BUHARI’S SURVIVAL IN POWER, BETWEEN MORALITY AND MISCHIEF GOVERNANCE

Nigeria's President-Elect, Muhammadu Buhari

The second coming of General Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s president holds a lot of significance for the Katsina-born general on one hand and the Nigerian nation on the other.

For Buhari, it is another golden opportunity to re-enact and possibly surpass the feat he achieved in office 30 years ago. He will also use this opportunity to deeply reflect on what actually caused his ouster despite his laudable vision for the country, with a view to avoid making similar mistakes.

For the nation, it is a time to decide whether to endure Buhari’s ‘bitters’ for its pile-ridden system to be effectively cleansed or take another sweetener to further strengthen the pile to continue to wreak havoc in the system.

Many observers have indeed come up with reasons why Buhari’s first stint at the helm of affairs of Nigeria did not last beyond two years. The reasons range from his style of leadership, to his political naivety. They also stemmed from his principled and uncompromising stance on issues.

But beyond the adduced reasons above, there is another school of thought that offers a possible factor that brought down Buhari, then. The factor is psychological and has proven to be highly effective in striking or pulling down good leaders. Consider this lines:

“The political has nothing in common with the moral. The ruler who is governed by the moral is not a skilled politician, and is therefore unstable on his throne. He who wishes to rule must have recourse both to cunning and to make-believe. Great national qualities, like frankness and honesty, are vices in politics, for they bring down rulers from their thrones more effectively and more certainly than the most powerful enemy.”

The above is a quotation from item eleven of Protocol One, of the Twenty Four Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion; often referred to as the Jewish Conspiracy in many quarters.

The Protocol provides the substance of addresses delivered to the innermost circle of the Rulers of Zion. It entails minutes of the proceedings of the meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion on how they planned to rule the world through cunning and crooked means. It also reveals the clandestine plan of action of the Jewish nation developed through the ages to dominate the world. Despite its conformity with the way they have conducted themselves over the ages, the Jews has denied the authorship of the document.

One thing that has continued to amaze observers and indeed keen watchers of events as they unfold in the world since the ‘leakage’ of the document is the fact that its content fits perfectly into what, when, where, why and how those events happen. Mr. Henry Ford, an American industrialist and founder of Ford Motoring Company, in an interview published in the New York WORLD of February 17th, 1921, puts it succinctly thus:

Late Henry Ford

"The only statement I care to make about the PROTOCOLS is that they fit in with what is going on. They are sixteen years old, and they have fitted the world situation up to this time. THEY FIT IT NOW."  Mr Ford was widely known for his pacificism during the first years of the World War I and also for being the publisher of the book ‘The International Jew.’

Back to the above quote. Truly or coincidentally, it seems morality and politics have no relationship, at least going by historical experiences in recent past. Great ‘moro-national’ qualities like frankness and honesty have indeed become vices in politics, and they have inadvertently brought ‘down rulers from their thrones more effectively and more certainly than the most powerful enemy.’

The current crisis in Egypt is a perfect example of how these great qualities practically brought down a democratically-elected president and installed the most cruel and despicable human being to power.

President Morsi of Egypt

President Mohammad Morsi is loved and trusted by most Egyptians. They believe having him as their leader would put the country back on the track of growth, development and indeed greatness. But barely a year in power, the hapless president got the butt from the ‘powers-that- be’ from within and outside Egypt for no offence other than committing the twin ‘vices’ of frankness and honesty in dealing with his people and the rest of the world. He’s just been handed a 20 year prison term on phony charges of inciting violence that led to the death of some protesters who are mainly his supporters in 2013!

Former Egypt dictator, Hosni Mubarak

Interestingly, his immediate predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, who resorted to ‘both cunning and make-believe,’ tactics, ruled the country for three decades. The dictator, who was charged with corruption and death of protesters during the revolution that ousted him from power has been freed of all the charges, and now walking as a free man.

While his reign lasted, Mubarak oppressed, suppressed and terrorised the people of Egypt. He institutionalised corruption in all facets of the Cradle of Civilisation and ensured the empowerment of a few cabal in all sectors. The world powers, led by the United States gave him all the needed support. He got billions of dollars in aid and weapons to remain in power for that long, until the mass revolution of January 25, 2011 swept him away.

