By Abraham Ogbodo
The Best President Nigeria Never Had. That title exists and it belongs to one man. He is Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The opposite, that is, the Worst President Nigeria Never Had, has been elusive. That title does not exist. The country has a way of giving the worst a chance to spread while constraining the best into complete oblivion. We had General Sani Abacha. We also had General Mohammadu Buhari. With the later, Nigeria, like the Greek hero (Odysseus) Ulysses, had had the mournful privilege of descending twice into (hell) Hades. We had Buhari twice. First, he came as a military Head of State. And then with our eyes and all our perceiving senses wide open, the man was recalled from idleness and with acclamation, to mount the stage as a democratically elected president.
It is pretty difficult to say where, between our star and style, that the problem lies. It was not as if the counter evidence was not heavy enough as at the time we wanted Buhari back. We only chose once more to entrench the fault lines instead of the building blocks. Upon the abrupt termination of his first outing in 1985, Buhari had 30 years to demonstrate his statesmanship, creativity and clear leadership attributes that should recommend him for reconsideration in 2015.
Nothing regarding this was visible about him in 2015. Rather, what was clear, were his pretentious, bohemian and austere attitudes that were construed as a measure of his fiscal discipline and moral uprightness. Buhari’s inability to invest and create wealth and economic opportunities for others as done by other retired Generals was deodorised as integrity and honesty. His material poverty became his strongest point.
Also, while asking to be recalled, General Buhari did not pretend about the scope of his constituency. It was clear he wasn’t a nationalist. Any claim in that regard was only a campaign gimmick. He had the Fulani North (not even the entire region) and Islam to protect. But amid the orchestrated desperation to create a pathway through the crossroads of Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP, Nigerians willingly suspended their disbelief. Aided by a well-oiled propaganda, Nigerians pushed against hard facts to bring back Buhari. The thinking was that the man to earn the unique title of the Best President Nigeria Ever Had, had been found.
The distinction between the two extremes in the classification is in the conversion of NEVER to EVER. It is therefore as simple as ABC to move from the Best President Nigeria NEVER Had to the Best President Nigeria EVER Had. It only requires extraction of letter N from NEVER. But it has proved difficult to attain in 65 years. The position is still open and I am here today to ask President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to work hard and bid for it. He is already President which makes the task more than 50 percent accomplished. He is in a better stead than Peter Obi or Atiku Abubakar for instance; either of whom has to win the Presidency first before working to become the best President. It is like preparing a sweet rabbit pie. Irrespective of the innate skills of the bakers, the one with a rabbit in hand stands at a huge advantage over the one who has to visit the bush first to catch a rabbit.
Tinubu already has a rabbit. But instead of concentrating on how to rearrange the given recipe in unique proportions to achieve the best bake, he is busy running around looking for crickets to add and spoil the baking mix. Making the Best President is doable. But it is not doable with excessive politics. It is doable with measurable performance. I am saying that even if every politician in Nigeria joins President Tinubu in the ruling APC, it is not going to translate to a sterling presidential performance that guarantees him the coveted title. It will only amount to appropriating all the impurities along his path to give an impression of a loaded delivery. Addition of crickets and sundry insects does not make rabbit pies sweeter.
The title is not for he that makes the loudest noise. And so, Tinubu will not make the Best President Nigeria Ever Had with high-wire politics alone. But he can achieve same with only high performance without politics. I am all out to encourage him in every way possible to take the title. In the beginning in Lagos when Tinubu craved more for democracy and development than he craved for power and politics, we were with him. He was the Jagaban. He was good and solid. We applauded him. As Governor of Lagos State, he had managed to stay within the bounds of democratic decency. He assembled some of the best hands and brains for good purpose. He somehow represented the mainstream thinking then and we stood with and for him when President Obasanjo came for his head.
He described the 36 States of the Federation as federating units and not appendages of the centre. He allowed the constitution to guide him aright in all that he did. In the matter of local government administration for instance, he maintained that the business was for the states and not the centre to manage. He fought to put electricity generation, transmission and distribution on the concurrent legislative list. He interpreted the constitution in a manner that made the most endowed jurist feel envious and even diminished. When Section 305 of the Constitution propped up for testing under Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, he offered the precise interpretation. He argued that the power of the President to declare a state of emergency in any part of the country does not include the dismantling of democratic structures. He got it right.
But there is a world of difference between Tinubu as an ambitious democrat and Tinubu as a substantive President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is the same as the difference between having class and looking for class. Or holding power and servicing power. When Tinubu was servicing power, he was a servant and not a master. Now as a master, there is reversal in his reality and what seemed foul and unacceptable yesterday is so fair and permissible today. What he didn’t take from Obasanjo is what he has dished out to Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State in overflowing measures. He got Section 305 of the Constitution re-interpreted to serve a raw deal on Rivers State. The heavens did not fall and have not fallen till now because President Tinubu has mastered the art of subordinating democracy to power and politics.
In the middle of the Rivers saga, the issues became blurred. The focus shifted from the constitutionality of the President’s action to creating the sentiments to live with his excesses. President Tinubu according to his own interpretation of the constitution enjoys an inexhaustible prerogative to make and mar democracy in Rivers State and elsewhere. It became more of massaging the ego of Tinubu to ‘temper justice with mercy’ and terminate the emergency rule at six months to allow Siminalayi Fubara return to his job. He obliged after Governor Fubara had given an undertaken to be of good behaviour, going forward.
In Osun State, Governor Ademola Adeleke is under subtle pressure to do what others are doing to govern in peace. He is a jolly good fellow. He does much more in dancing than a John Player break dancer. But he needs higher skills in choreography and kinaesthesia to dance his way out of trouble and unto the heart of the king of Nigeria’s politics. He has been reportedly handed a roadmap to lion’s heart. His defection from the PDP to the APC is highly in contemplation.
Maybe President Tinubu does not understand what is at stake. Let me restate the issue for a clearer understanding. We are looking for somebody to earn the title of the Best President Nigeria Ever Had. It is not the Best Monarch Nigeria Ever Had. Tinubu will not get it if he continues practising monarchy in the place of democracy. He can still strike the right chord to turn around things between now and the next election. He knows what to do. The indices do not need to be reinvented. They do not fall outside good governance to occasion conditions for happy living and the survival of democracy. If Tinubu is clueless as to how to go about the task, he can go back in time to review the old Western Region under Chief Obafemi Awolowo to pick all the clues.
He did everything to cause Buhari to happen to Nigeria. It is in his interest to do everything also to obliterate and not reinforce the bitter memories of the Buhari Presidency. He has the knife and yam. The allocation is also his prerogative. But judgment and posterity are beyond him. Even eight years is not forever. Nigerians have had Tinubu and they are waiting for him to finish. He can choose to finish extremely weak as the Worst President Nigeria Ever Had or to finish very strong as the Best President Nigeria Ever Had. His starting point is a free and fair general election in 2027.
