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The Man,The Scholar And The Activist :A Tribute To Professor Dahiru Yahaya (1947-2021)

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Professor Dahiru YAhaya

 

 

Huzaifa Dokaji

Although my grand uncle, I first met Professor Dahiru Yahya in 2011, when I joined Bayero University’s Department of History as a fresh History Major. In a short space of time, my relationship with him metamorphosed into many things: becoming his Majidadi, personal assistant to a point, his mentee, and also his research assistant. I was always in his office with questions about points he made in papers that he agreed to let me accompany him to his lectures both within and without the university. Impliedly, I spent five years (3 during my undergrad years and 2 after) attending both his Sokoto Caliphate, The Mediterranean World and the History of Political Ideas in the 19th Century lecture sessions. Establishing an intellectual rapport was easy because we shared interest in Ideas, which he was uniquely excellent with, and revolution, in which he was actively engaged. This familial and intellectual bond offered me the privilege of considerable access to many papers he wrote but did not publish, and even book manuscripts he was working on. When he started a project on the Intellectual biography of Malam, his father, which he tentatively named Gold in the Garbage: Reminisces of my Father, He nominated me as the Secretary of what was supposed to be the Project’s Committee.
A few months before his death, he engaged me in other projects including what would’ve been a commissioned Intellectual biography of former Head of State, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. He asked me to draft a proposal he would flesh out and forward to the titan. The last time I met him was on 8th January, when he informed me of his desire to involve me in another book project on the Historiography of Islam in Hausaland (which would be in the Hausa Language). We discussed and, as usual, argue on some of the key claims the work envisages on the history of Islam in Northern Nigeria. Like the humble intellectual he was, Professor Dahiru Yahya insists that I should accept his invitation to join the project, least to help find answers to what he called the “cogent issues” I raised against some of his key claims. As fate would have it, none of the projects would materialize. Perhaps, someday, someone capable will take up the gauntlet.

Nigeria’s Professor Of History ,Dahiru Yahaya Passes On At 75

If there was anybody who taught me to believe in my potential, it was Professor Dahiru Yahya. When I complained to him of a recurring feeling of inadequacy whenever I write, He called me the next day and asked me to pen a draft speech the Governor of Kano would read at the coronation of Emir Muhammad Sanusi II (2013-2020). When I submitted it to him, he made some corrections and asked that I deliver it myself to the person who asked for it. He was that kind of Mentor at his best.

 

DAHIRU YAHYA THE SCHOLAR

Once, at an event on the Sokoto Caliphate, a participant intimated that the Fulani are the only courageous people in Hausaland and it was thus wrong to consider Sarkin Gobir Bawa Jan Gwarzo as a gwarzo. Professor Dahiru Yahya disagreed with the speaker on grounds that not only did Bawa patronized scholars (which is an attribute of gwarazan masu mulki), but was courageous enough to grant Dan Fodio and his Jama’a Freedom of speech, conscience, despite knowing well they seek to upset the status quo ante with such freedom. Later in a private conversation, Professor Dahiru Yahya asked the Sultan of Sokoto if it was fair to refuse to recognize Bawa Jan Gwarzo as a gwarzo considering his conduct towards the jama’a. The Sultan refused to, and wisely so, commit himself by not answering the question. That was Dahiru Yahya, an intellectual who said it as he saw it.

 

Dahiru Yahya’s appreciation of Bawa Jan Gwarzo’s courage to grant his opponents freedom may have its origin in ‘lessons from history and politics’, since both his grandfather Muhammad and his father, Malam Yahya, were, like the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) he sympathized with, victims of repressive regimes. Muhammad was a legitimist who was unjustly imprisoned by the Yusufawa rebels for identifying himself with the Tukurawa. It took a petition to the Colonial government (to Mr Palmer actually) by his son, Malam Yahya, to secure his release. Malam himself did not have it good with Emir Sanusi I (1953-1963) at some point. Allegedly, the Emir felt threatened that with Malam’s guidance, the ascetic Galadima Inuwa stood a better chance to succeed karagar Dabo. Malam had to resign from his job as district scribe. Events like these might have prompted him to admit, in a poem he called Tabrīyah, his secret appeal before God:

I have come to you with many demands,
The best of all demands is to demand Freedom.

 

Professor Dahiru was an honest academic “who”, as Dr. Tijjani Naniya, his first Ph.D. candidate, told BBC Hausa, “said his mind without mincing words and appreciated scholarship wherever it came from”. For example, in 2017, I approached him with a list of topics I wanted to work on for my MA thesis for guidance. Two of the topics, one on the activities of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) and the other on Opposition Politics in Kano, were proposed to me by some faculty in the department. I expected him to weigh in on the first topic since his romance with the IMN was well known. But he didn’t. He instead advised that I work on the second topic as it was “promising & would build my scholarly credentials more than the topic on IMN which was relevant largely because it was contemporary”.

