Weeping for Failing Election is Another Great Lesson to Nigerians

By Matts Udoaka

Whether we like it or leave it, it’s never a secret that a towering retired General-turned politician had wept publicly for failing to win the election he had prepared himself for his swearing-in, on May 29, 2011 as the President of this great country.

This childish debacle, and debased re-action did not come from none other than a prowling personality of General Muhammadu Buhari(retd), the change personage of recent times whose military antecedent alone is capable of swaying his feeling from warped out-burst that could bring his image to ridicule. The General did not know that to weather a political storm has more to it that scares away the timid than firing a bullet to kill an enemy.

Though politics is a game of uncertainty as accepted by James Hadfield, better for those who started the political gamesmanship in the campus as Student Union Government (SUG) leaders than those who were recruited into army. By that the student activist knows how to skillfully avert landing on a misplaced turf of political speculation when getting to a wider society.

Making friend with a strange bed-fellow is what has brought about a public disgrace to a statesman. In other words, the student who started his political career in the campus has a leverage and courage to absorb sarcastic and tendentious fall out than the lad who was freshly recruited into the army. To put it direct, the former was trained to lead in government and the private sector and to stomach the opium that goes with the rudiment of leadership; whereas the latter learns only how to defend and at best to reproduce the language of the coupes and revolutionary. One can notice why ‘change’, a borrowed word from Obama Campaign Organization in 2008 infiltrated into Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s political lexicon. That is the word he remembers as a soldier, and such a harsh principle that fails to convince the enlightened in the present circumstance; unless the General means changing from the Sharia concept he holds to a more generalized liberal concept.

                        

Going back to the point that beamed the General as he wept, it was an irony of belief that a retired General of Buhari’s standing could weep in the public because of his inability to succeed in winning election that remained open to others too. What a twist of event that can repeat itself again this time around and that should mean Buhari translating his numerous threats to cause war against his nation. That is a great lesson for Nigerians to take note of and condemn as unwarranted outburst.

It was only at reading another statesman’s letter which emanated from the former President of this country Alhaji Shehu Shagari that I strongly believed Buhari’s action was not a fiction.

With due respect to His Excellency, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) what does weeping connote in political history? Does it mean that his tears and promise never to present himself again for election as president show the depth of his uncontrolled emotional feelings or the crass short temperament? How can a man be unprincipled to declare  publicly that he can never seek to rule the country again but go back on his words and present himself again at age 74, in this present day of intellectual, brainy, and highly exposed young Nigerians who command a stupendous upbeat to serve their nation well. This is a standard to examine in this present day Nigeria and another lesson of Buhari’s tears. Vividly, is it a patient, tolerant, peaceful and matured man that can weep in the eyes of the public because he has failed, how be it thrice in election that Abraham Lincoln and others have failed a number of times without uttering a resenting word until they finally won?

If not for age, it is my humble submission that Gen. Buhari should be trained first on how to absorb political unpleasantness with equanimity, before presenting himself to be voted for.

Nigeria is a vast country, too large for any despot to rule. Such ruler ship of yester years  befits the emergency period that saw Buhari forcing himself on the saddle  of this nation. The country requires one with large heart who can withstand insult, blackmail, personality pull-you-down syndrome etc. and all the dirty letters like those written to Jonathan at various times. A man who counts something as nothing is that man, and God Himself will count him as our President. The country needs a man who sticks out his neck to pull the country together, and not a religious begot whose aim is to rule the country in tatters to the glory of his religion. We have heard all the empty promises before. But now, we don’t need a man who feels another leader from another tribe has no right to lead the country unless his tribe.

Every Nigerian has a stake in this business of leadership. The northerners have held it in turn for more than fifty good years. Let the South-South pick the crump now and keep it for eight years only, after which we shall compare notes of development to see who performed best. We need resource control and actual fiscal federalism now.

That is what Muhammadu Buhari can never give to the nation. Any other tribe should be patient and wait for their turn after this coming one. Stoning of campaign convoy of President Jonathan is outdated, and should stop forthwith. Nigeria has experienced too much of campaign turmoil before, plus setting of cars ablaze. It is out-modeled and unacceptable to our system now. We don’t need it again. This part of the country is contending with our religion, so no point trying to bring a strange thing to us. We do not want extremists or slaughtering of people to go to heaven. Heaven has no place for hands soiled with blood. All those who killed others to succeed or clear their ways for success are bound to have death at the sentinel of their door post.

Nigerians have seen soldiers ruling enough. We do not want them again, unless to protect our territorial integrity and guard the country from insurgency. All the problems of corruption so orchestrated emanate from which source? It started from those who are now counting themselves as righteous. They have held us to ransom over the years. Therefore, we do not want them anymore. Nothing starts today in this country, and shall not also end today. It will take a gradual process to bring back Nigeria to its full strength, and what will pave the way for that is restructuring.

The National Conference report aims at restructuring. Let it be implemented as was promised by President Goodluck Jonathan. No other person will do that unless President Goodluck Jonathan who put the conference together. The northerners do not want it. They want to continue with the status quo ante of using our oil to develop themselves while we watch them. Let the Governors in the north put every effort to ensure that what they have in their land is used to develop themselves. The oil they are aiming at will one day dry up. May God guide Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to successfully implement the National conference recommendations. It is what every Nigerian should look up to, not implementation of Sharia law that will take this country to catastrophe.