Mohammedu Buhari may be a ruthless and ageing former dictator but he is neck and neck in the polls leading up to Nigeria's presidential election Even by his own admission,General Mohammedu Buhari’s time in charge of Nigeria is not one to be misty-eyed about.

After seizing power in a coup in 1983, he threw critics in jail,kidnapped enemies off the streets of London, and ordered soldiers to whip Nigerians who did not queue in orderly fashion at bus stops.

By any normal standards, the ageing ex-dictator should now be a relic of the dark days of military rule, when the only way to stop the country falling apart seemed to be an iron fist.

Instead, he may be about to voted in again as president.

At an age when other politicians are considering retirement, Mr Buhari, 72, has emerged as the main challenger to President Goodluck Jonathan in Saturday’s vote for the head of Africa’s most populous state.

With Boko Haram still running rampant, 200 kidnapped schoolgirls still missing, and poverty and corruption still rampant, many Nigerians feel Mr Jonathan has not proved up
to the job .

Why won't Nigeria let foreign journalists cover its election?

Hence the nostalgia for a dour ex-strongman like Mr Buhari,who is now running neck-and-neck with the incumbent.

“Given the option between a failed present and a former dictator with a track record, I think the choice is going to be pretty clear for most Nigerians,” Mr Buhari’s chief spokesman,Lai Mohammed, told The Sunday Telegraph. “You have to look at the challenges Nigeria is facing in security and corruption and the economy. Frankly Mr Jonathan hasn’t proved up to them.”

The last time he was in power, having ousted a hopelessly corrupt civilian government in 1983, Mr Buhari pursued his vision of a more orderly Nigeria with single-minded ruthlessness.

In what he dubbed the “war on indiscipline”, he beefed up the country’s secret police, prosecuted hundreds of officials for corruption, and threw journalists and anyone else who dared criticise him into jail, including Fela Kuti, the legendary pioneer of Nigerian “high life” music.

Notoriously, the long arm of his law also reached out for Nigerians who fled abroad. In 1984, his government despatched agents to London to kidnap Umaru Dikko, a minister in the previous government accused of embezzlement.

The plot was only rumbled when a Customs officer at Stansted Airport became suspicious about a crate marked “diplomatic baggage” that was due to be picked up by a Nigerian airliner.

Inside, he found an unconscious Mr Dikko, as well as the professional anaesthetist who had drugged him. The incident sparked a major diplomatic fall-out with Britain and saw four men jailed for kidnapping.

At home, such outlandish gambits won Mr Buhari grudging respect. He is also seen as relatively clean of corruption and his efforts to clean up Nigeria’s civil service, an Augean stables of graft and incompetence, also won him praise. At one point he punished civil servants who turned up late for work by making them do frog jumps.

For the upcoming election, he has had to polish his democratic credentials a touch.

In a recent speech at London’s Chatham House think tank, he described himself as a “converted democrat”, who had realised the futility of one-party rule after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“I cannot change the past, but I can change the present and the future,” he said. “So before you is a former military ruler, who is ready to operate under democratic norms.”

A remarkable photoshoot also saw him pose with his children and grandchildren in a range of costumes, from traditional tribal to a dinner jacket and bow tie.

Some are unmoved. “Buhari is instinctively not a democrat,” said Osita Chidoka, an aviation minister in Mr Jonathan’s government. “It is a sign of the desperation of the opposition that they have to fall back on someone like him.”

Born near Nigeria’s semi-desert border with Chad, Mr Buhari comes from one of Nigeria’s aristocratic northern Muslim families, who have traditionally punched well above their weight in national politics. But while his following crosses Nigeria’s Muslim-Christian divide, his less-than-charismatic speaking style is not suited to the showmanship required in electoral battles: hence his defeats in a number of previous presidential contests.

This time around, though, he is level-pegging with Mr Jonathan on 42 per cent of the vote, profiting from his rival’s weakness over Boko Haram. On Friday, a new mass grave was discovered , the latest example of a massacre by the Islamic extremists.

• Escape through the reed beds from Boko Haram

He also has his wife, the formidable Mrs Aishat Buhari, at his side, who is touring the country in a bid to reassure people that her man has turned a new life. Among those who need convincing is Mr Jonathan’s wife, Patience, who claimed recently that Mr Buhari would put her husband’s entire goverment behind bars were he to gain power.