 

Dahiru Yahya sees history as an unbreakable process that binds the Past, the Present, and the Future in a unity. As indigenous to traditional Historiography, his scope of the past dates as far back to Adam’s life of Innocence in heaven and the Present can be as long or as short as a lifetime spiritual anguish or bliss due to the Fall of Man.

The Future is not limited to life on Earth as agreed in Secular Historiographies, but to eternity & resurrection where man will return to his state of Innocence. The historical process, he often told me, was the link between the Past, the Present, and the Future. It is human efforts within the supervising Sunnatullah (scientific cause and effect) and mashi’ah, accidents, as Jacob Bronowski extrapolated it, that determine, mold and shape this process.

This historical progression is apparent in what al-Kindi recognized as the “universality of truth” or in a more generic sense, reality. It is the philosophical kith of Aristotle’s postulation that “the truth is universal and has neither ethnicity, nationality nor tribe”. It is hence safe to accept there is the element “truth” in every religion and philosophy, the bases of spiritual and secular civilizations respectively.
Nonetheless, Dahiru Yahya appreciated the achievements of Western Civilization and accepted its feats. He saw solutions in some of its approaches to social and political issues since knowledge is universal. But primary sources of inspiration were rather Islam, History and personal experience. He sees the social and political ideal in Islamic exoteric dimension and human ability to roam its esoteric propensities with divine guidance and personal effort. The Koran, the life of the Prophet (SAS) the struggles of the ahl bait, the Prophet’s noble progeny, the intellectual legacy of the Sokoto Jihadists especially the Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio & his son, the cosmopolitan Muhammad Bell; and the poems of his father, Malam Yahya (published as Nahyl Bughya), influenced and shaped his thought on, and approach to, the Philosophy of history and intellectual activism. Dahiru Yahya’s “stridently bullish account” of the potential capability, achievement and future of Islam won him the recognition of the Times Literary Supplement, in its Centenary issues in 2004.

 

Outside this class of social and political philosophers, the individual with the most influence on him as a Professor of the History of Ideas is the Swiss-born Perennial Philosopher and Sufi Master, Frithjof Schuon, founder of the Maryamiyya order.

 

Professor Dahiru’s romance with philosophia perennis shouldn’t be a surprise since Malam, his father, who had great influence on his scholarship, appreciated and accepted, like the Perennials, the universality of knowledge in both its exoteric and esoteric dimensions. Malam considered the separation of the two dimensions as an “ideological amputation” ostensibly because the diversity of human thought goes back to the unity of God’s knowledge

. The truth therefore is and should be, a manifestation of both divine and human presence. Other Muslim scholars with remarkable influence on him include Ibn Khaldun, the Austrian-Jewish scholar Muhammad Asad, the Iranian Islamic Philosopher, Sayyed Hussein Nasr, and Ahmad Ghulam of the Ahmadiyya.
As a product of, and a Professor in Western scholarship, the influence of Western intellectuals is evident in his approaches. French Historian Fernand Braudel certainly makes it to the list through his magnum opus, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. The work provides the theoretical formula that guides Professor Dahiru’s analysis of how geography shaped the movement of history in pre-colonial and even contemporary Northern Nigeria.

This is more so ostensible in his analytical studies of the social, economic and political relations between the lowland and highland communities that constitute the region. Polish-British Mathematician, Historian and Humanist Scientist, Jacob Bronowski; and French Historian, Maxim Rodinson, are other key influences.
One thing that has always stumped me about Dahiru Yahya was how he was able to maintain a genial relationship with the nation’s shady political elites and its rebellious clerical class as a scholar-activist.

He was a one-time secretary of the Kano branch of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), the nation’s ruling party in the Second Republic, and later the voice of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria. Like his father, Professor Dahiru personally never identified himself as part of Nigeria’s elites despite serving at least, and among others, as a Consultant on National Security to the Babangida Regime.

Consequently, this led to many conspiracy theories about his role on issues of national significance. A late Kano leader allegedly cautioned a former Military Head of State against appointing him as Vice Chancellor for fears that he could stir a rebellion from the comfort of his office.

His father, Malam, shared a similar dilemma, except that Malam was not controversial at least in the court of public opinion. On the one hand, Malam was the moral guardian and a favorite of the Galadima Inuwa, (1939-1963), and an employee of the Kano palace which he accused of replacing the wisdom of governance with the arrogance of past glory. In a Colonial report on the Dawaki ta Kudu district, a European inspection Officer described Malam as “unusually intelligent and keen”.