Morsi on the other hand was not only starved of support from the world powers and strangely, the gulf monarchs, his ouster was strategically engineered, massively funded and dastardly executed by them. When Morsi assumed the leadership of Egypt, US President, Barrack Obama, without mincing words, told him that ‘Egypt is neither an enemy nor a friend of the US.’ This statement heralded the series of events that culminated in the final toppling of his government in June 2013.

History is replete with instances of upright leaders who were swept off power due to their ‘frankness and honesty.’ At the same time, history has also recorded presidents, prime ministers and other state leaders who held on to power for quite a very long time, subjugating and enslaving their people through ‘cunning and make-beliefs.’ They can still be seen around today.

The story of Nigeria’s newly-elected president, General Muhammadu Buhari, during his first coming as a military head of state, buttressed the proposition or simply put, the thinking of the Jews that morality brings down good government easily more than the enemy.

General Buhari ran a disciplined, transparent and honest government that is unparalleled in the history of Nigeria. He was highly-principled, incorruptible, patriotic and disciplined. Within one year of his leadership, the mess that the country had become under the Shehu Shagari administration was radically corrected. It was difficult for drug barons to make Nigeria a transit point for their trade. Nigerians were made to imbibe the culture of discipline, orderliness and courteousness in their public dealings. The culture of environmental sanitation that the nation still practices till now became entrenched during that administration and corruption was reduced to a barest minimum.

However, the ‘Jewish thinking’ came to pass and in 1985 when Buhari was kicked out of office by the gap-toothed General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. Because of his smiles, Babangida was believed to be humane, and capable of taking Nigeria to the Promised Land. 

General Ibrahim Babangida

Buhari on the other hand was perceived as rigid, strict and too ‘inhuman’ for many.

Nigerians impatiently sacrificed Buhari’s ‘principledness’ on the altar of selfish aggrandisement and corruptive culture of Babangida. His glorious regime lasted only two years while that of the all-smiling maradonic IBB dragged on for eight painful years.

Late General Murtala Muhammed

Before Buhari’s ascension to power in 1983, another brilliant leader, General Murtala Ramat Muhammed had suffered the similar fate and paid with his life barely six months in office! He had a brilliant vision for Nigeria but that vision was never allowed to blossom by the world powers who connived with vicious elements within the country to truncate it.

Now that the Katsina-born General has been given another uncommon mandate to lead the country, the question is: should he bow to the notion of mischief governance just to retain power or maintain his uprightness and honesty in his quest to execute his noble plans for Nigeria?

From the moralist perspective, Buhari has no option than to maintain his principled stance, which in the first place endeared him to most Nigerians that voted for him. But from the realist view, the president-elect must find a balance between morality and smartness (cunningness) if he must succeed. He must, as a true army general that he is, go back to the cheese board and play the game with all tactics, deftness and needed strategy. To this school of thought, too much ‘moralness,’ without necessary caution may make him suffer the same fate as he did in 1985.

It may not be entirely correct to attribute the fall of the aforementioned leaders to their uprightness after all. After all, the Lee Kwan Yews of this world survived without employing the Machiavellian theories or resorting to maradonic tendencies. It’s just because those who design and control the world affairs from the shadows have devised it in such a way that only the corrupt and the cunning, which will be of great advantage to their grand ‘evil plan’ for the world, endure in leadership positions.

As a principled man with the fear of God, righteousness, uprightness and truthfulness must not be made to be submissive to wickedness, lies and crookedness. Hence, General Buhari should hold on to his principles and still hope to survive. After all, the outgoing government lost power as a result of loads of lies and excessive penchant for corruption. Our president subscribed to the counsel of the Jews and resorted to mischief, cunningness and make-beliefs in the affairs of governance. Many even linked his belief in these notions to his frequent visits to the Jewish nation while in power. But the more he resorted to these ‘skills’ the more he gets into trouble and earned the ire of Nigerians; leading to the technical liquidation of his government on March 28, 2015.

So, General Buhari should not sacrifice his principles. The name ‘Buhari’ alone in today’s Nigeria scares corruption and send fears down the spines of corrupt individuals. He must therefore build on this goodwill to deliver the dividends of democracy to Nigerians and take the nation to the greater height. Great national qualities of frankness and honesty are only vices to the evil-minded and the reactionaries. They are veritable tools in the hands of progressives.

Truth shall forever prevail over falsehood.