What does Muhammadu Buhari owe a country
which has embraced him tighter than a
mother?
The simple answer: He must stand up.
And remain standing.
For four years.
Without sleep.
That is the implication of the momentous
events in Nigeria last week. Those who do not
fully understand are congratulating General
Buhari because he won an election.
That is a significant achievement, considering
the circumstances. But what really happened
is that Nigerians won the election, in terms of
the right to determine who they are, and who
they want to be.
In that sense, they won Buhari, not in the way
you win a prize, but in terms of appointing
him ‘The Sheriff of No Nonsense’.
They stood for hours in long lines in the sun
to vote, and waited in hunger for the votes to
be counted. They did that to recover their
country, and to appoint a sheriff to serve their
purpose, not his.
Of great significance is that many Nigerians
were stepping forward to volunteer their time
and money for the Buhari war effort, for it was
a war. Nigerians who volunteered selflessly
did not do so in order to select a party or an
individual, but to salvage their country and
yank it from the clutches of whatever monster
had hold of it.
For that, they wanted a Sheriff of their own
definition.
Four years earlier, when I publicly endorsed
the General for the presidency, there were
Nigerians who called me names. They wrote
up long lists of accusations and allegations
against him. To be sure, at no point did I
suggest that some of those concerns were
invalid. Some of them still are, but it is
remarkable that in the past few months, those
same people worked doggedly to make him
The Sheriff.
Somebody was clearly hearing his message: “I
don’t have money to give you…If I had I would
not give you because the destiny of Nigeria is
not negotiable,” or something like that.
Not simply someone, it is now clear, but
many, because when you think back, he did
win his party’s presidential primary rather
comfortably.
That was in December, but following that
event, his opponents and detractors seem to
have retreated into the kitchen. There, they
cooked up for him every conceivable obstacle
known to politics.
Buhari turned to Nigerians: I just want to
serve. I want to change things because the
way Nigeria is going, Nigeria has no future.
Stepping out of the kitchen, they emptied the
garbage heap over him. They questioned his
health. His family. His education. His
computer skills. His military record. His track
record in every office he had ever held.
They quoted him, and then misquoted him.
Buhari: I want to serve Nigeria. I have never
compromised Nigeria’s resources, and I will
neither do it nor permit anyone to do it.
They altered their strategies and questioned
the very notion of an election. They said it
needed to be postponed because the nation
was “at war”. They could not protect the
country, they lamented, as though they had
been accused of doing that. And in any event,
they added, it was essential to postpone
because, well, the electoral commission was
not ready.
The electoral commission was using card
readers and permanent Voters Cards, did
anyone know that? How could they do that,
who had ever heard of voting by permanent
cards being read by a machine? And why had
the commission not distributed all the cards?
Someone was watching; a lot of them.
They denied the activism and energy of
Nigerians articulating a different Nigeria. Only
a few people were on social media, they
argued, and they were unimportant because
they did not have a vote.
They discounted and denied every conceivable
poll which showed Jonathan losing the
election, preaching that Nigerians wanted
continuity, not the change the opposition
advocated. The people of Nigeria were
portrayed as somehow loving their poverty
and insecurity, their darkness and weakness,
hopelessness and joblessness.
In an age in which stealing isn’t corruption,
the propagandists also gave the impression
you can simply preach probity, but not
practice it. That is why they threw the federal
treasury open, ferrying money by airplanes
and busloads in search of pockets of greed
into which to dump it to buy votes: churches,
mosques, palaces, associations.
But they learned, to their horror that Nigeria
was still out of reach. They misunderstood
this phenomenon, mistaking it for Buhari
rather than its real identify: Nigeria.
Then they found out, rather late, that the
phenomenon was only real, but that it was
angry and unchangeable. Nigerians willed
change, and change they demanded. That
mission: uprooting the untenable order and
hiring a promising sheriff to bulldoze the soil
and dismantle the soil of impunity that, for
half a century, has mistaken politeness for
weakness and indifference for complicity.
Has change come to Nigeria? Not yet, but
Nigerians have changed. They have regained
control. They have asserted that the country
belongs to them, not to any ants that may
have eaten their way into a few branches.
Let us therefore be clear about what time it is:
Nigerians did not replace one set of ants for
the pleasure of another. Their loyalty is to
Nigeria, not to a replacement army of
occupation. Happily, Buhari understands this.
He says his will be the governing, not ruling,
party.
In my endorsement of his candidature in 2011,
I described him as “an opportunity”. Last
weekend, Nigerians demonstrated agreement
with this assessment. Not a magician, but a
chance.
The Sheriff of No Nonsense. He has fought for
this job for a long time, and I believe he is
prepared. I am not preaching to him about
what needs to be done because it is obvious,
but Nigerians must rally behind their Sheriff.
He can’t achieve anything if Nigerians choose
to be spectators rather than members of the
team.
All Buhari has to do is harness the massive
groundswell of goodwill he has captured, and
mobilize this energy as part of the team. He is
not the team, just a member.
And he doesn’t have to reinvent everything,
either. There are reports on the table that are
excellent. He doesn’t have to reverse
everything Jonathan or PDP, either. Some of
their plans and ideas are good, as are some of
his people. They just have had neither
leadership nor guidance.
But the first order of business is to be
categorical that nonsense—as platform, policy
or practice—is no longer an option.
If Buhari needs any reminding, he will lead
from a city in which he owns nothing and
cannot afford a slice of land. That is because
Abuja, like Nigeria for over 50 years, belongs
to hostage-takers. Now is the time to set the
homestead free so ownership and opportunity
return to all, not a few.
This is the challenge before The Sherriff of No-
Nonsense. Not only can he not afford to sleep,
he must bring on the revolution the way they
scheduled the Boko Haram war: in weeks, not
months.
sonala.olumhense@gmail.com
Twitter: @SonalaOlumhense