“General Buhari coming back to sanitise the system,” Mrs Buhari told a crowd last week. “Those who are saying that he is coming to jail people shouldn’t be afraid, because we are all yearning for change from the insecurity.”

The polls are now close enough to worry diplomats, who fear post-vote violence if the result is disputed by one or other side.Both sides have pledged to settle any dispute peacefully, but one official said: “There is a concern that the loser might take their grievances on to the streets rather than into the courts”.

A defeat for Mr Jonathan would also be the first time in Nigeria’s brief democracy that an incumbent leader has not won a second term or handed power to a nominated successor.

However, a graceful exit could prove to be his most lasting act of statesmanship.

It would also set a good precedent for Mr Buhari, who may find life as a civilian government rather harder than life as a civilian opposition leader. Nigerians may be prepared to give Mr Buhari himself the benefit of the doubt, but there are fears that many of the people around him are somewhat “indisciplined” and corrupt themselves. As one diplomat put it: “People that might help him win an election are not necessarily the ones to help him govern.”

SomebodyLovesMe:
GEJ is the worst president this country has ever had.

noskeybaba:
I quite disagree.

politricks:
And he is the worst the country would ever have. AMEN

Rilwayne001:


AMEN.

Change is coming

Mohammedu Buhari may be a ruthless and ageing
former dictator but he is neck and neck in the polls
leading up to Nigeria's presidential election
The Telegraph @Telegraph

Rilwayne001:
By Colin Freeman

Nigerian election: 'Better an ex-dictator than a weak president'



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/nigeria/11487876/Nigerian-election-Better-an-ex-dictator-than-a-weak-president.html

viczing:
[s][/s]

[s] so far am concerned is weak UK is weak if Russia come they get scared like mad the last time I checked a former UK parliament man said UK can't survive a Russian attack.... they just get lucky cos of their nato participation that's all....

Poke nose uk.... y'all made this country this way so please and please warn your tabloid to stfu [/s]

Rilwayne001:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/nigeria/11487876/Nigerian-election-Better-an-ex-dictator-than-a-weak-president.html

bruno419:
[s] I hate doing this but I m always pushed to, all the apc supporters are very stupid,imagine committing a whole giant of Africa to a remote controlled grandpa.. I pity u all...quote me negatively and die young [/s]

Rilwayne001:




E PAIN AM

viczing:


Pain me for what Are they my parents So far am concerned the both of them are punkass just that gej is a lesser punkass so I choose him

Rilwayne001:


Take a chill pill, you'll soon die if heart attack by weekend

barcanista:
The UK telegraph and other foreign press and journalists should make sure that they get their PVC and be ready to vote for the Dictator. As long as Nigerians are concerned, we are renewing the tenancy of President Jonathan in few days time.

viczing:


You dead and gone before the D day

dearpreye:


Simple. These foreign folks have mastered the art of being seen as relevant in the scheme of things back in Nigeria. And a lot of our people are buying into that nonsense. Lets see if the Chatham House and the Telegraph will come and prevent the tears of the former coup plotter this weekend.

Nonsense. The Nigeria they skewed in favour of the lazy North is gradually being changed, and they are scared their relevance may soon go into space as vapour. A working Nigeria is NEVER in their interests.....

barcanista:
[s] The UK telegraph and other foreign press and journalists should make sure that they get their PVC and be ready to vote for the Dictator. As long as Nigerians are concerned, we are renewing the tenancy of President Jonathan in few days time. [/s]

hassan85:
GMB, Babangida, Abdulsalam, Obj, al militry dictators. Whn ds guys remain in PdP, De are good, saints and have never killed. Once in another party, thy are tyrants. Global media understands our politics wel so if de speak, guys above me stop yapping. When de praise Gej, de d best. But wen de cal GMB, u ask 4 dia PVCs lol. Its a matter of days

barcanista:
Mr Hassan, Politics is local. Nobody can truly predict Nigeria's voting pattern from outside the country. Is it not the same "Foreign Press" that gave Buhari victory in 2007? In 2011 on NL here Buhari won the Presidential Opinion poll in a wide margin. Those same Foreign press predicted heavy defeat for Natayahu and his party but they won majority in the Knasset(Parliament).how many journalist/press accurately predicted the victory of the victorious Greek party? You need to understand Nigeria's voting pattern since 1979. Again, APC will be shocked