How Buhari Has Proven His Opponents Wrong

Editor’s Note: Adedayo Ademuwagun is a political analyst, who believes that president Muhammadu Buhari has proven his opponents and haters wrong with his unique leadership style.

Story Highlights:

– How Jonathan demonised Buhari

– Buhari got the better of his opponents with his style of leadership

– The president once ruled by force

The piece is an opinion of the author, Adedayo Ademuwagun, and does not necessarily represent those of Naij.com or any of its editors.

Politicians often try to beat their opponents in an election by making them look bad before voters. That was what happened during the last presidential election in Nigeria.

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Supporters of former president, Goodluck Jonathan sponsored lots of promos in the media to demonise president Muhammadu Buhari, when it became clear that Jonathan might lose the election to him. They taunted him about his school certificate. They criticised him about his age and then they dug up his past just to ruin his popularity.

But the interesting thing is that, for every thing Buhari’s opponents did to sway the people against him, it seemed to draw people closer to him and made them more determined to remove Jonathan from being president.

There was particularly one ad about a little girl whose mom was executed for drug trafficking during Buhari’s rule. She was the first woman to be executed in Nigeria, and a lot of people at the time thought her execution showed the brutality with which that regime ran the country. So in the ad they used a voiceover of the girl appealing to Buhari not to kill her mom, and it had a touching effect.

To be honest, Buhari’s rule at the time was despotic. He and his vice Tunde Idiagbon ruled with force. Soldiers used beat people on the streets for not queuing and there was what they called war against indiscipline. If someone was believed to be corrupt, he was quickly seized, brought before an army tribunal and handed a long jail term. However, the good part is that there was some discipline and orderliness at the time.

So fast forward to this year when Jonathan people brought that up. They condemned Buhari as a former dictator who would still be so even in a democracy and that he shouldn’t get a chance to president. But this man was graceful in his response.

He said in one interview, “All those things [happened] under a military administration, and when that military adminstration came under my leadership, we — the military — suspended the part of the constitution that we felt would be difficult for us to operate under those circumstances.

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“So I think I’m being judged harshly as an individual that what happened during the military administration can be extended under a multiparty democracy system.”

Despite all these attempts to demonise the former soldier, the Nigerian people weren’t deterred and on election day people turned out to vote for their man. Four years ago Jonathan beat him by a wide margin and he didn’t even come second. But this time the equation had changed and Buhari grabbed the victory. Now the people felt things will be better because there’s a new man in charge.

Well actually, people partly wanted to have a feel of Buhari’s stern side. Even though his military government was heavy handed, Buhari really had the reputation for being a no-nonsense person who had no tolerance for corruption and indiscipline, and people thought this was the sort of the leader the nation needed presently.

Corruption had worsened under Jonathan and though he tried to prevent it, his approach was weak and largely ineffective. When two of his ministers were indicted for corruption for instance, he hesitated to fire them. The people didn’t want that kind of leader. They wanted a strong leader, and this is the part where Buhari came in.

But so far Buhari hasn’t really been paternalistic and certainly not dictatorial. It’s like he’s changed. In fact, it’s ironic that a lot of people now are saying he’s slow to act. This is completely different from what the people expected when they voted. They wanted a revolutionary who would make the hard choices and wield a strong arm. But Buhari seems to prefer a less forceful approach.

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For instance, when there was a leadership dispute in the legislature recently, some people thought Buhari would step in strongly like a father whose kids are fighting over who should get the larger piece of the chocolate. That’s probably what any of the former presidents would have done.

But the president distanced himself from the mess and stayed neutral. He said he believed the legislators should be allowed to choose their own leaders and he didn’t intervene. And when things worsened and people pressured him to step in, he did so in a pacifist way that was received positively.

Moving forward, the president will need to find a balance between being despotic and being democratic. The people really want to see results and are willing to let him make the tough choices if that will solve the problems. Everyone’s on board with him and he’s got the people’s mandate to get things done.

He needs to quicken his pace and make some strong calls. But in all, Buhari has really proven his opponents wrong with his style of leadership.

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