Kazeem Ugbodaga

After three unsuccessful attempts, Muhammadu Buhari gets ready to take over the helm of governance as Nigeria’s President

On 29 May, 2015, Muhammadu Buhari will be sworn in as the President of Nigeria, the biggest black nation on the surface of the earth. Having scored an overwhelming victory at the 28 March presidential poll, Buhari overthrew the 16-year misrule of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP at the national level. It was a contest in which Nigerians overwhelmingly refused to give President Goodluck Jonathan another term in office as the outgoing president failed to deliver the goods.

But for Buhari, the road to the nation’s number one seat wasn’t smooth; it was a tortuous jouney for him after he lost three previous attempts to get to the exalted seat in Aso Rock. Certainly, perseverance was the hallmark of his success. Buhari’s experience is likened to former President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln who after several attempts became president of the most powerful nation on earth. The only different between the duo was that while Lincoln took several shots at different political offices and failed before winning the presidency, Buhari aimed at one political office-the presidency.

Buhari: Steps forward to take charge

After taking over power from the democratically elected government of former President, Shehu Shagari in 1983 in a bloodless coup, Buhari reigned for two years in an infamous military regime that was overthrown by General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida in 1985. Those two years of Buhari-Idiagbon regine was used in waging war against corruption and indiscipline which was the hallmark of the Shagari regime that was cut short through the coup. The then army general demostrated a passion to serve the nation and was instilling discipline and waging war against corruption when Babangida and his gang struck. Buhari’s 20-month rule was known for what he described as a “war against indiscipline,” a tough regime which some say was marred by human rights abuses.

The passion to serve the nation never left him and he took several shots at regaining what he lost in 1985. In 2003, Buhari took his first shot at the presidency under the banner of the All People’s Party, APP and lost to Olusegun Obasanjo of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in an election which European observers reported widespread irregularities. In that year, he emerged as the sole candidate of the ANPP, after two candidates, Rochas Okorocha and Harry Akande were pressured into stepping down, while Yahaya Abubakar failed to show up on the date of the primary. In that election, Obasanjo floored Buhari by polling 24,456,140 as against 12,710,022 polled by Buhari.

•L-R: Senator Chris Ngige; Gov Rochas Okorocha Of Imo, Gen Muhammadu Buhari and Prof Yemi Osinbajo at the APC campaign in Awka, Anambra State

In 2007, Buhari vied for the presidency again, with the Late Chief Ume-Ezeoke, a lawyer from Amichi Nnewi, Anambra State, as his running mate. He was to contest the election against Umaru Yar’Adua of the PDP, being driven and sponsored by Obasanjo. Yar’Adua had the incumbent Goodluck, Jonathan, them governor of Bayelsa State as his running mate then. Buhari was defeated by Yar’Adua. Yar’Adua polled 24,638,063 to floor Buhari, who polled 6,605,299 votes.

According to Buhari, after he lost to Yar’Adua in 2007, “I went to court for 20 months up to the Supreme Court and I felt that my party was not fair to me. While I was in court, the leadership of the party proceeded and took two marginal ministries in late Yar’Adua’s cabinet and an Adviser. For that disgraceful behaviour by the party leadership, I left the party and we floated the CPC.”

•Igbos in 19 Northern states FCT adopt Gen. Buhari

In 2010, he dumped ANPP to form his own party-Congress for Progressive Change, CPC. On that platform, he contested in 2011 but also lost to Jonathan. Jonathan scored 22,495,187 to defeat Buhari, who polled 12,214,853 votes. Buhari ran for the presidency that year with Pastor Tunde Bakare-a Nigerian pastor.

A proposed merger between the CPC and the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, then did not materialise as the parties disagreed. Buhari went solo and lost by a wide margin to Jonathan. Buhari remains the single most popular man in northern Nigeria. With the defunct CPC he defeated Jonathan in Yobe, Zamfara, Sokoto, Niger, Kebbi, Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, Gombe and Jigawa. He single-handedly polled a total of 12,214,853 votes, which amounted to 54.3 per cent of Jonathan’s tally. Buhari scored 31.98 per cent of the votes to lose to Jonathan of the PDP. He was in court for eight months without success.

•General Muhammadu Buhari/OsinBanjo Presidential Campaign in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State

With his defeat in 2011, Buhari said he was throwing in the towel. A proposed merger by his party, CPC, the ANPP and ACN led to the formation of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in 2013. The APC was like a moving train ready to wrest power out of the hands of the Jonathan government which many Nigerians had dubbed a failure. At the time the APC was formed, Nigerians were already clamouring for a change and the APC promised to provide that change the masses so desired.

