There is a saying in my native par­lance to the affect that a dog owned by the entire community usually dies of hunger. This is simply be­cause nobody in particular would take the responsibility of feeding it. That was my first problem with President Muham­madu Buhari’s famous, “I belong to Ev­erybody, I belong to nobody.” As attractive and appealing as the statement was, I felt that it was merely targeted at the senti­ments of Nigerians, at least, at the point it was made. And not unexpectedly, Ni­gerians chorused it with enthusiasm. But for purposes of partisan tenacity, I felt the statement was not only too open end­ed and populist, it was also fraught with danger, especially as it is not in sync with partisan idiosyncrasy. Of course, skeptics took their positions and it was not long when the first salvo came.

The president was accused of plagiarising the statement. The “I belong…” jargon that was contained in his inauguration speech was said not to be original to him but lifted from an earlier saying by another famous man out­side this clime. Pronto, the President’s “en­emies” (really, does he have any?) had a field day through the social media. The plagiarism charge seems to have been settled in favour of the president but my worry now is that so early enough, we are seeing the other side, if you like, the real implications of the “I belong to nobody…” mantra.

For, shortly after that ‘wise’ saying, Presi­dent Buhari, oven-fresh and draped in magis­terial aura conferred on him for “defeating a sitting president”, the first in Africa, headed for Germany to attend the 41st summit of the G7. There, according to reports, the Nigerian president, to the astonishment of the whole world, alluded to Germany, the host of the summit, as “Western Germany” and to the head of government (state) of Germany as “President.” President Buhari was also said to have wrongly pronounced the name of the Chancellor of Germany as “Mitchele” instead of Merkel, Angela Merkel, that is.

Again, the president’s ‘enemies’ went to town through the social media. Understand­ably, not much mention has been made of the gaffes in the local print media and I am per­sonally of the view that as grave as the slips are, there is no need crying over spilled milk. Fortunately, Nigerians so love their president that they were quick in laying the blames on the doorsteps of his handlers, some say aides. Did they (aides) brief him properly? Was there a pre-summit debriefing between the president and his handlers?

Did his aides or handlers take pain to un­derstand that at his age (73), the president is not supposed to be conversant with the tittles and proper names of heads of state of other countries? To avoid a reoccurrence in the fu­ture, some analyst say the president should take a briefing on global etiquettes. Others suggest that he should be shielded from un­necessary (global) exposure. On the latter op­tion, Nigerians, they say, elected Buhari for just one reason: To fight corruption and that as such, he has no business cat-walking on the runaways of every international airport. President Buhari, they say, should get into the trenches to deal with corrupt Nigerians in­stead of making every international summit. Witness the bizarre counsels to the leader of Africa’s most important country and Africa’s largest economy, indeed Africa’s most popu­lous nation in the proportion of three Nigeri­ans in every five Africans.

In my view, such counseling are coming because Nigerians were dazed by the presi­dential slips but that does not warrant the re­sort to presidential recoil. Of course, Nigeria must continue to show case our handsome president with the great poise. I am sure every Nigerian was quite proud to see President Bu­hari in the crowd of other world leaders, his magisterial gait and elegance. There was this particular photograph where the president was alighting from an open vehicle and I re­call one lady saying: “Waoo, This president!”

On a more serious note, however, Nigeri­ans are willing to give a pass mark to Presi­dent Buhari on the things he has done so far at the domestic front. At least his attitude to the issue of the emergence of principal officers of the 8th National Assembly gives him not less than a B+. Still, go to the international arena he must. There are so many things to go and talk about abroad. For one, the nation’s econ­omy is so bad that it needs no exaggeration to state that Nigeria needs a bailout from the international community at least for the next one or two years. And it is not what the presi­dent can do from Daura. So, while I disagree that the President should stay put at home and like in 1984 begin to put former governors to jail, there is one thing he must do: he should repudiate the “I belong to Nobody…” man­tra. In my view, President Buhari has to be­long to somebody; not, of course, to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as in being commonly feared.

Buhari has to make himself available. He has to work with Nigerians. Of course, I dis­agree with those who blame his aides. With my little exposure to top political office hold­ers, most principals get only the advice or as­sistance they want to have. Most principals, in the Nigerian context, put up body language that freezes all good intentions from their aides. I hear the president is an easy-going man but my fear is that he may still be operat­ing with the same mind set as when he was running for his present office. Majority of Ni­gerians saw him as stand-offish and a fellow with a “you-can-go-to-hell” disposition.

An example was when the issue of his academic certificate arose. Yes, the election was won and lost, but the truth is that Nige­rians did not like the seeming arrogance with which he handled the matter. He had referred INEC officials to the military authorities when the latter asked for his academic cre­dentials. Granted that Nigerians did not buy the talk that he had no certificate to show, not a few were piqued by that attitude because that was another way of telling Nigerians that he owed them no explanation. My hunch is that President Buhari might not have asked his handlers for a pre-summit briefing. To be quite candid, I do not buy the idea that he should not, at his age, bother about certain things. For goodness’ sake, he now has to.

In my article, entitled “Igbo did not make a mistake on 2015”, which was published a few days after the presidential election, I ar­gued that most Igbo did not vote for the then president-to-be because he was not properly presented to them. General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB then) now President Muham­madu Buhari (PMB), as some newspapers now write, was wrongly packaged: as a re­ligious fanatic, a Boko Haram supporter and a fellow who did not possess the minimum educational requirement for the office he was looking for. Going by his body language then, it seemed all that did not matter to the then GMB. Now as PMB, my fear is that he is yet to believe that he has to make himself to be truly or better understood by the people. His fabled anti-corruption disposition not­withstanding, President Buhari has to know that what he can achieve in that regard will be largely dependent on the extent Nigerians understand him. “I belong to nobody…” is too vague for the social and economic milieu Nigerians currently find themselves in. A dog owned communally usually dies of hunger.

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/buhari-has-to-belong-to-somebody/

I was gonna ask weda u re a journalist until I saw the link...I will come bak and comment.

He has to belong to somebody but not Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Buhari belong to nigerians and not apc......

Okay

Everybody need sombori "....#singing

however twisted people want to make it look. That statement was for BAT.

without allowing the man to land , many would prefer to devour him like the birds of the air.

I PITY HIM

Is it not obvious that he belongs to his cows in Daura?

Boko haram have been killing people and he has not even condemned the attack not to talk of paying them a visit, rather he visited cows.

The man said he belongs to Nobody..... Is it a crime?