Why Buhari should save his party and his presidency
There is a strategy I adopt in writing my columns. When the issue is current and tempestuous, I always like the good historian that I am, allow the dust to settle before I get involved in the debate. Until recent times, documents on matters of national importance in Great Britain were not released to researchers until after 100 years. The same was the case in most western countries. I think the practice now is 50 years.
In some really sensitive cases, they may never be made available to researchers. The reason for this is national security and the protection of those who may have done something unethical in the service of the nation. For example, the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has not yet been fully disclosed especially why it was used in Japan and not in Germany although the bombing of Dresden towards the end of the war was equally devastating and some will say criminal.
The ongoing battle among the factions of APC in both houses of the Nigerian parliament may not compare with the global events cited above but for us in Nigeria, if not properly handled, it may pose existential challenge to us as a people. We have enough problems coping with serious economic problems and it will be foolhardy to add serious political problems to the brew.
Politics is about people in society and the eternal question has been the way to conduct ourselves so that the good of the community can be realized. In the process, individuals sometimes equate what is good for them as what should be good for the people. This eternal question was postulated in Jean Jacques Rousseau’s idea of the general will. Which in fact may be known to a few or even one person who could then force the rest of us to obey. Of course the smart philosopher that he was protected his flank when he argued that if it is truly the general will, it will be beneficial to all and through this we will know that it is truly the general will. This is the kind of argument Plato marshaled in his Republic where the omniscient philosopher king would rule in the interest of all humanity. We know of course that there is no such utopia anywhere; Karl Marx’s workers paradise remains a failed idea after the collapse of communism in Europe and in Cuba; and China where it is still the political dogma it has been reduced to centralized gerontocratic autocracy.
We know this about foreign countries but what is going on here? I dare ask. It seems to me that our system is political warlordism masquerading as democracy. This is why contest for legislative positions are seen as contests between individuals who are not even in the parliament. The media has been particularly irresponsible in this case. In any presidential or parliamentary system, leaders of minority parties automatically become leaders if and when their parties become majority parties. In the case of Nigeria therefore, Senator George Akume and Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila should without argument have become senate president and speaker respectively. But what did we see here? The two gentlemen were simply portrayed as candidates of Tinubu and consequently deemed unacceptable. Even when Senator Lawan, candidate of the President was proposed, he too was cleverly manipulated out of the position for president of the senate on the grounds that he has the support of Tinubu. It now seems the only way to have support of a faction of the party is if Tinubu is against you. Yet Tinubu is one of the leaders of the party and was critical to coupling the disparate parties that came together to form the APC.
Mistakes have been made all round and we need not complicate the situation by dwelling on the past. President Buhari must assert himself from now on and give marching orders to the rank and file of the party. I remember when my friend, General Ike Nwachukwu wanted to be Senate president against the wish of President Obasanjo in 1999. We campaigned throughout the night. I bumped into Haroun Adamu, a friend who was special assistant to Obasanjo on the morning of the vote. He jokingly teased me about my friend’s ambition knowing quite well the position was sewn up so to say through presidential power. I was in the senate chamber when the vote was called. To our horror, nobody nominated my friend not to talk about winning!
I respect Buhari for his stance of not wanting to meddle in the parliament’s affairs. But from privilege of hindsight his strategy was wrong. What he has to do now is to ram the party’s candidates for other posts in the parliament down the throats of the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate. The power of the President of Nigeria is awesome and nobody would like to stand in front of an approaching train. Buhari should not hesitate to use this power to save his party and his presidency.
This is the only way forward if we are to have peace in the party and in the parliament.
I want to appeal to my brotherhood of the pen to leave out Tinubu from every and all future disagreements in the party. Tinubu’s place in history as the giant killer is settled. He does not need anybody to make enemies for him. Tinubu belongs to everybody if I may borrow part of our president’s quote. Some have been trying to draw a wedge between Tinubu and even Fashola, Tinubu and Kayode Fayemi, Tinubu and Niyi Adebayo. Tinubu has enough political enemies in old Afenifere, he does not need new ones. Bukola Saraki must come down from his Olympian height and play politics of accomodation. Whatever ambition he may have cannot be realized by bruising opponents. Nigeria is not Kwara State and without peace in Nigeria, no state can thrive. Politics of north-south dichotomy is old fashioned and we must do whatever it takes to eradicate it and try to cultivate others. The south-west APC faction must see Saraki as a brother because that is who he really is in spite of whatever appearance that is momentarily advantageous. For goodness sake, we need not misuse our past history to vilify any present player on the national political stage. We in Yorubaland easily fall victim of our history of vindictive tendencies and unforgiving spirit which has plagued our land since the 19th century and we need not relive it, rather we should learn from it and not dwell on it.
Finally, some of us have invested so much in the coming to power of Buhari and we do not want him to fail. He does not need distractions of any sort. Time is also of essence and we need all hands to be on the deck because if Buhari’s salvage and rescue operation fails, then it is goodbye to responsible and good governance in this much-abused and looted country. We cannot always get what we want in politics and we should avoid falling easily to victim-hood arising out of our different nationalities. It is the easiest thing to do when we do not get what we want but when we get plum jobs and contracts, we do not remember what nationalities we belong to; all we remember are our families and bank accounts.