All his career as a District Scribe, Malam refused to accept accommodation and salary from the Colonial regime on grounds that it was contaminative. On the other hand, Malam accused the clerical class of substituting the humility of knowledge with the stupidity of ignorance. The elites handled both father and son with caution as did some of the clerics who considered him as a Malum Fada, the unpopular ulama-as-su that Dan Fodio condemned in his Kitab al-Farq. Many of such clerics later became his disciples and saw him as he truly was- an anti-Colonialist who sought to liberate his society from the anchor the “triumph of absurdity” has tied it to. Dahiru Yahya on the other hand was an anti-imperialist who aimed to push his society towards Islamic resurgence.

Dahiru Yahya received wide recognition for his academic feats. His Ph.D. at Birmingham University had neither a Masters degree before it nor a viva after it. The Ph.D. which was published in 1981 as Morocco in the 16th Century: Problems and Patterns in African Foreign Policy was the last book published in the Ibadan History Series and is to date one of the leading works on Sa’adi diplomacy, in English, and by a foreigner. It qualified him as the first Nigerian to publish a work on diplomacy. The research saw him cultivate Arabic, Osmanli Turkish, Spanish and French as research languages.

He established himself as the leading authority on Intellectual History and the History of Ideas in Northern Nigeria. For his outstanding contribution to scholarship, Dahiru Yahya became the first academic to be honored with a festschrift at Bayero University, Kano.

He was indeed a great scholar. Many may disagree with his conclusions and approach especially at the closing decade of his life, but none could honestly fault the exclusivity of his intellect, the precision of his approach and the profundity of his scholarship.
Rest well, Mentor.

Huzaifa Dokaji.
14th February, 2021

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Meet Abdulkadir Abdulsalam: The new Accountant General of Kano state.

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Abdulkadir Abdulsalam

 

To fullfil pledges made by His Excellency, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf during the campaigns of making appointments of individuals of proven integrity into the political positions on merit and to indicate the preparedness of the present administration’s readiness in the restoration of prudence, accountability and people-centered governance in Kano, the Governor has approved the appointment of Abdulkadir Abdulsalam as the Accountant General of the State.

A Chartered Accountant who was trained in Nigeria and abroad, Abdulsalam is expected to contribute in the prudent management of the state’s resource and revenue generation based in the wealth of experience he acquired as has served for many years as an advisor to the Federal, States and Local governments in Nigeria on revenue accounting, using technology-based systems for collection and reconciliation with the aim of achieving efficiency in fiscal management and bridging tax revenue leakages.

The new appointee is expected to apply his expertise of more than two decades in accountancy, macro and development economics, fiscal policy, taxation, financial management and data analysis in the course of discharging his responsibilities.

IGP Usman Baba warns against subversive actions ahead of Nigeria’s presidential inauguration

The Accountant General of Kano State is a respected figure in the public finance circle for planning, designing, and implementation of bespoke projects and policies on revenue generation, macroeconomics, project management and development finance.

Abdulsalam was a notable member of consultants in major public financial management reforms at the national and sub-national levels, working for international development finance institutions including World Bank (WBG), European Union (EU) and Islamic Development Bank
(IsDB).

He had served in various positions in Kano State Government ministries, agencies and parastatal (MDAs) and international development finance institutions as a Director of Internal Audit and Control, Director Operation (Investment & Revenue Mobilization), Director Government Business (Federal, State and Local Government), Senior Short Term Expert (Team lead), Director Tax Audit, Debt Management and Investigation, Director of Non-Tax Revenue Ministries, department and Agencies, Project Cost Analyst- (Contract/internship), Treasury Manager, Project Finance Consultant and Senior Revenue Accountant among others.

He served in various groups and committees as a Member Kano State Focal Person DFID-LINKS Implementation Project, Member Kano State High Powered Committee on IGR, Chairman Recovery on Federal Government MDA’s Tax Liabilities, Member Kano-Lagos Economic & Investment Summit, Focal member Kano State committee on Ease of Doing Business (Under the office of Vice President of Nigeria), Member Task Force on Kano State Land Used Charge, Member Kano State Public Financial Management (PFM) Reform committee, Kano State Technical Working Group on implementation of World-Bank/EU SLOGOR Project and Focal Person Kano State DFID/GEMS3 implementation Project.

Abdulsalam holds MSc. Economics (Bayero University, Kano Nigeria), MSc. Project Management (Robert Gordon University, UK), Masters Banking & Finance (Bayero University, Kano Nigeria) and BSc. (Hons) Business Administration (Bayero University, Kano Nigeria).

He holds certificates and diplomas in Public Financial Management, Public Policy Economics, Global Sustainable Development and Computing from Harvard University, United States, Oxford University, United Kingdom, Columbia University New York, United State and Informatics Academy, Singapore.

Abdulsalam, who has attended various trainings and conferences in Nigeria and abroad, is a Certified Oracle Financial Management expert, Associate Member Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountant United Kingdom (CIPFA), Fellow Member Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), Associate Member Association of Project Management United Kingdom (APM) and Fellow Member Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria (ICAN).

