Buharism and the sounds of silence -By Onwudinjo

Buharism has become a sort of philosophy that describes the personality and political style of Nigeria’s ailing President, Muhammadu Buhari, with all the attendant stories.

Buhari’s second coming into power as a self-confessed “converted democrat” in 2015 was hoped to be a new dawn for Nigeria. This is because of what he and his party, the All Progressives Congress, promised the Nigerian electorate: Change!

A majority of Nigerians felt that the Goodluck Jonathan administration and the PDP in particular, for 16 years, had failed them in many ways than one. So, to that end, they wanted something new and so found in Buhari and the APC, this new thing.

Enter into administration proper, after winning the March 28, 2015 presidential election, Buhari assumed power and when he said at his inaugural speech: “I belong to everybody, I also belong to nobody,” he was hailed by all and sundry for such integrative political speech. But as time went on, the president’s popularity began to wane because of the following factors:

Some poor political decisions, for instance, in the area of political appointments that mostly did not favour the South-East and South-South.
Some speeches made in foreign lands that irked Nigerians, like the: “95 per cent versus five per cent” vote question, apparently referring to the South-East that didn’t vote for him but opted for Jonathan instead. The other one being the “kitchen and other room” misspeak made before Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany.
The economic woes of the country that landed us in recession and suffering. Till now, Nigeria has yet to come out of it.

But the most obvious and vaunted of all the issues concerning the President is that of his health.

Mr. President has been sick for recurrent times and often flown to Germany and lately London, the United Kingdom, for treatment. Nigerians are being kept in the dark by his minders about the health status of the very President they voted into power. The head of an incumbent government they entered into an implicit social contract with first on March, 28, 2015 and officially on May 29, 2015. From Aso Rock, there are drumbeats, there are sounds but if you listen and follow closely, it is that of silence, instead.

That President Buhari is sick is not the issue. He is human and coupled with having spent 70+ years here on earth, it is normal that his health will start failing because of old age.

The history of world politics is replete with rulers, kings, presidents, who were sick while in office. Let’s take America for example, 11 of America’s presidents had been sick while in office. They included: Andrew Jackson (1829-1837); Grover Cleveland (1893-1897); William Taft (1909-1913); Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921); Warren Harding (1921-1923); Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945); Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961); John F. Kennedy (1961-1963); Ronald Reagan (1981-1989); George H. W. Bush (1989-1993). John F. Kennedy, for instance, began the politics of hiding health status in the US. While in office, he was hiding a life-threatening disease called Addison’s Disease, which he was diagnosed of in 1947. It is an incurable disorder of adrenal glands. Ronald Reagan, for his part, was already old when he sought office as America’s numero uno. Perhaps, even the oldest to have done so.

It follows that what Buhari is passing through is not new. But devoid of propaganda, Nigerians want to know what is the true situation with their President. That is not a tough call. The electorate and masses deserve to know and be certain all is well, if Nigeria is truly a nation and not what Nnamdi Kanu alleged. Even the political language and symbolisms of the “Lion-King, Hyenas and Jackals” make us fearful and even tearful for our dear country. We have walked a similar path before and wouldn’t want a repetition. It is not good for our political journey as a nation.

What we see from time to time are conflicting stories, pictures and other attacks from enemies both perceived and real and thus, overheating the polity. These are all Buharic paradoxes.

All we can say is: It is normal for the President to be sick, he is human but we have to know what is keeping him outside Nigeria for so long and the severity of his condition. To even think no Nigerian hospital and medical personnel including the one in the heavily and exclusively funded Aso Rock Clinic at the Presidential Villa could attend to the health condition of our President is a matter for another day. The APC, presidential aides, cabals are all free to play drums about our President and his health but let the sounds be loud and clear. It must not be silent!

Onwudinjo, co-author of the book, The Place of the Nigerian Youth in National Development, is a postgraduate student at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka