The Independent Newspaper reported yesterday, August 14, 2018, that many influential nations are joining to mount pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari to discard his second term ambition. The report reads in part, “There is serious pressure on him from the international community, especially the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom (UK), and even Saudi Arabia.”
The Buhari’s camp did not waste time to counter, bewailing, suggesting that the report is not credible. The Presidential Spokesperson, Femi Adesina, added that “If there are quarters in which President Buhari is held in very high esteem, and the work he is doing for Nigeria highly lauded, it is in the countries mentioned. Some of them are equally bastions of democracy, and will not interfere in the democratic affairs of a sovereign country.”
The statement from the presidency is self-serving and too far from the truth. The simple truth is that neither the world nor democracy, in and of itself, promotes bad governance—whether in democratic, pseudo-democratic or autocratic governments. So, the international community does indeed interfere in “the democratic affairs of a sovereign country”, where necessary. As a leading observer of Buhari’s candidacy and the involvement of the international community in 2014 through 2015, I know firsthand the role of such democratic nations during the campaign and in the events leading to President Goodluck Jonathan’s historic concession.
I can state unequivocally that the emerging consensus among these nations is that President Buhari’s second term ambition lacks in cogency. They point to Buhari’s failing health, lack of clear vision, lack of intellectual capacity, an apparent pattern of torpor, nepotism, wanton killings, disregard to rule of law, and a growing sense of disunity and uncertainty in the land, among many failings.
President Muhammadu Buhari should consider our great country before self. It is incumbent upon more patriots, including Buhari’s henchmen, to join to appeal to the president to permanently suspend his campaign, emulate Mandela, and retire with dignity. The future of Nigeria belongs to a younger generation of leaders who possess the vim and the competencies to cope with the challenges of the 21st century.
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