News Diary
‘’It’s not my problem.’’ – This was President Muhammadu Buhari’s immutable response to a question on his thoughts on the 2023 elections. Buhari has been coerced and blandished to assert himself like former President Olusegun Obasanjo who assumed the de facto office of godfather and technically installing the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as president in 2007. But the president has remained stolid to these sweet temptations.
Buhari has unremittingly warned members of his party – the All Progressives Congress – who are running for political office to desist from merchandising his name in their campaigns. At a meeting with party leaders in 2019, for instance, he said those running for office should work hard and convince the electorate to vote for them by dint of personal example. Using himself as a representative case, he said he ran for president multiple times but failed.
The president said he would not interfere or diddle with the electoral process to secure political advantage for anyone.
His words: “Well, what I want to promise Nigerians is that I will work very hard on ensuring free and fair elections. All those that are going to succeed the National Assembly and the presidency, they better work very hard because I will make sure I use the law enforcement agents to ensure that elections are free and fair (and that) nobody uses his office or his resources to force himself on his constituency.’’
He has again and again stated this position as regards the 2023 elections. Buhari is not the archetypal politician. He is placid and disinterested in ensconcing a political hegemony. He is empty of chicanery, and perhaps, full of childlike candour. He is politically guileless. His administration and whatever political edge that comes with it ends with him. I think this is the making of a democrat. A leader who will not want a puppet to succeed him and who will not try to maintain control of the government after him.
