Beyond Familiar Catharsis …In Defence of General Muhammadu Buhari

President Jonathan and Babangida Aliu

From all indications, Major-General
Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) does not strike me as a happy and fulfilled man. In
December 1983, along with other adventurous soldiers, with General Ibrahim
Badamosi Babangida (IBB) as rallying point, the soldier toppled elected
civilian President Shehu Shagari, who had just won re-election after a
four-year tenure.

Buhari then became the Head-of-State and
Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. But
he had barely stayed in office for about two years, when, an equally very
ambitious Babangida cut short his most priced treasure-power. Sadly, Buhari
left office without becoming a full-fledged five-star General in the army.

In contrast, the man who toppled him, in
what many perceived as a palace coup, not only attained the rank of a five-star
general, he also ruled for eight years, before stepping aside, on account of
political pressure following the annulment of the June 12 elections presumed to
have been won by late Chief M. K. O. Abiola in 1993.

Since then, Major-General Buhari (rtd) had
been in search of the only one-thing Babangida denied him, President of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria, a gesture his tormentor enjoyed even in military
uniform. But each time he tried, not only did Babangida and others spoil the
atmosphere with their presence; he ended up a loser for reasons, he hardly can
farthom.

Out of the Army, Buhari believed that he
left with his integrity intact. Perceived to be rigid and uncompromising, the
soldier considers himself as very incorruptible. In truth, many Nigerians
agreed with him during and  after his
years as chairman of the Petroleum Special Trust Fund under General Sani
Abacha’s dictatorship.

For that singular attribute and driven by a
burning ambition to reclaim what former military President Babangida denied
him, Buhari has contested virtually every Presidential election, except that in
1999.

In 2003, 2007 and 2011 he contested and
thrice he lost. If, as they often say, one once beaten, should be twice shy,
what do we expect of one thrice beaten? Six times shy or twice drawn to violent
appeal? Or simply play dumb, after losing a fortune in search of political
power? He who feels it knows it and Buhari’s is indeed a painful one which
resort to Familiar Catharsis alone cannot address. It should be more.

As a growing child, my primary five school
teacher once told us of effigy pounding, a culture he said, industry workers
adopted in Japan in years past. At break-time, he said, the usually
overstretched workers were allowed a brief moment to create and assault the
effigy of their fore-man or supervisor whom they considered to be a
slave-driver. After minutes of pounding the effigy of their industrial
tormentor, they had some measure of fulfillment that they had avenged their
stress and gruesome labour, caused by their slave driver.

None of that exists in political circles or
even in industry today. Instead, such anger is expressed by way of catharsis,
most often geared towards reconciliation and settlement. However, Buhari is a
soldier, who believes that he gave most of his productive years to the Nigerian
Army, but feels under- rewarded because he was made to quit the institution not
as a five-star general but just a Major-General. And as Head of State and
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he
was also denied a much longer term, an accomplishment which Babangida and his
co-travellers caused in a palace coup.

Babangida may not be the serving President,
Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is. But the difference is not easily discernable
from Buhari’s perspective. For, while the former edged him out of power as Head
of State, the latter refused to fail in the 2011 general elections, for him to
become President. Both are denials.

It is even more so with Jonathan’s victory
because, Buhari had said, in same manner as he did earlier polls, that his shot
at the presidency in 2011 would be his last involvement in partisan politics,
convinced that he would win.

Three major variables informed his
optimism. First, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was, at the time,
embroiled in a destructive debate over zoning the Presidential slot and was
sure that if it went the way of the South, the majority North would unite
behind a popular Northern candidate, which he presumed to be himself. Secondly,
with the failure of the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to win the PDP
primaries, the loser and other powerful people like IBB, Gasau and Ciroma would
have no better choice than to leave the PDP and unite against a Jonathan
presidency, and with the advantage of more State governors from the Northern
part of the country, his elections would have been sealed. And thirdly, that
being a retired general, all serving soldiers and para-military forces would
unite behind him and prevent his disgrace in the hands of a bloody civilian
from Etueke, in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa, South-South Nigeria,
with only eight local government areas.

