Two kinds of Buhari’s supporters

Azuka Onwuka

There are two kinds of supporters that worked for the 2015
electoral victory of President Muhammadu Buhari. The first group is
made up of those who supported the presidential bid of Buhari in
2015 because they genuinely wanted a better Nigeria. They were not
satisfied with the administration of Dr Goodluck Jonathan, and
believed that Buhari held the key to Nigeria’s transformation. They
saw Buhari as a leader who would not condone corruption, nepotism,
tribalism, mediocrity, wastefulness, flamboyance, and the like.

The second group supported Buhari for personal reasons. In this
group were those who supported Buhari because he was their kinsman.
They wanted their kinsman (or one who spoke the same language with
them) to be president. For them, it was their turn to rule Nigeria.
Another section of this second group supported Buhari because his
running mate, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, was their kinsman. The deduction
was that if Buhari became the President, their kinsman would be the
Vice President and make them close to power. And if anything
happened to Buhari, like it happened to Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua,
their kinsman (Osinbajo) would become President. Another section of
this second group was concerned with the fact that Buhari was a
member of their party, the All Progressives Congress. They just
wanted the Peoples Democratic Party out and replaced with their
party, the APC. Then, there was an arm of this group which saw
Buhari as their idol who needed to be supported by all means.

Because the first group was driven by love for Nigeria,
immediately Buhari was inaugurated as President on May 29, 2015,
they started gauging his words and actions to see how they
conformed to their expectations of him. Even though they were
pointing out issues that were not properly handled (like the ethnic
coloration of Buhari’s appointments and the long delay in the
appointment of his ministers), they still believed that those were
teething troubles. Some waited for six months to elapse, while
others waited for one year before making up their minds about the
suitability of Buhari as President.

By the end of one year, those who had expected that Buhari would
be a different kind of President who would transform Nigeria began
to criticise his actions and policies. Some of them were more
ferocious than even Buhari’s opponents, because they had staked
their reputation to support Buhari, quarrelling with their friends
and family members because of that support for him, spending their
funds and resources to preach to people about the need to vote in
Buhari, if they wanted to see a new Nigeria where corruption would
be eliminated or suppressed, where tribalism would be downgraded,
insecurity eliminated, and the economy boosted. Many actions and
words of Buhari made members of this first group feel taken for a
ride. They saw themselves as people with poor judgement because of
their support for Buhari.

Conversely, the second group – motivated by personal interests –
saw things differently. Whatever Buhari did was right. A
justification was always given for it. If there was no
justification, the action or inaction was compared with what
happened under Jonathan or Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, to prove that
it was nothing new. In some instances, silence was the answer –
some less audacious members of this group would keep quiet and
pretend not to notice that Buhari had done something below
expectations or had failed to act as he had promised.

One trait of members of this second group is that anybody who is
perceived to be against Buhari is branded an enemy. The person is
demonised and lampooned. Even those who worked fervently to make
Buhari win in 2015 are not spared. Stories are easily created to
demonise these people as people who were compromised or people who
changed their views about Buhari because they did not get a
political appointment or a contract. The issues raised by them are
sidestepped, while their personal lives and families are dug into
to find something to twist to advantage and use against them.

Members of the first group see themselves as loyal to the
nation, while members of the second group are loyal to Buhari, even
though they still argue that they are loyal to the nation. It is
members of this second group that give Buhari the assurance that
Nigerians are behind him and are happy with him; therefore, he
should continue with what he has been doing.

For example, the moment the news broke over the weekend that the
Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, would be charged
to the Code of Conduct Tribunal on Monday, January 14, 2019, the
reaction of supporters of Buhari was predictable. Their argument
was that nobody is above the law. It did not matter that there is a
subsisting ruling by the Federal Court of Appeal that a judicial
officer cannot be sent to a court for trial without passing through
the National Judicial Council, which will decide if the case has
merit or not. The same reaction followed the police siege on the
home of Senator Dino Melaye last week.

Buhari as a person has not helped matters. He helps to fuel this
division by his attitude to criticism and opposition. He sees
anybody who criticises him as an enemy. Rather than focus on the
issue raised, he focuses on the individual. When his wife, Aisha,
complained that those who worked for Buhari’s electoral victory in
2015 were sidelined and that it would be hard for her to go back to
people in 2019 and ask them to vote for her husband again, Buhari
ignored all she said and told the world that her wife belonged in
“the other room.” The wife of the President was perhaps lucky
because of her relationship with the President. People like Mr Ayo
Fayose (former Governor of Ekiti State), Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe,
Senator Dino Melaye, Mr Deji Adeyanju, and the rest were not that
lucky.

This attitude has helped in dividing Nigeria like never before.
Unlike before when Nigerians would unite after elections and tackle
national issues together, the division that existed among Nigeria
during the 2015 campaigns has been on throughout the almost four
years of Buhari’s presidency. Early in his administration, Buhari
widened that division by his comment about those who gave him 97
per cent votes and those who gave him five per cent votes.

Today, even in a discussion that has no connection with
politics, someone would find a way to link your view with politics
and determine if your comment about the weather shows that you
support Buhari or oppose him. It is a sad omen for the nation. It
needs to stop in this 2019.

–Twitter @BrandAzuka