Major Gen. Muhammadu Buhari was a bundle of contradictions. He was unquestionably Nigeria’s most divisive leader during his lifetime. His worldview was always one of north versus south, Fulanis vs other Nigerians, and Muslims vs Christians, as long as it served his narrow goal. In the quest for the presidency of a democratic Nigeria, he pretended to be a born-again personality.
In the North, youths of all shades trooped out in Kano, Kaduna, Zaria, Katsina, and even his home town of Daura, among other cities, in exuberant celebration of the exit of a man who quadrupled poverty in the region. In the South West, most Yorubas congregated in their various clubs to boisterously celebrate the death of Nigeria’s most incompetent leader. In Ikoyi Club, one member couldn’t contain himself: “Although I stopped drinking beer and other forms of alcohol many years ago, today, I shall have a bottle of Star beer on Buhari”. Meanwhile, in the South East, the Igbos reportedly celebrated in such an organized manner as if they had been waiting for the “good” news for a long time. In Enugu, Onitsha, Aba, Owerri, Umuahia, and even the sleepy Abakaliki, it was as if the Igbos saved for the news of the demise of a man who hated them till death. In eatery after eatery, strangers were happily paying for each other’s food and drinks. One such patron proclaimed that he was happy “to celebrate the death of a man who referred to Igbo land as a dot but ironically died in another dot called England”. I truly enjoyed of all these in the social media.
It appears that Buhari loved being hated or that he considered the hatred he provoked as a badge of honour or validation of his coveted status as a Northern czar. However, under him, the north also suffered.
Obviously, Northern Nigeria was not a developed and prosperous region before Buhari assumed the Nigerian Presidency in 2015. But the gospel truth is that he met a poor North and left it poorer and more hated. According to the World Bank, Nigeria’s poverty rate was 31% in 2014, but it climbed to 49% after Buhari’s tenure in 2023, making the country the world’s poverty capital.
Perhaps, nothing better captures the man’s character than the view of the 1985 coup against him. The coupists said that “the initial objectives and programmes of action which were meant to have been implemented since the ascension to power of the Buhari Administration in January 1984 have been betrayed and discarded. The present state of uncertainty and stagnation cannot be permitted to degenerate into suppression and retrogression”.
Another signature of Buhari’s character is the way and manner he treated key Nigerians who toiled to make him President: Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; Dr. Sule Hammah; Hajia Aisha Buhari; Chief Ikechi Emenike; Engr. Buba Galadima; Chief Mike Ahamba SAN; Mallam Nasir El Rufai; Dr. Hakeen Baba Ahmed; Gen. Abdurahman Dambazau, and a few others.
Later day Buharists can twist fact as much as they wish, but the only truth is that without Asiwaju Tinubu, in 2014, Gen. Buhari would have lost the APC presidential primaries in Lagos. While Asiwaju Tinubu deployed huge resources and emptied almost his entire political capital into the Buhari project against the formidable Atiku Abubakar candidature in the December 2014 APC Presidential primaries, Buhari, despite all his promises, still opposed Tinubu’s 2023 ambition. The brilliant and formidable Dr. Sule Hammah, with the unrelenting assistance of Engr. Buba Galadima, cleaned Buhari of excess baggage, rebranded him and presented him to Nigerians (nonetheless, they became his enemies). Aisha Buhari went above and beyond the call of duty of a wife as she undertook several internal diplomatic shuttles and mended numerous broken political bridges to ensure that her husband was successful (yet, she was thrown to the wolves and treated in a way no first lady in Nigeria or elsewhere has been subjected to). Her ability to still summon courage to forgive a bad husband and plead with Nigerians to also do the same is a mark of her large heartedness. May God bless her richly. On his part, Chief Emenike was not only Buhari’s face in the South East, he also authored the strategy for Buhari’s 2015 victory, designed and populated the organogram, and with others, coordinated Buhari’s “difficult” primary election in Lagos, in November 2014. He also served as Director of Field Operations that coordinated all 36 states plus FCT (nevertheless, all Buhari had for him was to post him out as an Ambassador which the Chief quietly passed on to his wife). Everyone knows the role of Chief Mike Ahamba, who for 12 years, handled all Buhari’s political cases, including those that reached the Supreme Court, all on a pro bono basis (yet, upon his victory, Buhari pretended that Ahamba never existed). Of course, the messianic role of Mallam El Rufai does not require much elaboration. He was fortunate, however because he was also elected Governor of Kaduna State during this period. Similarly, Gen. Dambazau, and Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed played extraordinary roles. The reader is free to research how Buhari treated these genuine compatriots who put their lives and wellbeing on the line to make him President.
