The Buhari Many Do Not Know

Many Nigerians only know President Muhammadu Buhari to be the current President of Nigeria, but never really knew Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) during his heydays in the Nigerian military. For many who knew both characters, they never wanted him to become the President of Nigeria ever since 2003 that he had been gunning for the post of the President of Nigeria.

Contrary to what you may be thinking, this is not a partisan post on politics. Rather, it is just an attempt by a Nigerian to weigh in on the series of events that have happened during the military-like reign of President Muhammadu Buhari as a democrat and how it isn’t any different from his reign when he was the military head of state of Nigeria from 1983–1985.

Though President Buhari tried unsuccessfully to become the President of Nigeria for 12 years, he never for once changed his ‘anti-corruption’ mantra. By happenstance, 2015 was the year he finally had his way, as the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan was heavily laden with corruption, bringing untold hardship on Nigerians.

Ever since President Muhammadu Buhari got to power, however, he has reneged on all his campaign promises. No one would believe that the same President Muhammadu Buhari who jailed no fewer than 500 politicians for corrupt practices in 1984 is this same Buhari whose administration reeks of corruption. He is even surrounded by the very ones who have plundered the treasury of the country.

When he said that he was a changed man before he assumed office in 2015, I doubted his claim. The doubt was not because I could not have cut him some slack. No! The doubt stemmed from the fact that a leopard will always be unable to change its spots, no matter how hard it tries to.

During his military rule, Buhari introduced a final and unappealable law which sought to gag the press. Fast forward to the year 2020, he is surreptitiously moving to introduce a social media bill that seeks to regulate the way Nigerians use social media platforms. So much for change indeed!

In April 1984, President Muhammadu Buhari closed Nigeria’s land borders, believing that it was a better way to encourage local production in Nigeria. But because many of our local industries did not have access to raw materials needed to produce locally, many of them shut down, with debts hanging on their necks. The President reintroduced the border-closure script in August 2019, for the same reason he did in 1984. I am sure that you are already aware of the resultant effect of such an obtuse decision.

Before he took over from Shehu Shagari in December 1983, Buhari complained about the state of the Nigerian economy, which he promised to recalibrate. Rather than effect a change in his two-year reign, his economic measures brought inflation into Nigeria. This was the ground for Ibrahim Babangida’s coup of 1985. Between 2015 when Buhari took over from Goodluck Jonathan to this present moment, Nigeria’s inflation rate has risen by 108%. How then has his pattern of operation changed?

From the look of things and the way the ongoing #EndSars protests in Nigeria is sweeping across the nation, could these protests be a follow-up to Buhari’s ouster from office, just like the Babangida coup removed him in 1985? After all, everything he did during his reign as a military head of state is still what he has done and still doing during his democratic administration.

Finally, since he has been known for failed promises, highhandedness, economic repression, double standards, and all of that, it will not be out of place if the ongoing #EndSars protests oust him from office, even though he has resorted to the use of force as a tool of oppression and repression. Will it?