GEN. BUHARI AND THE CORRUPTION OF POWER: Why he is unelectable

For a while after the televised process that saw him clinch the nomination to run for President on the platform of the APC, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari enjoyed something of a buzz. Neatly packaged in Savile Row suits, his visage betraying a thin, reluctant smile, his gangly frame projected an image of seriousness required to deal with the many challenges that have followed us as a nation. This carefully put on image bolstered by his accoutrements would appear to belie the authoritarian impulses that have animated his life and a rigidity that is counterproductive in a complex heterogeneous polity such as ours. So how genuine is this makeover? At a campaign rally in one of the states in the South-South, he spoke from the abundance of his heart and affirmed that as president he would jail all the corrupt politicians. His more experienced aides flinched, realising that such a statement recalled the general's highly partisan approach to fighting corruption as military head of state. Many politicians of the opposition would have needed to have the life time of two or three Methuselahs combined to serve the prison terms that were imposed. 300 year jail terms were the norm. But those in power whose misbehaviour supposedly occasioned the coup that brought him to power were treated with kid gloves causing the colourful Kano politician, Alhaji Sabo Bakin Zuwo of blessed memory to quip that Buhari had left the bus driver and was chasing after the conductor. Umaru Dikko of the ruling party was only scapegoated after he raised a contemptuous voice of opposition against the coup and for his trouble was kidnapped from a London street, drugged, crated and bound for delivery to Buhari and co in Lagos until Providence intervened and he was liberated from captivity by British police. There are several other instances of Buhari's manifest abuse of power but for the purpose of our argument only two will suffice: the public execution of three youngmen for drug trafficking, the death penalty imposed for that offence AFTER they had been arrested, but made to take retroactive effect; the jailing of two reporters of The Guardian under a decree that made journalists (or anyone) for any report that embarrassed a government official even if the report was true! The holier than thou attitude that would appear to propel his conduct in office was soon shown to be spurious. To wit: the 53 suitcases episode that many believed subverted the currency change move when an Emir enjoyed the privilege of a military escort under the command of his A.D.C, Major Mustapha Jokolo no less to move the suitcases out of Lagos airport without undergoing Customs procedures to the consternation of the Customs commandant at the airport who was powerless to stop the movement. That commandant is the same Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who is today nestled in the same APC as Buhari. Talk of strange bedfellows. Or is it rather a case of birds of the same feather...? Then there was the case of the young son of his deputy, Gen Tunde Idiagbon, who accompanied his father on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia at the very moment the regime said it had banned the under- aged from performing the pilgrimage. Those who are wont to be generous may discount this past and even the gaffe(?) at that South South rally when he again promised to jail all corrupt politicians - until he was made to correct himself at the next stop saying that he would only look forward not backwards. But is the general capable of such a transformation? On the face of it, there is nothing wrong with tackling corruption or jailing corrupt politicians and, one might add, corrupt retired military generals. But will there be due process? And won’t it be tainted by favouritism as the general demonstrated in his short stint as military head of state rendering the entire move a mockery that was easy to be overturned? The fact, Gen Buhari, is that governance can be a painfully slow and methodical process, necessitating the building of systems and emplacement of procedures. Decrees, vengefulness and "immediate effect" pronouncements may make good theatre and give room for dealing with enemies but they are guaranteed to ultimately subvert the pronounced purpose. And certainly they do not promote good governance. In any case how much change can a 72 year old man undergo who right from his military days was known to be too much stuck in his ways( the problem with Buhari is that he is too rigid, ex- military colleagues are wont to say)?

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