The reader can imagine what Nigeria, under Buhari, would have become with Dr. Sule Hammah as Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mallam Abba Kyari (Chief of Staff); Chief Mike Ahamba (Minister of Justice/AG); Gen. Abduraham Dambazau (Minister of Defence); Chief Ikechi Emenike (Minister of Finance); Engr Buba Galadima (Minister of Transportation) and Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed (Minister of Education). Dr. Kayode Fayemi would have been a much better Foreign Minister. These men and others, as a team, would have curtailed the antics of the villa rats that eventually grew too powerful and destructive. Just like Vice President Atiku Abubakar said, at that time, there were enough talent in APC to have lifted the country. These did not happen because Buhari had other thoughts or no thoughts at all.
Buhari was habitually cruel. He carried on as if he was doing a favour to everyone who worked for him. A clear example is that throughout his eight years in office, the man refused to observe even a minute silence for all the young men and women who died while working to make him President. Recall that even his bodyguards, who protected him against all odds during his more than 12-year political sojourn, even demonstrated in Eagle Square, Abuja for recognition and appreciation, to no avail.
What about me? I worked harder than I ever had in my life. I was one of the few people that worked in two important directorates of his campaign – Field Operations (under Chief Emenike) and Strategic Communications (under Mr. Dele Alake). I also served on an exclusive committee towards the tail of the campaign (again under Chief Emenike and Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu SAN). There was also a brilliant Nigerian Economics Professor from Adamawa or Taraba State, who was based in New York and another professor from Benue State. The assignment was to map out a first 100-day, daily agenda for the expected winner of the 2015 elections. Indeed, I was among several other young men and women, as well as older Nigerians who believed in a new Nigeria. But President Buhari COMPLETELY, and thoughtlessly ignored almost all of us once he assured office. In 2016, with my family, I was fortunate to flee from Buhari’s abandonment to Canada, where by the grace of God, I am living a decent life which any hardworking human being is entitled to. I have tried to drain myself of any ill-feelings towards Nigeria. This is not to suggest that I plan to return to Nigeria anytime soon, because there are still too many Buharis lurking in the Nigerian political space with absolutely no intention or capacity to move the country forward.
During his inaugural speech as President in 2015, Buhari said “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody”. Most people, including yours sincerely, ignorantly applauded him without interrogating it, to understand that it simply meant that Buhari came to power for only himself: Not for Nigeria, Nigerians, or his wife, whom he said only belonged to “the kitchen, the living room and the other room”. Not even his truculent defenders and the greatest beneficiaries of his disastrous regime can explain the overriding reason why Gen Buhari persisted in contesting for the presidency four times, over 12 years.
For political and cultural reasons, President Tinubu was not wrong in according Buhari a presidential burial. But after the noise, Nigerians should fervently pray and thank God for surviving Buhari. Nigerians should also pray and plead with God not to grant Buhari’s soul any atom of rest. And perhaps, more importantly, Nigerians should faithfully pray that the maker of Heaven and Earth, in His infinite mercy, should not allow Buhari to escape from hell, and sauter again into Nigeria. May the cruelty and incompetence which Buhari represented never befall Nigeria again. Finally, may Nigeria move forward in unity and glory, now and forever.
Fidelis Ajuzie
Ottawa, Canada
