BUHARI HAS MOMENTUM By Obi Nwakanma By some indications, simply by tracking all the polling numbers measuring possible outcomes for the February elections, it seems that Muhammadu Buhari, former Major-General of the Nigerian Army and former Military Head of state of Nigeria, has gained momentum in the polls in his current run for the presidency. The latest numbers by INEC showing the distribution of registered voters nationwide and by their regional or zonal propensities, pretty much reveals interesting realities in the current voting landscape. It seems that there is very high voters’registration in the areas that might be Buhari’s strongholds in the Northeast, North West, parts of the West and parts of the North central areas. Buhari’s momentum can equally be measured in the support currently offered him by once solid backers of Jonathan like, yes, Fr. Camillus Ejike Mbaka, who began to speak in tongues after the holy ghost, (Cardinal Bunmi Okogie says it might be Agwu) visited him and compelled him to give the Jonathan campaign a terrible shellacking. The effect continues to be felt in the Jonathan camp: God may not be a registered voter in Nigeria, but folks like Mbaka who purport to speak for him, have vast followership – minds so powerfully twisted by faith as to believe Mbaka’s visionary and prophetic missions. Buhari thus gains where the president falters. Travelling this past couple of weeks around Nigeria, I’ve had to pay attention, and listen closely, and track my own figures in the emerging polls. Buhari has the wind on his sails – no matter the distractions of his certificate saga. buhariThe President seems to be treading waters. I think that the president’s Campaign staff have not given enough bite to the President’s message, or shaped the debate in ways that might give President Goodluck Jonathan a good bite in the public imagination. They rely on the same old rhetoric, and the same old method of delivering it. Someone should have told them that one of the greatest issues that President Jonathan has is his image in the public eye as a very weak president without charisma. His drab exterior is a thorough campaign issue that could have been addressed by a few professional speech coaches; a little stage direction, and consistent midnight strategy groupmeets working to craft the message to suit the image of a president whose great selling points should have been intellect, the common touch, and the patient democrat – qualities that should have been played up rather than subsumed in the inefficient campaign rhetoric crafted for the president about his next goals. Basically, the President has quite clearly been unable to sell his real achievements to Nigerians and that is a crying shame. The president has been described as weak on the economy, weak on domestic security; weak on innovative governance, and weak on corruption. The president’s campaign lost the opportunity to charge back at General Buhari who declared he would jail people for corruption. The president should have used that opportunity to press hard on the General to show how he would let that tyre hit the coal-tar, given that no elected president has the constitutional power to prosecute or jail any offenders. I think that it is important to continue to emphasize this point, that the rule of law is the cornerstone of democracy, and that Nigerians must understand key democratic principles, and why we fought for democracy – messy, bureaucratic, and slow as it is sometimes bound to be. No president has the power to prosecute anybody, or to stop corruption. There is only one institution in Nigeria charged by law with that function: it is the Nigerian Police and its ancillary arm, the EFCC – which has the duty to investigate, and even anticipate, and stop the commission of crime, including the crime of corruption, within Nigeria’s domestic space. This is what the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police exists for. It is the duty of the Attorney-General, following unimpeachable evidence collected on behalf of the ministry of Justice by the police, to prosecute every KNOWN crime on behalf of the Federal government in matters under federaljurisdiction. It is not the work of the president, even if he, as does the National Assembly, by virtue of its control of the federal purse, have oversight of the police. Indeed, under the powers granted these institutions, the presidency, following the authorization of the National Assembly, can equally be investigated and prosecuted for corruption by these institutions charged with that function. So those who charge the president of “not fighting corruption” should take note that such powers lie within three institutions – the police, the civil service, and the National Assembly. The president can change and appoint as many new Inspectors General as he likes, but for as long as the institutions are fundamentally weak and corrupt, God himself were he to be elected President will not stop corruption. It is important therefore for Nigerians to elect those who would work to strengthen these institutions – particularly, a great legislature – which can make all the difference. The president’ power is not absolute. What may be a valid argument, however, against this president is that he did not do himself any favors in pardoning Alemesiagha, under whom he served, and in providing protection to the Minister for oil who had been summoned to the National Assembly. That the president did not work with this National Assembly to reform the Nigerian police Services; that body constitutionally charged with protecting the homeland from crimes and domestic terrorism, into a modern, efficient, well-trained, well-led institution might equally count against him. Perhaps that is where Buhari could make a difference. That the president seemed to lack a coherent National Security policy and platform that should have dealt proactively with his current internal security challenges, speak to a profound conceptual gap in the President’s choice of policy staff. Nigerians say, and this is why the charge of corruption lurks around his government, that the billions of naira budgeted and spent on National Defence, and National Security, does not seem to add up to the evident state of Nigeria’s national security preparedness, given its inability thus far to check Boko Haram, and an embarrassing dependency on foreign governments to defend Nigeria’s sovereign domestic space. This is the question to which the President and his Campaign team are yet to articulate clear answers and responses. Basically: what happened to Nigeria’s defence budget? The fact that national security has become a cash cow leaves a troubling taste in the mouths of Nigerians. This is why Buhari has suddenly gained traction in the minds of Nigerians: increasingly, more Nigerians trust him on National security; more trust him on anti-corruption; more seem to trust him to bring fiscal discipline in the running of the state. But it may also all be misguided trust, and Mr. Buhari will, if he wins this election, sooner find out that he’s out of his depths, because the workings of democracy are different from the fiat of military orders. It will also require more than hope and chutzpa to turn a very broke Nigeria around in the face of serious slides in the global oil market. But the clear fact is, unless the president’s Campaign team finds a quick turn-around, beyond the distraction of a Buhari certificate palaver, this election may already be won and lost. - See more at: vanguardngr/2015/01/buhari-momentum/
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 13:19:39 +0000
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