Dear Citizen Muhammadu Buhari, how are you doing today? I am under the impression that you have a short temper, but you will do well to shove it aside and reason with me in the short space occupied by this epistle. I have cause to address you in common terms because, yes, you are a citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria like me.
Besides, I referred to you as such in a brief note to General Yakubu Gowon (rtd.) yesterday, and I thought you should know what I told your compatriot at first hand. Let it not seem as though I were saying things behind your back. Peace be still, for I shall tell you what you could never expect to hear from Pastor Tunde Bakare, your running mate.
Which reminds me. Only one week ago, precisely on Sunday 17 April 2011, this year’s edition of the London Marathon took place in the British capital. It turned out that there were over 5,000 runners, each in costumes ranging from the ordinary to the extravagant, all of them out to exercise their limbs and raise funds for various charities around the world.
In the end, one solitary figure sped past the lot and breasted the tape. He has since been recorded in the history books as Emmanuel Mutai, 26, of Kenya. Mutai placed second in last year’s edition of the race, and returned with a good conscience to slug it out. ‘It was fantastic to win the race and improve my personal best’, he said.
On the same date last week, Nigerians were toasting to the successful conduct of the presidential elections the day before. And because, in every race, losers give way to a winner, we looked forward to a clear winner in the Nigerian political marathon. International election observers were on hand to witness the event, and they turned in a verdict to the effect that there was a remarkable improvement on the 12 June 1993 elections, arguably our best effort before now.
Going by the results announced by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, you were not the winner of the race to the presidency. In the true spirit of sportsmanship, therefore, it was only to be expected that you would be gracious enough to congratulate Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan who beat you to second place by a clear margin of at least 10 million votes.
I recall that in January 2008, you were in a good mood to pat Senator John Mcaine on the back, congratulating him for being a gallant loser to President Barack Obama of the United States of America. It is a great pity that you have since lost that gracious mood at the home front. You are setting a terrible example, I dare say, for younger politicians.
You have become a great disappointment where you ought to be a hero in the making of a new Nigeria, a nation where conceding defeat at the first ballot should be an ingrained practice for the true democrat. In fact, you have proven quite clearly that you do not deserve to be named in our democratic hall of fame. And I say this advisedly.
We cannot forget in a hurry how rudely you butted into the democratic space on 31 December 1983, with your dawn broadcast of a coup. For one who consigned an Executive President freely elected by the will of the Nigerian people to prison, you owe our land and people a full-fledged apology. It is a mark of just how generous the Nigerian spirit is that you and your khaki-minded kind should gain any prominence in political matters at all in our nation.
I enjoin you to learn at Gowon’s foot. Like you, he was military Head of State, and your superior officer. You fought the civil war under his overall command. It so happens that he went on to read Political Science to the doctorate level in a British university after his tenure at the helm of affairs. But, today, decorum forbids him to step forward and seek to be elected to high office.
I have no doubt that he would be kind enough to draw your attention to one of the cardinal tenets of democracy, namely that it is the will of the citizenry that prevails in an election. Certainly, not the tiresome hubris of one man who would dip the Nigerian flag and everything it represents into a pool of innocent blood, simply because he failed to secure the sympathy of the electorate on the strength of a few questionable tears shed in public.
I don’t know about other Nigerians, but I pulled out my handkerchief when I saw you shedding tears and recounting the unflattering tale of Nigeria’s excesses at the close of your presidential campaign. You were very persuasive, I tell you. But it didn’t come to me as a surprise that you came second in the polls. For once, let it be obvious to the world that Nigeria is not some landed property open to indefinite acquisition by the northern oligarchy.
Be reminded that, in the West African Pilot edition of 12 October 1960, the Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, who was also Sardauna of Sokoto at the time, is quoted as saying: ‘This new nation called Nigeria should be an estate of our great grandfather, Uthman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We use the minorities in the North as willing tools, and the South, as conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us, and never allow them to have control over their future’.
Surely, you don’t subscribe to that thinking, do you? Coming from a prominent political figure of the day, in the very first fortnight marking the nation’s independence from Britain, that statement remains injurious to reason. Nothing could be more shocking, and yet that has been the quiet agenda pursued by you and your ilk for five full decades now. Only God has seen it fit to have it reversed. Only God will ensure it remains so.
We are in the 21st century, dwelling in a world where the advances in the information superhighway have made democracy more open, healthier and more competitive. What happened to the spirit of discipline that you tried so hard to inculcate in Nigerians if you cannot conduct yourself respectably, and seek justice in a court of law if you feel aggrieved over the elections?
Do not pull us back into a shameful past where narrow sectional interests are sharpened on the whetstone of religious bigotry and a false sense of political superiority. Do well to cultivate the traits of character that are so abundantly evident in the person of President Jonathan — traits of humility, deference, tolerance and maturity, traits that have endeared him to the discerning Nigerian and earned him four authentic years at the head of our nation.
You must take heart, Citizen Buhari. Put your sword back in its sheath, and get your followers to do the same. We have seen enough bloodshed in one lifetime. Let peace prevail in the land you profess to love so much. Let good luck pervade the length and breadth of Nigeria in this brand new century. Let the man from Oloibiri take his place at the helm of affairs for the first time in 50 years. After all, oil has never been discovered in Daura, to say nothing of gas.
Written in London, Sunday, 24 April 2011
