Run, PMB, run but….

It’s true that the debate on whether President Buhari should run for a second term in 2019 had started even before Chief Obasanjo’s infamous public letter to him. But Obj’s letter had spurred things on and kept the issue on a front burner. Loyal readers of this column might recall that, when I wrote an unsolicited letter of advice to PMB in 2015, I added a paragraph in which I specifically advised him to beware of Olusegun Obasanjo. 

Well it seems like I wasn’t wrong in thinking that the former president will not only be a bad influence on President Buhari but he would also  betray him at the slightest opportunity. This letter has proved me right.

The central theme of that I’ll-conceived letter, was a message to President Muhammadu Buhari not to seek re-election in 2019. Chief Obasanjo’s reasons for this advice are that Buhari had failed as president because of nepotism, lack of economic sense and failure to tackle insecurity, among other things. He went ahead to form a Coalition for Nigeria with the sole aim of ensuring that PMB does not make it back to Aso Rock Villa in 2019. 

Expectedly, there were people who applauded the dubious former president and many of these hearkened to his call and joined the coalition. But the generality of Nigerians picked holes in Obasanjo’s letter and reminded him that all his claims regarding Buhari’s administration are outright lies and an attempt to soil the record of a man who had done more in two years to serve Nigeria than he himself did in eight years. 

Needless to say I am one of these people. In countries where past leaders are called to account, Chief Obasanjo should be somewhere in prison, paying for economic and financial crimes, amongst other misdeeds. But because here in Naija, some things are just allowed to happen, OBJ is not just a free man, but without any moral authority, he has made himself the conscience of the nation.

In my assessment, PMB’s top marks are in the way the insurgency was tackled. Though we had celebrated Shekau’s death many times in the past, only for him to play the phoenix and rise again, it is truly heartwarming to know that today, the dreaded, coldblooded murderer of innocent men, women and children is on the run, dressed as a woman. Even if this is the only achievement of the Buhari administration, the defeat of Boko Haram is proof that this government is no failure. 

Never mind that the orchestrated Fulani herdsmen conspiracy is making it look like the government has lost grip on the security situation, the truth is those who are hell-bent on taking the shine off the victory over Boko Haram are the ones army other terror gangs and making them pose ad Fulani herdsmen so they can make political capital out of it.

Now that the police top brass have all their eyes are on the killer Fulani herdsman, with a view to unravelling the mystery behind his metamorphosis from a herder to a mass murderer, surprising discoveries are daily being made on the true identity of this killer.

The many so far captured are neither Fulani nor herdsmen but are members of secret militias being funded by top politicians, including governors, in order to shed blood and promote the notion of incessant insecurity.

On the issue of nepotism, I am yet to see a minister or an adviser or even a state commissioner who is either a son or daughter, a sibling or a nephew, an ill-law or a good friend of PMB’s. But in Obj’s days, we have seen the rise of his daughter from a state commissioner to a senator, his ill-laws, ie kinsmen to late Stella Obasanjo also held big positions as ministers and heads of national parastatals. Did we raise hell and say he had failed the country?

A lot of other misdeeds are attributable to Chief Obasanjo, like the brazen daylight bribery of legislators via huge ‘Ghana must go’ bags bearing tax-payers money, yet no one said he had no right to contest a second term. Should we now listen to his pontification when he clearly has no moral right to preach to others?

Obasanjo has criticised PMB for being a novice on the economic front. Yet we are living witnesses the gains being made by the country through the implementation of the TSA (treasury single account) the rise in our foreign reserves, the acceptance by Britain government of our currency as a medium of economic exchange and the revival of local industries and agriculture to an unprecedented level in recent history. Are all these gains possible under someone who is clueless about the economy? What did Obasanjo do in his eight year tenure to safeguard and strengthen local industries and boost farming that is comparable to this?

 Even the much touted suffering of the Nigerian masses under this administration was very much visible during Obasanjo’s first term. The Daily Trust cover illustrating this page dates back to early 2003 when Obj was seeking a second term. Then it was his boy, now comrade-in-Buhari-bashing, IBB who was tellimg him that Nigerians were suffering under him. Yet that did not make anyone say the Otta farmer should go back to his farm and forget a second term.

And at least under PMB we can cite low price of crude oil, a depleted foreign reserve and the massive looting that took place under PDP’s 16 years of misrule as factors that caused the economic hardships people are going through. What was there during Obj that could justify the way people suffered then? 

Above all, this government’s anti-corruption drive is a star point with the people. So many untouchable people are now down on their knees paying for the audacious way they looted the country and left key sectors and infrastructure in tatters. Some were even heartless enough to divert funds meant for fighting the insurgency into private pockets but now all of them are paying for this in one way or the other. How is this possible if the administration did not put her heart and soul into fighting corruption? This is probably what the masses of Nigeria recognise and applaud such that despite the hardships they still encounter, they are convinced of better days ahead. 

So should Buhari run in 2019? Yes by all means he should. Nothing that Obj said or IBB seconded could hold water against the record so far achieved by Buhari’s two and a half year long adminstration. 

But to consolidate these gains, PMB must hasten prosecution of all people indicted for corruption. This is the only way to convince most Nigerians that no one is above the law. The president must also weed out nonperforming, bench warmers from his cabinet because there are ministers and advisers that are no better than ghost workers.

Then ministers who use their position to intimidate their subordinates into flouting due processes must alsi be shown the door. They are no better than their corrupt predecessors.

Policies must be created to cushion the economic hardships being experienced by Nigerians on account of the looting that took place under past administrations. The rural farmers are faring better because recent agric interventions favour them but the urban poor can do with economic policies that will trickle down to them. 

On the issue of security, now that we have, hopefully seen the end of Boko Haram, the orchestrated farmer-herdsmen clashes, the menace of kidnappers and cattle rustlers are the ones to tackle head-on. And with sincerity and determination, these too will become history. 

But the way to start is for PMB to set up a new, energised team of ministers and advisors; and his victory in 2019 will come to pass, in sha Allah.