Who are those Nigerians desperate for Buhari to contest in 2019?

President Buhari, on Monday, officially announced that he will run again for 2019 election. That was not surprising. Anyone conversant with Nigeria’s political terrain will have seen the signs long ago. But what is interesting is the reason he gave for seeking a second term in office. Like others before him, he said he was only responding to the clamour by Nigerians for him to contest again in 2019.

“People have been asking me to declare for re-election and some have been asking me when I am going to declare. I want to give the NEC the honour to be the first to hear it. I have decided to contest the 2019 elections,” Buhari told a closed door meeting of his party’s National Executive Council at the party’s secretariat in Abuja.

Surprisingly, he may be quite sincere about the claim. Despite the heavy criticisms that has trailed the president and his administration’s handling of the economy, jobs and security of late, the president has enjoyed tremendous support from his party, state governors, ministers and special advisers. This is understandable. Most of the governors came to office in 2015 riding on the president’s popularity. And with their lacklustre performances in the past three years, they are now more desperate to ride on the back of his popularity and cult-like followership especially in the northern part of the country, to get re-elected for a second term or reappointed into key positions. And they have gone to ridiculous extents to push his candidacy. Since the beginning of 2017, they have been sending emissaries and going in numbers almost on a weekly basis to convince the president to run again. The other day, the Kano state governor, Abdullahi Ganduje said his government is ready to take legal action if Buhari refuses to seek re-election.

“I am happy that it is not the President that said he wants to continue. It is the people that are saying continue. But Mr President has not made up his mind yet. Kano state government will take him to court any time he decides not to contest. We are waiting for him,” he told news men recently.

His Kogi state counterpart, Yahaya Bello, went beyond the normal to restate his absolute loyalty to the president. “I am an ardent supporter of President Muhammadu Buhari…If Buhari asks me to jump into fire, I will not hesitate to jump into it.”

Last week, a delegation made up of the governors of Kogi, Kano, Plateau, Niger, Yobe, Kaduna, and Adamawa states visited the president to impress on him to contest the 2019 elections. Speaking on their behalf the Kaduna state governor, Nasir el Rufai said bluntly:

“We are politicians and those of us that you see here want the President to contest for a second term of office. So, everything is about 2019; there is no hiding that. We have no apologies for that.

“We believe in the President, we want him to keep running the country in the right direction. So, people can speculate about 2019; we have no apologies.”

Besides the governors, ministers, party members and special advisers who want to remain relevant in government, there is the kitchen cabinet or the powerful cabal who, exploiting the President’s ignorance, lack of understanding of economics and most complex issues of governance, as well as vulnerability due to old age and ill health, have completely taken over governance. What makes the takeover by this shadowy group more complete is the tendency of the President, a highly provincial man himself, to over-trust and over delegate authority to his close aides and associates – appointed or not – who are mostly his relatives and or people from his part of the country. Stories abound of these powerful individuals determining key appointments. It is an open secret in the country that what is needed for a job, a connection or contract with the government is to get to meet a member of this powerful group.

Unfortunately, the President himself empowered this group early in his administration to be the clearing house and policy centre of his government. He even ordered that “all communications and appointments from you (ministers) to the Presidency should be routed through the office of the Chief of Staff as it is the normal (procedure) in this presidential system.”

So complete is the takeover of the government by this shadowy group that even Buhari’s wife felt completely sidelined and left out of the scheme of things that she was forced to take the unprecedented step of going public with her discontent when she accused a powerful cabal of hijacking her husband’s government.

Of course, the cabal, prominent among which are the President’s nephew, Mamman Daura; the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Domestic Affairs, Sarki Aba; The President’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari; and Personal Assistant to the President; Tunde Sabiu, have completely walled off the president and filters all interactions the president have with Nigerians and the outside world. Naturally, they determine what the president hears and knows and what he needs to do or say. It was the same cabal perhaps, that ensured the president did not know that the Inspector General of Police, whom the president ordered to relocate to Benue until the killings in the state is brought to an end, stayed for only 24 hours in Benue and absconded. Even when he got to know when he eventually visited Benue, it is the same cabal that has ensured that no disciplinary action was taken against the IGP.

It is only natural that this cabal will be loath to losing all their powers and privileges and they have carefully ensured the president heard only the voices of only those calling on him to run again and not the voices of disgruntled Nigerians.

Christopher Akor