Against such a ‘paper weight’ battle, and
who did not appear to enjoy the blessing and support of major heavyweights like
former Rivers Governor Peter Odili, debatably, the most powerful politician in
the South-South at the time, and with a thoroughly divided South-East, Buhari
concluded that his victory was a done deal. So confident, he did not consider
as necessary any campaign visit to parts of the South and spent all his time
preaching Northern unity, without considering the fact that even Northerners
would consider other variables beyond, his largely advertised incorruptible,
rigid and uncompromising mien.

Nigerians, to his chargrin, needed a
national, and not regional and highly divisive politician. They instead
preferred one with a humble beginning, one who had felt pain and naturally
would show greater empathy and not look the other way while millions remain
almajiris (beggers) for life, in a  clime
where top politicians and retired generals swam in annoying opulence and
affluence. That was in part, what the outcome of the 2011 general elections
revealed.

But so high and mighty and obviously out of
touch with reality apparently locked-up in his chosen fool’s paradise, Buhari
never saw the likelihood of a defeat in the hands of not one from any of the
major tribes. Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba or Igbo but Ijaw, and from little Bayelsa, a
‘baby-state’ created out of another minority one; Rivers, also carved out of
the former Eastern Region. Disbelief, anger and frustration at once
over-powered his faculties of political reason and so, rather than resort to
the sanctuary of harmless Catharsis he called out to war, the jobless Northern
youth. The result was the post-election violence in parts of Northern Nigeria
in which countless lives, especially those of innocent Youth Corp members were
lost and property worth billions of naira destroyed.

Since then,
Nigeria has known no peace, with one terror attack to another rocking
various public institutions and killing hundreds. Most of these terror attacks
have been traced to a fundamentalist Islamist sect now generally known as Boko
Haram.

From the condemnable bloodletting in Jos,
Plateau State, Bauchi, Borno,  Niger,
Kano, Kaduna and Abuja among others, the attacks were recently shifted to media
houses, with ThisDay, The Sun and Moment as initial casualties. These have drawn
condemnations from various quarters including respected Islamic clerics and
traditional rulers. Other well-meaning patriots, statesmen and indeed political
leaders have continued to criticise the Boko Haram and joined the government in
search of solutions to the unrest that daily threatens the very fabric of not
just the nation’s unity and well-being, but indeed her civilisation.

It was at such a time that Buhari
threatened further bloodbath in 2015, should what happened in 2011 repeat
itself, meaning, may be, that should he contest again and face the same defeat,
the fourth in a row, the shame and perceived betrayal of his kith and kin, “by
the Grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.”

For this frustration–induced threat, many,
including the Presidency and the ruling PDP appear worked-up and virtually
running into each other in attempts to reply a major-general in desperate
search for democratic power, which he not only denied many, but also caused to
be incarcerated, duly elected representatives of the people in his stolen years
as Head of State.

Yes, Nigerian elections might not have been
100 per cent free and fair but that in 2011, in which Buhari’s Congress for
Progressive Change (CPC) failed woefully, was adjudged reasonably peaceful,
fair and of international standard. So, Buhari’s threat should have been
treated for what it is – the ranting of an unhappy loser still wondering why
his orders are no longer obeyed.

Buhari deserves our pity and forgiveness
because he is an angry, disappointed and desperate man in search of power. To
him, if persuasion, which he knows little about fails, violence should wipe
into line the disobedient, not considering the fact that no single individual
has the monopoly of such violent disposition. Only, others believe that peace
is more powerful than war, love, more better than hate and meaningful dialogue
more important than violence.

My Agony is that long after the post
election violence which Buhari instigated, and in which innocent corpers perished,
the Federal Government is yet to realise that the greatest incentive to crime
is the hope of escaping punishment. And since nothing happened in 2011, no
amount of vituperations on his part, would attract any reprimand. If Buhari had
been thought this much earlier, he would not have made another threat of blood
bath.

Soye Wilson Jamabo