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APRIL 2, 2007 VOL. 20. NO 25

Buhari Woos Yorubas

**Muhammadu Buhari, ANPP Presidential candidate**

General Muhammadu Buhari’s presidential campaign train berths in Lagos, defiling fears that his alleged undemocratic credentials may not appeal to the people of the South west
By Goke Awoyemi
The All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) presidential campaign train appears to have made an auspicious in-road into the South-west geo-political zone, with a promise to win elections in the states in the zone, and dislodge the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party from Aso Rock, Nigeria’s seat of power.
The latest move came after a meeting which Buhari had last weekend with Afenifere leaders, a Yoruba socio-cultural group, and notable lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi. A member of the campaign team told The Source in Lagos that “these meetings are meant to prepare the ground for the party’s South-west rally,” expected to kick off in Ibadan last Friday.
Buhari, a two-time presidential candidate of the All Nigeria People’s Party, ruled the country between 1983 and 1985 after he sacked the democratically elected government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari in a military putsch. He thereafter clamped the likes of Solomon Lar, Abubakar Rimi, Jim Nwobodo and Ebenezer Babatope into detention.
Although victims of his tenure described him as unleashing a reign of terror on the citizenry, Buhari has not denied this, but has often laid claim of been a “converted democrat since 1991”.
However, some Nigerians who could be described as apolitical see Buhari as a disciplined soldier who could be said to be above aboard, in terms of financial management. Alongside his second in command then, the now late General Tunde Idiagbon, they pursued a War Against Indiscipline (WAI) to the letter. This came to be one of the policy programmes of the present Lagos State government.
All these, coupled with the draconian decrees he operated, one of which sent two Nigerian journalists to jail, tend to erode his democratic credentials. He was also said to be too harsh, when he restricted the duo of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, and the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero to their domain, seizing their travelling passports, for allegedly visiting Israel, a country with which the then Federal Government had diplomatic friction. He is also seen in some quarters as a religious bigot for advocating that Nigeria should be listed as an Islamic state.
But drumming support for Buhari, former All People’s Party (APP) presidential candidate, who is currently a leading light in Democratic Peoples’ Alliance, Chief Olu Falae, said, “we are supporting the candidature of Buhari because he is a credible candidate”.
Notably, this is not the first time the Yorubas will embrace the ANPP. At the start of the Fourth Republic in 1999, Falae, an Alliance for Democracy (AD) candidate was made the presidential flagbearer of the party, then known as the APP. The Sokoto caliphate power broker and former national security chief, Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, had to swap position to become his running mate. During the 1999 elections, the Yorubas of the South-west voted overwhelmingly for APP, rejecting Owu-born Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who had just been released from jail by General Abdulsalam Abubakar.
The question on every lip in the region now is: can ANPP perform the same feat? Political analysts are of the view that Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s political woes could work positively, and in fact boost the chances of the ANPP presidential candidate, during the next election. Abubakar is currently at war with his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo, on one hand, and with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the other.
It is also widely believed that Afenifere, having lost out in the battle to be relevant in Abubakar's Action Congress (AC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) may be left high and dry if it does not support Buhari in the next general election. For instance, during the 2003 election, the Alliance for Democracy (AD) which the group formed lost all the states in the South-west, with the exception of Lagos. The likes of Chiefs Abraham Adesanya, Reuben Fasoranti, Ayo Adebanjo, late Ganiyu Dawodu were seen as too old to muster enough strength for any successful electoral outing. Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu who was re-elected as governor on the platform of the party had worked independently, having parted ways with the group before the 2003 general elections.
Abiodun Aremu, national convener, United Action for Democracy (UAD), expressed similar views in an interview with The Source. His words: “There is no homogeneity about the view of the Yorubas today. Who are the people endorsing Buhari? Is the Afenifere the same as they were between 1998 and 2001? Is Afenifere even an issue in the political context we have today.?”
Aremu posited that the relevance of Buhari’s incursion into the South-west will only appeal to the ordinary Yoruba person if what he has for them is not essentially different from the Awolowo philosophy.
As far as the UAD is concerned, they are not aware of any manifesto, either by Buhari or the ANPP, that articulates the cardinal programmes of free education, health, rural integrated development, and gainful employment which the defunct Action Group (AG) and the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) were noted for.
Secondly, he said, beyond the Yoruba geographical space, there is the issue of the economy which affects every Nigeria, and Buhari or his party is not known to have articulated any economic reform agenda, outside the Obasanjo anti-people economic policy which all parties and their candidates have pledged to continue.
“Therefore, it makes a mockery on the sensibility of Nigerians in the South-west for any group or personality to adopt the candidature of Buhari on behalf of the suffering masses,” the UAD convener said.
But for radical Lagos lawyer, and human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi who declared publicly that he was supporting Buhari’s candidature because he is capable of fighting corruption.
Fawehinmi: “I am supporting him because he (Buhari) can fight corruption and he has demonstrated it. The first thing he did as Head of State in 1983 was to deal with corrupt politicians who he clamped into jail. He has also not been found to be corrupt.”
Although if Atiku’s disqualification stands, the contest will be narrowed to Buhari and the PDP candidate, Governor Umaru Yar’Adua, who incidentally is from the same state with the former analysts are of the view that Buhari has better credentials to flaunt. Having served as a former Head of State, governor in two states, petroleum minister and lately as chairman, Petroleum Trust Fund, there is no basis, they say, for comparing him with Yar’Adua.
But Buhari himself has not been categorical on what he has to offer the toiling masses. At the Lagos home of the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 annulled presidential election, late MKO Abiola penultimate weekend, he gave reasons why Nigerians should reject the ruling PDP.
He said inter-alia, “the PDP inherited four refineries, two in Port Harcourt, one in Warri, and one in Katsina, with a series of pipeline of over 3,500 kilometres, with more than 25 depots, but failed to maintain the structures, thereby causing fuel scarcity and crisis since 1999. The textile industry which was employing about 265,000 persons now employs about 38,000 persons.”
But he failed to tell the people the programmes which his party will put in place in order to ameliorate the situation.
The programmes of his party would have endeared him to the Yorubas of the South-west, bearing in mind that it was the action-packaged programmes of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo that made him popular till date.
Although Buhari’s new-found friend Falae, said he (Buhari) has promised to restructure Nigeria, this remains in the realm of theory to the ordinary man on the street who can hardly afford three square meals. However, just before The Source sent to press, former Information Minister and Head, Media and Publicity committee, of the ANPP's presidential campaign organisation, Prince Tony Momoh, forwarded to us a 36-page document entitled “Take charge Nigerians: Passport to the Good Life,” which encapsulates the promises Buhari is making to Nigerians.
“What the document is saying in a nutshell is that with Buhari, the era of sharing what belongs to the people will be terminated on May 29, 2007 if he is given the chance to lead this country which everyone knows is drifting out of control,” Momoh said. But one of the children of late Bashorun Abiola, Lekan, reasoned that he (Buhari) has predigree to actualise the ideas that Abiola and Kudirat died for.
Giving reasons why the Yorubas should embarace Buahri, Lekan explained that, “this man did not embezzle public funds in the course of his career.”
Determined to make an impact, the presidential campaign team also met with the former chairman, ANPP Board of Trustees, Chief Harry Akande, in continuation with is consultations with the people of the South-west.