Secretary of the Northern Leaders and Stakeholders Assembly, Dr. Umar Ardo, assesses President Muhammadu Buhari’s leadership style and the potential political realignment in the nation’s polity in this interview with OLUSOLA FABIYI
President Muhammadu Buhari has formally declared to re-contest the Presidency in 2019. What is your take on this?
I will say it is within the President’s constitutional right to contest again. But it’s also within the rights of Nigerians to either elect or reject him. And in my reading of the national politics, I cannot see the President being re-elected for two reasons. First, he has not made any appreciable impact in improving the standard of living of Nigerians; if anything, things have actually deteriorated. Second, it is apparent that the President cannot effectively utilise power for the benefit of society. In addition, he has breached the trust of those who helped him come to power and created bitterness amongst his ardent supporters mainly in the North. Such conducts are against the basic tenets of interpersonal/political relationship. And, speaking as a Fulani man, such actions fall against Fulbe code of conduct, Pulaku. In Fulfulde, we call it ‘soide Pulaku’. Besides, talking about the Fulani, there has never been a time when they ever faced existential challenges like they face today. They’ve practically become endangered species on account of misplaced government policies. Things cannot just continue like that. So, where will his votes come from? The country has long gone past the President.
How does your organisation, the Northern Leaders and Stakeholders Assembly, view the declaration of the President to re-contest?
As far as the NLSA is concerned, the declaration of Buhari is a non-issue. We have no animosity against him neither did we have sympathy for him. What NLSA is interested in is a leadership that will help attain for the North our vision, mission and objectives as articulated in our mission statement. If Buhari can achieve that for the North, then, NLSA as a body can support him, even though he’s above 70 and has a poor health record.
The President’s former colleagues in the army, Olusegun Obasanjo and TY Danjuma, advised him against contesting again. What is your opinion on this?
I believe those who advised him not to run are being kind to him and are lovers of this country because they know he has lost the support of majority of Nigerians and if he re-contests and wants to use incumbency to force himself back to office, he will only plunge the country into unfathomable crisis that will not be in the interest of anyone. But since he is discountenanced by their advice, we will all meet at the polls.
Should Nigerians pay attention to the criticisms of the President’s style of leadership?
For me, personally, it appears Buhari lacks the fundamentals of leadership qualities to continue leading this country. One of such is empathy and Buhari has no empathy. He never puts himself in the position of the other person. He has already rubbed silver at the back of his glass; he ceases to see anybody else but himself. I have my own personal experience with him, but I’ll not bring that one yet. For now, I’ll narrate what I read in a book written by a former Justice of the Supreme Court.
It was during Shehu Shagari’s presidency that the Army Council recommended Buhari for promotion and posting as GOC. But the Minister of Defence then changed that recommendation and sent someone else’s name to President Shagari for approval. Somehow, Buhari got to know of this change and so he ran to his friend, Dr. Mahmud Tukur, from Adamawa State, and together, they approached the Supreme Court Justice who was a very close friend of President Shagari and begged him to intervene.
The Justice gave them a listening ear, and assured them that he’d take the matter up with the President and asked them to come back same time the next day. True to his word, the Justice went and put the issue before the President. Shagari confirmed to his friend that what Buhari and Dr. Tukur told him was indeed true, but he (the President) had already overruled the Defence Minister, reversed his recommendation and approved Buhari’s promotion and posting as GOC. So, the President told his Justice friend to go back and tell Buhari that his promotion and posting had been approved and that he should await the announcement shortly. The Justice went back with the good news.
The next day, at the appointed time, Buhari and Tukur returned to see the Justice and he told them what the President had done and asked them to await the formal announcement. And in a matter of a day or two, the announcement was made.
Now, this is the one side of the story; the other side is like this: On December 31, 1983, President Shagari’s government was overthrown in a military coup and Maj. Gen. Buhari became the new Head of State. Former President Shagari was arrested and put in detention. Now, Shagari had an elder brother, Alhaji Bello Magajin Shagari, who was at the time of the coup seriously sick and was lying at the State House Sick Bay. When Buhari took over, the new government removed Alhaji Bello from his sick bed and took him back to Sokoto and to Shagari village. Sadly, Bello Magajin died the next day.
