(Opinion) Buhari’s first media chat By Bola Bolawole

President Muhammadu Buhari’s first media chat as an elected president has come and gone but the reverberations continue nonetheless. Some have hailed the president’s performance as stellar, especially presidential aides, hangers-on, and prospectives looking up to the administration for “something”. Critics, however, have taken the president’s performance apart, describing various aspects of it in uncomplimentary terms. Somewhere in-between both extremes lay the truth of the matter. For me, the president did not disappoint. Where I expected him to perform brilliantly, he did; and in the areas that everyone knew were not his strong points, he fumbled and wobbled through.
It is easy for some to forget why Nigerians rejected former President Goodluck Jonathan in the last election to pitch their tents with Buhari. For many, it was the lesser of two evils. For many also, it was decidedly a vote against Jonathan. We all knew Buhari inside-out; his strong as well as weak points. Many were they who wished that the best of Buhari could be married with the best of Jonathan but that proved a mere wishful thinking. The hard choice to be made was either Jonathan or Buhari – warts and all. Nigerians in their wisdom went along with Buhari, believing that he had what was needed to stem the tide washing away the country at frenetic speed under Jonathan as well as hoping that they would be able to rein in the demons in him that we all knew too well.
The media chat proved that Buhari, tried as he has done in the past few months, has not changed radically from the Buhari of the military era that we all knew. In a series of articles that I wrote and gave wide circulation some months ago, I made the point that we would soon have to find out whether Buhari is truly the “converted democrat” that he, during the campaigns, pleaded that he now is or a “convoluted democrat” that many feared he is. So far, the president has tried to mellow down his natural military instincts. By and large, he has succeeded but in all seriousness, no leopard ever succeeds in changing its spots. Or like my grandma used to say, a person’s innate character/personality is like a smoke; no matter how hard you try to suppress it, it will find a way of escape at all costs.
What critics pointed at as evidence of Buhari’s autocratic credentials during the media chat i.e. his comments on the bail granted to the embattled ex-National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, by a court of competent jurisdiction, and the massacre of Shiite Muslims in Zaria, Kaduna state by soldiers on the orders (?) of the Chief of Army Staff should not have come to anyone as a surprise. On Dasuki, Buhari must be putting up with suffocating frustration from the rigmarole of court processes. Witness also the same pussy-footing over the CCB trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki. Nigerians with the little information that have escaped into the public domain are enraged about the humongous amount involved in the arms deal as well as the impunity and heartlessness of those concerned. We must give it to Buhari that as president, he should have far more head-spinning information on Dasukigate as well as other pernicious rape of the country. Not only Buhari but many other citizens, were they to have their way, would, in these cases, want to jettison the niceties of due process and rule of law to have thieves and robbers of our common patrimony in goal without the annoying, time-wasting, and ridiculous acrobatic displays trending in the courtrooms.
On the Shiites, some of the critics appeared to be suggesting that Buhari, perhaps a Sunni Muslim, only betrayed the traditional hostility between both sects. The fact of the case, however, is that fundamentalist sects have done grievous harm to the polity. This country has a long history of religious crises, with bestiality and barbarism of blood-chilling proportions going along with them. Boko Haram is an example. The Shiites are said to have constituted themselves into a state within a state, conducting themselves as law unto themselves. It is obvious Buhari finds it difficult to talk nicely of such sects or treat them with kid gloves. There is nowhere in this whole wide world that dangerous sects are allowed the full benefits and niceties of the law to frustrate the State while carrying on with their nefarious activities.
When Nigerians voted Buhari, they expected him to come down hard on corruption; so far, he has not disappointed. Of course, Nigerians have also seen corruption fighting back. One of the potent weapons it uses, ironically, is the judicial system and democratic processes and nuances. The choice, then, is ours. While I am for the rule of law, it needs be stated that where it is crystal clear that there are concerted efforts to frustrate the course and cause of justice, then, we must bend over backwards to protect the polity against the selfish interests of the perverse few. The law is an ass, they say; but only the rich, the connected, the well-heeled and well-honed; and the powerful and influential get to ride this ass. If they are allowed, they will ride the ass until it drops dead under their obese weight.
When Nigerians voted Buhari, they knew his strong point was not making flowery speeches; if that was our interest, we would have asked IBB to end his “stepping aside” and step in again. So, that Buhari did not make stirring statements in the media chat did not unsettle me. We knew, also, that the president is not an economic guru; what we expect of him in that respect is that he would assembly a good team to run the economy and then give them a free hand. The economy was one area we regretted not having a candidate that was on top of the issue. Neither Jonathan nor Buhari was. It was clear to everyone that Jonathan’s team had run the economy aground; so we chose to invest our hopes in Buhari. If he performs, good gamble; if not, 2019 is around the corner.

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