BY DOMINIC KIDZU
The Nigerian political and busines elite are insuferably pretentious and miserably hypocritical to the dead, in the way they pay them generous epithets that tell little of the story of their lives, in retrospect. Unfortunately, one of my overarching bankruptcies is that I am unable to put on a bold face to these ungainly platitudes; base fawnings, false affectation and what some might tragically call crocodile tears.
I thank the Almighty that history is written with the ink of cold, hard, immutable facts, not sentiment, or the tongue-tied monologue of the usually lice- infested memory of politicians and tribal jingoists. As the philosopher and polemist, Uthman Dan Fodio said – “conscience is an open wound, only truth can heal it.” No wonder George Orwell, God bless his soul, said that “the only good human being is a dead one.”
The truth that is available to the public and which I can appreciate is that late President Buhari was a mean and wicked leader whose ambitions were far larger than his own education, capacity and intellect could bear. This ambition for grandiose positions in the society were not borne out of altruistic necessity or a compelling heroic mission to free the masses from the burden of suffering. Nor did he posses any outstanding quality that would immediately recommend him for leadership.
The tragedy of his life is that his fetid mind fed him, almost forever, with illusions of his own greatness, which made the quest for him to lead, almost compulsive and inevitable. This desperation for power was to boldly disclose itself when the general broke into an uncontrollable sob on national tv in 2011 because he had failed again, as he had before, to be elected president. And then, in the most unlikely circumstances, Buhari was dramatically elected president! And I might well accept a wager that were his school teachers still alive, they might have been not a little amused.
It was not long before Nigerians realized that the office was too big, the load too heavy and the job too demanding for Mr President. In the end Buhari became the worst president Nigeria ever had while long suffering citizens continue, even today, to pay the price for his unfortunate presidency. Soon, it became clear that the president had no WAEC certificate and was crasly second rate in everything he put his plough to, no matter what his handlers made him up to look like.
One of the emblems he wore even unto his sepulchre was his grand patronage of the Fulani Cattle Rearers Association, an organization that blossomed under his presidency, and caused unbelievable mayhem across the country, particularly in Benue state. At some point the people of Benue were left with only one choice to make: to allow the Fulanis to take over their land or be slaughtered in their masses. The president, of course, had neither sympathy nor empathy for them.
His cult following in the North leaves me with a curious enquiry about its basic fundamentals. I am however, inexorably consoled, that history is replete with bad people who also had cult following. Adolf Hitler, Donald Trump, Charles Manson, Shoko Asahara or even Mohammadu Marwa, who was the hideous leader of Maitatsine group that wrecked mayhem in Kano in the 80s.This is because Buhari lacked a generous spirit or sagacious temperament and was at best taciturn and reticent. He was certainly not charismatic. He had no admirable good nature and temper, nor considerable charm or culture.
It may be argued that the suffering he brought upon his countrymen as president was not intended, he was just not aware, certainly incapable of even being aware. As president, he was unfortunately, a guest at his own wedding, but was assailed with the idea that he was a hero, much in the vane vauntings of Ozimandias, in the poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley – who painted a gory picture of the half-sunken remains of a boastful king of the powerful Egyptian empire, symbolizing the fleeting nature of power and the ultimate triump of time and nature.
To recall his brief reign as military maximum ruler is to look at the stark canvas of pain, suffering and cruelty. That is why I am so awfully flustered at the false epithets and attributes that are being paid to the fallen president. Others say he was not corrupt, yet mega heists were enacted during his reign and his closest allies stole unbelievable billions for themselves. How then can Buhari take the bath of the hornbill and claim to be innocent. In 1983, he threw people into jail as often as the fancy took him, business people, journalists, politicians, you don’t want to name it.
Buhari was an irredentist of ethnic Fulani superiority, who strenuously advanced their advantage in all spheres of life and an extreme religious bigot who condoned the macabre slaughtering of Shiite members in Zaria upon the drop of a hat. He was a hideous and monstrous ogre in real life. Even Gorgon Medusa had its favorite mortals, and so I believe that there must be some strange mortals that experienced his rare sunny side. For the vast majority of Nigerians it is difficult to wish him any rest in peace.
Dominic Kidzu writes from Calabar.
