14 councils in Borno State and made life rough in almost the entire north.
It can also lay some claims of success, in area of agriculture.
Aside these two sectors, the government has not really brought itself to bear on the life of Nigerians.
Among officials of the administration who volunteer comments anonymously, the blame is on the president and his analogous system of leadership.
Even his anti-corruption crusade that he had flaunted as the flagship of his administration, has been variously perforated by the selective approach that has characterised it.
While Buhari roars when Nigerians of differing views or opposing political camps are involved, he loses his voice and claws when members of his party or close aides are involved.
There are, for example, high profile corruption cases involving his close friends and aides that have been lying on his table for quite some time.
These are issues that may come up against the President as the campaigns peak. They may also work against his ambition, if properly presented by those working against.
Nigerians react
Commentators have been looking at the President’s declaration from different angles. While some of his party men and supporters enthuse at the move, others are of the opinion that he has not done enough to deserve another term.
Former President of Aka Ikenga, the intellectual think tank of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Goddy Uwazuruike, a lawyer, has for example, challenged the President to tell Nigerians what he has done in the last three years, to ask for another term.
“The constitution guarantees the right to contest for elections. But the basis for re-contesting is to continue the good work. In other words, President Muhammadu Buhari should tell us what he has achieved”, he demanded.
Presidential aspirant and former deputy governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Kingsley Muoghalu, on his own, asked Nigerians not to be carried away by Buhari’s second term ambition, stressing that his first term has not impacted much on them.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has every right to seek a second term in office if his political party nominates him. It will be up to Nigerians to judge his performance track record so far”, he said.
Former Education minister, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, in her twitter handle, simply dismissed the President’s declaration as a huge joke.
But Newspaper marketer, Abiola Ayankunbi, took an entirely different view on Buhari’s declaration, noting that with the exercise, whatever that had before now, occurred as veneer of governance, would simply give way for politicking.
In his words, “Following PMB’s decision to contest for presidency in 2019, governance may now be “fully” relegated to the background”. Not many will fault him in a system that hardly distinguishes between politics and governance.