Faced by economic downturn, gross insecurity, occasioned by the incursion of Boko Haram in the Northeast; power sector failure, massive corruption, among others, Nigerians were tired of the Jonathan government.

Having won many of the States in the 2011 election, Buhari was seen as the only man who could wrest power out of the hands of Jonathan, but some Nigerians doubted his ability to pilot Nigerians to the promised land, dubbing him an extremist. In 2011, Buhari was accused of inciting the violence that followed his loss to Jonathan. But other people believed that with the widespread corruption in the land, the nation needed a disciplinarian and an incorruptible man to salvage the situation.

•Cross section of APC aspirants with their National Chairman Chief John Oyegun

That was what informed the choice of Buhari as the presidential candidate of the APC. Buhari was supported by the APC National leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who ensured that he scaled through the primaries. Buhari emerged winner of the Presidential ticket of the APC, scoring 3,430 votes to defeat other aspirants such as former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar; Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso; Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha and the Publisher of Leadership Newspapers, Sam Nda-Isaiah. Buhari’s emergence sent panic to the Jonathan camp. Despite the campaign of calumny against him, Buhari waxed stronger and stronger. Sensing defeat, Jonathan and his camp mounted pressure on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to postpone the election from 14 February to 28 March, 2015. That action did not stop Buhari from sweeping the polls and he made history as the first man to defeat an incumbent president in Nigeria. Buhari polled 15,424,921 to defeat Jonathan, who scored 12,853,162 votes.

Recounting his story so far, Buhari said he joined partisan politics in April 2002 and within one year, he got the APP ticket to run for the 2003 presidential election, despite the fact that there were governors, senators and much older people gunning for the ticket.

•APC Presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari with party leaders

“I got the ticket. I lost; I was in court for 30 months. In 2007, we tried to have a limited merger and became ANPP and again, I participated and was told I lost. Again, I attempted in 2011 and lost and again, I was in court for about eight months and I contested now for the fourth time on APC’s platform having successfully gone through with the merger of the three legacy parties. I think that 2015 will go down in Nigeria’s political history as a glorious year. Nigerians have deliberately understood what multi party democracy is. But we thank God for technology-PVC and card reader. If not this luck we had with technology and the insistence of constituencies to make sure they are used, in two geopolitical zones where they were subverted, the people wanted to vote, but they were not allowed to vote.

He added: “They continued with what they used to do in their party offices or their sitting rooms, write the results, go to radio house and television house and announce the result and say whoever does not want the result should go to court. How many people can go to court when they are struggling to get the next day’s meal? Where will they get the millions to give to those Senior Advocates of Nigeria? I was able to do it because of the goodwill of Nigeria which again demonstrated itself this year.”

•APC Presidential campaign in Jos

According to Buhari, people agreed that he is not a very rich man, but noted that he was lucky that Nigerians believed in him and put their strength together, voted for him and made sure that their votes counted, saying that his government would never betray the people because as they risked everything, with some of them losing their lives in the course of making sure that APC succeeded.

The President-elect said he was in politics to fight corruption, insecurity and unemployment. His view is that religious intolerance and tribal sentiments are not the worst enemies of Nigeria, but corruption.

According to Buhari, for a man who has suffered from several electoral and judicial strokes with little or no financial muscle to meet the expectations of SANs or their Lordships, reforming the electoral process, and fighting corruption should be his priority once he assumes office. He stated that anybody who wanted to study the political development of Nigeria could not do it without getting the Supreme Court’s judgments of those years-2003, 2007 and 2011. Buhari was of the view that these cases were influenced in favour of the PDP as a result of corruption.

•Nigeria’s former military ruler and presidential candidate of All Progressives

“This is what we are fighting, that is why corruption is number three in my campaign. The first one is security, the north east, the delta areas where people are kidnapped and ransom is demanded which people cannot afford. The second one is unemployment, sixty percent of Nigerians are youths, most of them, whether they went to school or not are unemployed and that is dangerous. So we have to get the issue of the economy right to make sure the jobs are made available and we should try to kill corruption before corruption kills Nigeria. Let us practice what we preach as well.”

Whoever wins as a governor too has a lot of work to do because corruption is fast becoming a culture and to try to caution people is not an easy task but it must be done. “I know you all represent various constituencies, please pass our message and give them hope that we’ll do our best in the interest of all. We have made a big stride this year and I assure you God willing, if we survive the next four years, Nigerians will be in a position to confidently raise their heads up and elect their own representatives and leaders,” he stated.