Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but only empties today of its strength
More than halfway into the injury time of his political game at the Aso Rock Villa, fear of the coming verdict of history appears to have gripped President Muhammadu Buhari. Palpable fear, that is.
What does history hold in store for him after two terms as president? A second golden opportunity to make a big difference in the Nigerian story!
PMB received 96 months of broken mandate in 2015 and 2019 to make a positive impact on Nigeria. He is one of the two Nigerians who politics favoured with a second chance to lead this nation. The first such person is Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who, after serving as military head of state between 1976 and 1979, had the rare privilege of election as civilian President between 1999 and 2007.
After his 20-month stint as military head of state between 1983 and 1985, PMB returned as elected President in 2015, hoping to clock eight years come 2023.
Having used up 80 of his 96 months leading this country, Buhari recently revealed his apprehension about his possibly ending on a negative note. He does not want to end up a failure. His concern came to light during an emergency security chiefs’ meeting on Nigeria’s unending insecurity challenge.
Good enough to be concerned about one’s record of service but it is coming too late…16 months left of his rule. That is 83.3 per cent with the wind!
It is hard to imagine how he can salvage the regime and prevent his failure in just 16.7 per cent of his time in the presidential saddle. Too little, too late!
The President’s angst is directed at the wrong audience, the new service chiefs. He should have seen it coming, having over-delayed the exit of the former chiefs who were more interested in the politics of the office than in the duty of securing the country. For over five years, these jaded chiefs aligned themselves with the federal government propagandist and Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in constantly telling a bewildered nation that Boko Haram terrorists had been defeated even when the reality on the ground was the contrary. The lies continued and the President kept believing them and kept them to everybody’s consternation.
It had to take sustained pressure from all corners, including the National Assembly before they were removed as expected. But rather than treat them as failures, the President glorified them with ambassadorial postings.
Now that the damage is done and time is running out, the President is now telling their hapless replacements that he does not want to leave office as a failure. It does appear that the new service chiefs are like midwives brought in to manage a stillbirth.
In sports as in other fields, matches can be won or lost during injury time. But it has to be with a team that has a solid bench and whose players are known for resilience.
Nothing on the ground in the last 80 months to suggest that this regime under President Buhari has the capacity or the wherewithal to turn things around within the lifespan of the administration ending in 2023.
Even the President has just four months to do any magic. The last year, in reality, is left to play the politics of succession which is usually fierce in our clime. Buhari’s case may even be more ferocious because he has a divided political platform, the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Even a hitherto focused president succumbs to politics in the last lap of his regime, talk less of a podium as APC that has been wobbly and doddering in the last 80 months. It should therefore worry every discerning mind that the President is just realizing at the twilight of his tenure that the end may not be glamorous.
It sounds strange and surprising that PMB does not want to fail but all along has operated as though he does not care. All complaints of sound mind about his style of governance fell on deaf ears. Efforts to draw the regime’s attention to misfits in critical sectors fell on deaf ears. Constructive criticism of obvious policy summersaults was rejected and often taken as crying “wolf” when there’s none.
Nevertheless, one can understand why the President should be worried. Anybody God grants the rare grace of leading his country twice in one lifetime is privileged to correct his first mistakes. On the contrary, it does appear that President Buhari does not appreciate God’s special grace upon him. Instead, he repeated his first mistakes and even became brazen this time. Maybe as a way of erasing his anxiety, the President should try to be more prompt, for Walter Anderson notes that “nothing dismisses anxiety faster than action.”
But while we continue to share in the President’s dread of the verdict of history, the real tragedy should be the brutal return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
For many reasons, every discerning mind should be concerned about that development in that Far East region. The new power-holders there have listed Nigeria as among the countries they will ensure sharia law is fully practised.
The Taliban history in Afghanistan is similar to that of Nigeria’s terrorist group, Boko Haram. The Taliban was created with the help of the United States to checkmate and even collapse the then powerful Soviet Union.
When they became militant and uncontrollable after they were successfully used by the West, the same West turned on them and forced them out, treating them as a terror group for the Afghanistan government. To sustain the government, America spent trillions of dollars to keep the US forces there, train over 300,000 of the Afghan military and equipped them to checkmate about 120,000 Taliban fighters.
After the final withdrawal of US forces, the Taliban forces sacked the 300,000 Afghan counterparts with the President and force commanders on the run.
The fallout here is that it’s neither military hardware nor numbers that always count to win a war. Rather, it’s the will and determination to fight. Afghan forces were not willing, it’s also possible that the 300,000 Afghan soldiers America thought they were training for the government were indeed sympathetic to the Taliban.
What is the connection you may ask? Simple! Boko Haram, like the Taliban, was originally set up for selfish political reasons. After using them to achieve selfish goals, they could not manage them and they became what they are since 2009, a fierce terror group. The entire Boko Haram untrained ragtag militants of less than 100,000 operatives have remained undefeated for 12 years by nearly 450,000-strong Nigerian Armed Forces.
Their leader Abubakar Shekau remained undefeated for over a decade until he reportedly killed himself early this year during internal squabble and a successor emerged.
The inability of our federal troops even joining hands with neighbouring nations to defeat them should worry everybody, bearing in mind connecting landmark statements from two former Nigerian leaders. Gen Sani Abacha is quoted as saying, “If an insurgency lasts for more than 24 hours, the government must have a hand in it.” The immediate past president Goodluck Jonathan once said, “There are some Boko Haram members in my government.”
Against this backdrop, it should not be lost on us that the Taliban may have provided a template for the Boko Haram operation in Nigeria. More than a decade after its uprising against the Nigerian authorities, Boko Haram continues to get funding and all the needed logistics should concern us. Those found to be sponsors of Boko Haram in Nigeria, arrested in Dubai, have been tried and jailed there but their Nigeria counterparts, over 400 people, are yet to be charged in Nigeria. Instead, what you see is talk of amnesty for the so-called surrendering terrorists to an extent that military authorities are even joining issues with a bitter widow of an officer killed by Boko Haram. She is opposed to amnesty for those who made her a widow.
It’s not impossible that sooner than later, some northern state governors will be surrendering their government to either Boko Haram or bandits and fleeing like the Afghan President and Co. Already, the helpless governor of Katsina, the home state of PMB, Aminu Bello Masari, has directed his people to buy weapons and defend themselves. An unrepentant Governor Masari has even told his critics to channel their anger to the Federal Government who was supposed to secure the citizens.
We may be heading to a point where the rest of the country will be forced to negotiate with the terrorists. When this begins to happen the terrorists will get assistance from the Taliban and other Arab militants but the West, including the USA, will look at their disastrous outing in Afghanistan and say, “Never again.” By then, God forbid, we will be on our own.
In the past, we would think it an impossibility in Nigeria but we cannot say it any longer since 2009. The Islamic militancy brewing in northern Nigeria will be deployed at the appropriate time.
If you are a Christian or liberal Muslim and fail to read the writing on the wall, especially opposers of restructuring and sheepishly voting along political party lines, you wait and see.
Where are the Kabul MPs now? They are all over Europe at the mercy of asylum managers?
Nigeria, shine your eyes.
