BETWEEN THE BUHARISTS AND BUHARIDEENS

I confess that I did not experience, first hand, the cult following that our nation's "founding fathers" commanded. I heard they could, with a wave of their hands, arouse crowds to unimaginable action.

This was channeled into votes, development or regional control. This worked for the first republic and somewhat during the military truncated second republic.

Enter GMB. A deliberate effort was made to package and raise the kind of following in the north, never seen in contemporary times. At least, not after the first republic and the death of the original Sardauna. GMB became a folklore legend with stories declaring an ascetic lifestyle and proclaiming his religious puritanism. This worked in his favour and trust politicians - they declared him "he who the cap fits" and "inheritor of the estate of dan Fodio".

GMB and democracy

I will limit this to his foray into electoral contests and avoid his contribution to our loss of opportunity to develop democratic culture and institutions between 1983 and 1999. 

GMB candidature pre-2015 resulted in more pain to the country than any other individual in our years of democratic experimentation. The 2011 disturbances, amongst other issues, are still very fresh in mind and led many denouncing him as a man not fit to lead the Nigerian commonwealth. The recent deep division in our nation can also be traced to his ascendancy of the office of president.

The merger and registration of the APC gave GMB access to the gargantuan ACN propaganda platform and helped to build a wider following, which gave a semblance of national spread.

All these factors led to the two broad types of GMB supporters - the Buharists and the Buharideens. These groups are mainly differentiated by their polemics, their height of hypocrisy and their level of non objectivity.

What both groups have in common is their pre-election belief in the singularity of GMB's messianic role. How man can elevate God to second position and after GMB is beyond human comprehension. All hide under the story that they only want the best for Nigeria while pursuing their various individual and group agendas.

The Buharists are made up of those that wish Nigeria well, the politically naïve, the naira-induced voltrons, those that bought into a well-sustained propaganda machine, the compromised and brown-envelope-receiving media, those that have no knowledge of history or believe it doesn't matter, those that are sustained by only hope and those that just want change without interrogating its essence.

This group has gradually started falling apart owing to the inconsistencies of GMB's government, the slow-nature of his person and his inability to point to a clear-cut strategy on how to tackle any of the country's ills.

Some Buharists have become disillusioned, some have accepted that GMB may be flesh afterall, some wonder loudly at the joke called #thelist, some are not sure if this government is all about an ethnic agenda while some are angry that their group cannot control GMB and the levers of power as expected.

This has resulted in some becoming siddon-look practitioners, some closet critics while others have not hidden their disappointment in the public space.

The Buharideens, on the other hand, are a special class of supporters. They are known to fight you at every opportunity. Every action of the president is interpreted as the very word of the Almighty. They exist in the spectrum between religious extremists, ethnic jingoists, haters of men and political agitators. They are a different breed of people and will go to any abominable length to defend their principal and fight all real or imagined opposition. If they meet you jogging they will mow you down, stop and eat your heart to ensure you are dead. They have no qualms going physical and might even take their battle against you a notch higher. Woe betide you if you are in the GMB-declared 5% or come from an ethnic group that is perceived as not ready to shift ground - they will curse the day your father was born. They whip up ethnic sentiments, create artificial issues/divisions and paint people black. You are gone if they have their eyesight set at you; you are guilty as speculated even before it gets to the court. They claim all sorts of achievements for the president and are unashamed in lying through their breath.  They vacillate in giving their justifications for GMB's appointments - it's either seniority or competence and this depends on the one that soothes their narration. To them, "body language" is a measurable substance and can be justification for success without effort. They proclaim, like the present jester-in-chief and court jester, that he is the reason why the sun shines.

There still exists a marginal third group that is not defined. They act coy and uninterested and suddenly exhibit qualities that cuts across the two major groups.

It is almost impossible to find people moving from being Buharideens to Buharists. Some Buharists, out of suffering from cognitive dissonance, move to become Buharideens and keep defending that which cannot be spoken.

Nigeria requires these groups to question that which is not clear. For the sake of the nation and the consolidation of the youths it is important that these groups seek a third path. A road that sifts all information to confirm if they are real or if the government still engages in campaign era propaganda, a path that asks if these actions/words are in the best interest of the country. 

This has become imperative considering that most members of these groups are between the age bracket of 25-55 and their un-quantified support will hurt our ability to build a broad based coalition against those that have existed only for the resources of the country.

God bless Nigeria.