GENERAL BUHARI SPEAKS TO THE LONDON FINANCIAL TIMES: Goodluck Jonathan faces challenge from anti-corruption ex-general - By: William Wallis in London via ft - June 12, 2014 Muhammadu Buhari, who could emerge as the main challenger to Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan at next year’s elections, is positioning himself as the strongman needed to root out corruption and roll back the brutal Islamist insurgency tearing at the country. “We are almost over the cliff,” says the 71-year old former general, who seized power in 1983 and ruled Africa’s most populous nation with authoritarian zeal before being overthrown by rival generals 20 months later. The coalition he formed last year alongside Bola Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos state and political godfather in Nigeria’s Yoruba-speaking southwest, and Atiku Abubakar, a wealthy former vice-president, will on Friday begin the delicate task of choosing party leaders. Over the past nine months, their All Progressives Congress has attracted a number of state governors and national assembly members defecting from Mr Jonathan’s ruling People’s Democratic party, giving them control of 16 of the country’s 36 states. The challenge now for the APC is to pick a winning team, while ensuring that its coalition survives internal battles for control. General Buhari has tried three times to win power at the ballot box since the military returned to barracks in 1999 and remains a frontrunner to win party primaries later this year and to take on Mr Jonathan for the second time since 2011. His supporters believe the February 2015 elections provide the best opportunity yet for an opposition victory, given the widespread criticism of Mr Jonathan’s handling of the insurgency by the Boko Haram terrorist group that is ravaging the country’s impoverished northeast, and growing public disgust at the corruption accompanying Nigeria’s emergence as Africa’s largest economy. “Indiscipline, corruption and incompetence” are eating away at the authority of the state and “compromising state institutions”, Gen Buhari says. “We are a rich country with fantastically talented and resourceful people. We must organise ourselves to realise our potential,” he said, adding: “We have to kill corruption before corruption kills Nigeria.” Gen Buhari provides a strong contrast to Mr Jonathan – a Christian and former zoology lecturer who hails from the oil-producing south and who has sought to introduce a more consensual form of politics during his five years in office. In contrast, Gen Buhari is a devout Muslim with an ascetic lifestyle, who won admiration among some Nigerians for the “war against indiscipline” he launched in the 1980s and commands a dedicated following among poorer inhabitants of the north. He swept the northern, Muslim vote in 2011 in an election which divided Nigerians sharply along religious and ethnic lines. But Gen Buhari’s austere image tends to rattle Nigeria’s elites, and he is still deeply resented in the mostly Christian south for the human rights abuses carried out during his tenure as military ruler. Ruling party officials have played on fears in the south of a return to political domination by the north. They have portrayed Gen Buhari, with some degree of success, as a religious fanatic, suggesting that he is unelectable in the south regardless of who he is allied with. This poses a dilemma for the opposition APC. The party’s members are divided over whether they should trade the general’s national stature and following for a younger, less divisive candidate, potentially from among state governors. Gen Buhari rejects suggestions that he is a “fundamentalist”, pointing to the Christian pastor, Tunde Bakare, he chose as running mate in the 2011 polls. He is still fit despite his age, he says. “I think the party is very much aware of these issues of religion and age. If the party gives me the ticket I will consider.” As violence associated with Boko Haram has escalated, Gen Buhari has been careful to rise above the fray, calling on Nigerians to unite against terrorism. But he expresses deep concern at the state of Nigeria’s military and backs inquiries by the National Assembly into allegations of corruption in the allocation of the $6bn defence budget. “Everything about checking corruption...ends up at the presidency,” he adds. Each time he has lost elections in the past, Gen Buhari has cried foul, citing widespread fraud, but he says Nigerians have become less tolerant of vote rigging and he draws inspiration from the recent change of power in India. “If the government is serious about stabilising the country they will ensure the [2015] election is free and fair and that the people can choose the leaders that they want.” Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2014. You may share using our article tools. COMMENT: During Buharis tenure, he would inspect institutions across the country in disguise, usually driving a Volkswagen Beetle alone (perhaps why he was unseated relatively easily); he would proceed to dole out relatively severe punishments (e.g. a couple of days accommodation courtesy of the government) for even minor offences such as unpunctuality, creating an atmosphere of excitement, fear and enfranchisement in equal measures . . . his strengths seem suited to tackling the problems currently plaguing Nigeria, namely corruption and insurrection!
Posted on: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 16:37:12 +0000
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