The Justice friend of the deposed president rushed to Shagari village for the condolence. After all the rites were concluded, the Justice was delegated by the family to go to Lagos and beg the new regime to allow him see the condition of the detained former president and inform him of the demise of his brother. Banking on the divine doctrine of ‘one good turn deserves another’, the Justice left for Lagos and headed straight to Dr. Mahmud Tukur’s place, who was then Buhari’s Minister of Commerce. He told the Minister of his mission and requested him to intervene with the Head of State.
The minister went and saw Buhari and returned, and the answer was negative — Buhari did not approve the request. The Justice then begged Umaru Shinkafi, who went and saw Buhari and made the request for the Justice to be allowed to see Shagari and inform him of the death of his brother. Shinkafi saw the Head of State and put forth the request but it was again turned down. To cut a long story short, he never saw Shagari till Buhari was overthrown. Having read these, and many more of such, I came to the inevitable conclusion that a person like that cannot ever make a good leader. It is natural therefore for reasonable people to oppose such a leadership and look out for an alternative. This is exactly what is going on in Nigeria today.
What is your take on the looters’ list released not long ago?
As far as I am concerned, the current so-called looters’ list is nothing but a witch-hunt. With the absence of kangaroo military tribunals in the current democratic set-up, the government has been unable to successfully prosecute and convict any of the so-called looters three years after coming to power, beyond the noise they make on the pages of newspapers. Yes, I know those former leaders have their blame, but the Buhari leadership has the most blame.
With the PDP zoning the Presidency to the North and with Buhari’s declaration, it seems the North will produce the President. Has NLSA identified a suitable presidential candidate?
NLSA is still searching for a democratic Nigerian who will maintain whatever that’s good and reverse all that is bad, including the myriad of injustices of the current Buhari leadership. But we have yet to settle for any one.
What kind of candidate are you looking at?
NLSA will go for whoever meets our expectations, whether young or old, but not above 70 years and must be of good health.
What is your take on Obasanjo’s coalition so far and it’s romance with the Social Democratic Party?
Obasanjo’s coalition and factions of the SDP and APC will collapse into the PDP. Just wait for the congress of APC. They will break into three with one faction coming into PDP; one will remain with Buhari and the other will remain independent. That will be the end of APC and the party will suffer a crushing defeat.
You worked for Buhari in 2015. Do you have any regret doing that?
Yes, I did, like most northerners because of the security situation in our various states which the Goodluck Jonathan administration seemed unable to resolve. However, l don’t have any regret playing the roles I played then because a good thing has come out of it: Nigerians now know the extent of Buhari’s leadership capacity and that’s good.
What qualities did you see in him then?
Nothing specific except that as a former military governor of the North-East zone, I thought he understood the area very well. Besides, having been reputed to have chased Chadian rebels out of Nigeria as the GOC, 3 Division, one expected him to be able to resolve the security situation effectively. Also, his War against Indiscipline campaign as head of state seemed to be a plus for him, believing that he would bring about discipline in the country.
Were you convinced he would be a good leader?
My involvement in Buhari’s politics was driven by two basic considerations: patriotism and personal political survival! On the patriotic front, my major consideration was for the nation and my party, the PDP. On the nation, I was not happy with the way President Goodluck Jonathan was handling the politics of the country, especially the Boko Haram issue in the North-East zone where I come from. My state of Adamawa was among the worst hit and that was unacceptable.
At what point did you realise that Buhari was not a capable leader?
I realised he would be ineffective from day one when he read his inaugural speech. It was not inspirational at all but full of rhetoric. I knew then that he wouldn’t achieve anything. My consolation, however, was that his regime would give Nigerians the opportunity to make a comparison between the APC and the PDP.
Copyright PUNCH.
All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.
Contact: theeditor@punchng.com
source http://www.punchng.com/obasanjos-coalition-aggrieved-apc-sdp-chiefs-to-join-pdp-soon-ardo/
No comments:
Post a Comment