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Date:February 7, 2019, 8:03 am

Vote Buhari, get the Cabal versus OsinbajoBy Mod - 15 minutes ago - [ Update ]

By Olu Fasan

GENERAL Muhammadu Buhari was elected president in 2015. He was not a good, rounded person for the job. He lacked knowledge of economic management. His economic philosophy, Buharinomics, as military ruler from 1984 to 1985 damaged Nigeria’s economy. He also lacked the quality of inclusive leadership; he couldn’t treat all Nigerians equally; championing, for instance, Fulani herders against non-Fulani farmers. Furthermore, he wasn’t well. This was apparently disguised during the 2015 election, but illness later hobbled his presidency.

But none of those mattered in 2015. There was public anger against insecurity and corruption, which the incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan, was incapable of tackling. So, cometh the hour, cometh the man! Nigerians turned to a former military dictator, who launched the War against Indiscipline, jailed politicians for up to 200 years each for corruption and ruthlessly suppressed insurgencies. In that moment of national crisis, with ravaging insecurity and debilitating corruption, Nigerians ignored Buhari’s weaknesses and focused on his perceived strengths.

Buhari

However, once in office, those weaknesses became dominant and the perceived strengths subdued. Buhari took over a struggling economy but made it worse through misguided and damaging policies. Under his watch, poverty and inequality became rife, with youth unemployment rising from 3m in 2015 to 13m in 2018 (a 263% increase over 3½ years). Nigerians are hardly safer now than they were before he took over in 2015. And his fabled reputation for fighting corruption? Well, the latest Transparency International corruption perception Index shows that, despite nearly four years of Buhari’s anti-graft war, Nigeria still ranks 144 out of 180, or scores 27 out of 100! One of Buhari’s historic weaknesses – clannishness – also re-emerged. His government is controlled behind the scenes by a small clique of powerful people, known as cabal.

In 2016, Buhari’s wife, Aisha, cried out to the BBC, with barely disguised anguish, that her husband’s government had been “hijacked” by a cabal. She repeated the accusation last December, saying that two or three men were “caging” her husband. “If 15.4 million people can bring in a government, only for the government to be dominated by two people”, she lamented, asking: “Where are the men of Nigeria?”

Vote me, I won’t change – Buhari tells Nigerians

Despite the above, Buhari is seeking re-election. But I can only see turbulence ahead for Nigeria if he is re-elected. The reasons are twofold. First is policy sclerosis and inertia, which would lead to further deteriorations in Nigeria’s economic, political and social situations; second is greater dysfunctionality in a second Buhari administration.

Take the first. Buhari is running for a second term without fresh ideas. His “Next Level” manifesto focuses on the same issues of corruption, security and poverty, but ignores the fact that these are symptoms of acute underlying structural economic, political and institutional problems. A second Buhari administration would do nothing differently, but more of the same: more statist economic policies; more money thrown at poverty through social intervention programmes; and, of course, continued rejection of political restructuring. Remember Einstein’s description of “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”? That’s the point!

Now, the greater dysfunctionality. Buhari’s current administration is dysfunctional because of his illness and laidback leadership style, which allows a shadowy but powerful cabal to hold sway. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (Thank God for saving his life during the recent helicopter crash) was frequently undermined by the cabal when holding fort for the president during his medical holidays. They were behind Buhari’s letter of transfer in 2017, which described Osinbajo’s role as “coordinating the activities of the government” instead of “performing the duties of the office of president”, as S.145 of the Constitution clearly stipulates. The cabal persuaded the ailing president to relegate Osinbajo’s role from “Acting President” to “Coordinator”. Chief Bisi Akande, an APC leader, said then that “political interests at the corridor of power were exploiting the president’s illness”.

Yet, it’s a taboo in Nigeria to discuss the health of a president, even a presidential candidate. But American presidential candidates routinely publish their medical records. Furthermore, if President Trump was admitted into hospital for just one day, Americans would know the nature of his illness. But Buhari went on medical vacation for 50 days and then for 105 days, yet his illness remains mysterious. The reality, though, is that President Buhari is still not well. His stuttering performance recently on TV interview and the campaign trail, with several gaffes, was cringing, suggesting all is not well.

But, let’s face it, Buhari is 76 years old. He said in 2015 that he wished he was younger, saying, candidly: “Now at 72, there is a limit to what I can do”. But he is now 76. Half-way through his second term, if re-elected, he would be nearing 80. Given his medical history, he would, rightly, spend a lot of time looking after his health. But what about the government? Well, it would be riven by a tuff war between Osinbajo and the Cabal. Which is why a vote for Buhari is a vote for more intense fights between Osinbajo and the shadowy Cabal. Leaving aside the policy inertia, that would be bad for Nigeria, and bad for democracy!

Source:

www.vanguardngr.com/2019/02/vote-buhari-get-the-cabal-versus-osinbajo/