Sometimes it’s easy to lose perspective in the moment. If truth be told, few leaders in Nigeria, at least in this democracy, have traveled the distance between the lowest lows and the highest highs as President Muhammadu Buhari. As historians will tell us, no one can lead who does not first acquire power. Power reveals more than it can hide. No elected President has promised so much but delivered so little as Buhari. No president has been so craven, so unperturbed in the face of crises as this President. And no president has been literally begged to addressed to address his citizens to douse tension as this Commander in Chief. He never obliged. Not that the presidents before Buhari were not negligent in their constitutional duties, but this one has much more deficits.
If there’s one key lesson in power to sum up Buhari presidency in six years, it’s what historian Robert Allan Caro says about what leaders do while they are trying to get power and what they do after they have acquired the power they so craved for. He says after getting to power, they begin to feel they don’t need anybody anymore. But you need power not only to accomplish things, but to retain the confidence of the people you govern. A leader must use power for great purposes. A true leader shouldn’t abandon the compass that brought him to office. To squander public trust is the worst thing an elected leader should not do. That Nigeria is in this hole today is a lesson in democratic leadership. As former president Dr. Goodluck Jonathan wrote in his memoir: “My Transition Hours”, “democracy is not just about fulfilling all righteousness by treating people to the ballot box that you bring out on Election Day. Democracy boils down to legitimacy and ensuring that the people have the necessary dividends”. Penultimate Saturday, May 29, Nigeria celebrated 22 years of unbroken democracy. That’s a feat that we must all be proud of. As expected, the presidency released what it called a “fact Sheet” on the six years of president Buhari, stressing that he (Buhari) has recorded “giant strides” that his critics have failed to acknowledge. The statement by presidential aide Femi Adesina, went on to list areas the administration has made impact on the lives of Nigerians. The areas he mentioned include :health, education, security, agriculture, Sports, human development, anti-corruption, housing, foreign relations, and the government’s response to Covid-19 pandemic, among others. Nigerians, you score him on the record he has made his own.
This must be said : this government, this president, was well received when it came to power in May 2015, and the President arrived like a knight on a horse, brimming with confidence, seemingly ready to meet some of the challenges confronting the country. At least he was perceived to have tremendous moral power. Now, six years on, there are many broken hearts in the country, insecurity has squeezed all into a corner. Nigeria has become almost a failed state.
Questions to ask are: why is it that what has worked for other countries, has not worked for us? Why has Nigeria proved too hard for Buhari to govern? Is it a failure of presidential power or its misuse ? Come to think of it, presidencies are defined in part by the challenges that confront them. And the kind of legacy a president desires to leave behind is largely a function of the challenges and how a president is able to solve them. Therefore, every president must take responsibility for successes and failures of his government. It’s because, the buck stops at his table. He’s also the symbol of democracy and the spirit of leadership that can inspire or erodes confidence.
That’s why the leadership qualities of a president have often been a subject of intense public discourse. It’s not for nothing. The joke often told about our leaders is that democracy hasn’t delivered the necessary dividends because Nigerian leaders are a handpicked bunch with no talents and no adequate preparations to succeed in that crucial office. I completely agree with this school of thought. It’s so because, when you fail to prepare for a high office, you only become a disaster waiting to happen. Again, this is because the President is not just the symbol of democracy, he’s also the spirit of leadership that inspires the people to meet most of their aspirations. In that case, what the President does, how he governs, and the decisions he makes and how he makes them, all combine to form the perceptions that people have about him, and indeed, the country.
This becomes more revealing when a President, gets a enough power, when he feels he doesn’t need anybody anymore, then we can begin to see how he always wants to treat people and his country. The truth is that Nigeria is in this hole not because we are jinxed, not at all. It’s largely because many of our politicians who aspire to be leaders, only few are leaders in the true sense of the word. They seek power not to accomplish goals for the country and better the lot of the people. They have no agenda, no clear vision other than to dominate others. When they get elected, they begin to see the office, to borrow the words of a former student American President Gerald Ford, ‘as a prize to be won, not a duty to do’. For sure, for any President in a democracy, politics ought to be the perfect platform to do one’s best for his country. That’s the essence of the presidency. It’s about learning and knowing what one didn’t know before he got to power. It troubles the mind why our democracy is yet to produce transference leaders. By that, I mean presidents that have enormous ability to connect with the people and shape their aspirations, a leader who transcends ethnic divide, a President who knows how to use power, without overreaching himself. For example, with his enormous experience and exposure, Obasanjo started well as president. He laid a good foundation in his first tenure(1999-2003). But in his second term, he started to see himself as Nigeria’s “messiah”. You don’t play God. He ran aground because, among other reasons, he overused power. He didn’t know when to invoke the prestige of the presidency and when to hold it in reserve. His handpicked successor, Umaru Yar’Adua, was afflicted with serious illness. Perhaps he would have been a good president. But he behaved like a stranger in the Presidential Villa. He lacked firmness and a sense of timing. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan continued with that imperturbable calm and timidity when urgent action was needed. That was how Boko Haram became a festering security challenge till today. All of this happened because, first, these men, despite their claimed love for the country, they were really not prepared for the office they suddenly found themselves. Secondly, success in governance requires diligence and adjusting course when errors are made. What else do we need to say about the incumbent President that one has not said before? The crux of the matter is this: Responsibility abandoned today will likely return tomorrow as a more acute crisis.
At a time like this that his administration has rolled out a ledger of achievements in six years, it’s pertinent to ask: Are you better off today with this government than you were six years ago? Under Buhari’s watch, Nigeria had been in recession twice, managed to get out of the hole, and now, threatened by even a deeper recession.
Within this period Nigeria has become the home to highest number of world’s very poor people, the poverty capital of the world. Altogether, every democratic president is judged by the many things he initiated and accomplished. These include legislations, programmes/policies that impact positively on the people. In that case, a President is like a shepherd who knows what stirs the hearts of the people and make better choices that work in their overall interests. In other words, the challenges that the country faces and the concerns of the citizens.