Signed
Sanusi Bature Dawakin Tofa
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Kano state
Engineer Abba Kabir Yusuf
4th June,2023

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Haruna Wakili:A Grassroot Politician

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Haruna Wakili

 

Sauda Suleiman

Hon Haruna Wakili who was born into a family of reputable and noble business of home of a caravan leader of late 18th and 19th Centuries at the ancient city of Kano, Madugu Tanko na Gago.

Hon Haruna is a trained business man and indeed grassroots politician that rose to prominence due to demonstration of his dedication and believe in democracy. As he says “only via democratic process that the desire progress and development in the society can be easily obtained. In a tribute to his late father, Kabiru Haruna Sanka, Hon Wakili was quoted to have said this concerning his family “whoever wants to know you; does so through the reflection of your ancestors. Thus, my father’s combination, Agalawa clan for his paternal side while Wangarawa who introduced Islam to Kano for his maternal part have vindicated the purity and humble background.

However, my beloved mother is direct descendants of Yolawa Fulani clan from Tofa local government specifically Lambu for the both parents. The blood of aristocracy and royalty fluidly flowing down to me was the reason why I am standing now, coupled with the blessings and protections of Almighty Allah” he concludes.

Hon Haruna Wakili who unofficially started participating in politics at a younger age of eleven when Gen. Sani Abacha unsuccessfully attempted to re-introduce democracy in 1996 before joining the defunct ANPP officially in 2003 when he reached the maturity age of eighteen. Hon Wakili’s patriotic love for his country and declaration of Gen Muhammadu Buhari to contest for Presidency have really encouraged him to be not only the loyalist of every party Gen. Buhari joined but helped in molding him into a complete grassroots politician per excellence.

Hon. Wakili who rose to Kano’s timeline politics when he became the youngest State Party Chairman and Director General of Campaign Council of ADC 2019 Governorship Candidate, HE Salisu Mubarak Muhammad at the age of thirty-three years old in 1st December, 2018.

He has shown an extraordinary leadership skills by establishing a solid structure across 482 wards and 44 local Government Areas of the state. He however exuberantly accepted the challenge to contest the post of member House of Representatives in 2023 general elections under the platform of ADC which has a few political base of followship in his constituency, Fagge but within span short of period of time, the name Hon Haruna Wakili has become a household affair with huge followship from the youths and women.

Under Hon Haruna’s watch, the establishment of WAKILI FOUNDATION was materialized which has successfully implemented a lot of social works to local community. Among the prominent works executed were the distributions of Sallah clothes to orphans, numbering over 800 units, sponsoring tanks of water to local community during scarcity of water at the holy month Ramadan, repairing of spoilt local boreholes, distribution of teaching tools and medicines to the sick but destitute persons in the constituency.

Finally, the likes of Hon Haruna Wakili is a future of Nigerian politics, as the intensity of enthusiasm, patriotism and courageous spirit he exhibited are proven to be worthy of emulation…

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PMB:My Recollections Of The Man And The Moments .

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President Buhari during one of ceremonies for his pulling out

Isa Mansur

A. A Hero (1980s – 1990s)

I was just above two years old when Major General Muhammadu Buhari, as he then was, took over power on January 1st, 1984. By the time he was toppled in August 1985, I was just four. I, therefore, have not much recollection of what his 20 months stewardship as military head of state was like. The only vivid recollection I have about him, as at then, was the discussion I heard my mother and my grandmother doing a day after he was toppled about “juyin mulki”. I asked my mother what it was, and she replied that “an cire shugaban kasa an a canza wani”, meaning: “the president has been removed and replaced with another one”.

For the next eight years as we grew up under the military presidency of General Ibrahim Babangida, we heard nostalgic stories from our parents, teachers and elders alike about how patriotic, well-intentioned and great the short “purposeful and corrective” regime of General Buhari was. We were told how his government vigorously fought corruption, indiscipline, economic sabotage, armed robbery, drug trafficking etc in an effective and non-nonsense manner! Typical of Nigerians, the incumbent president then, General IBB, was being portrayed as a stinkingly corrupt devil who conspired with his fellow unpatriotic colleagues in the military to truncate the good government of GMB in a place coup! IBB was being accused then of “institutionalizing corruption”, “selling” the country to the IMF and the World Bank, dancing to the tunes of Western Powers etc A hero was created of Buhari in our minds then – a non-nonsense, non-compromising, incorruptible, patriotic and pro-masses general who could have rescued the country out of the woods if not for the inglorious action of IBB and co that unpatriotically and selfishly removed him from office.

As a junior secondary student in 1992, I stumbled upon my father’s 1986 edition of the Newswatch magazine that made a cover story with the title: “Where is Buhari?”, or something to that effect. The magazine gave detailed description of how GMB was toppled, including how he was arrested in the Dodan Barracks, and also the travails of his family after the coup, especially that of his now late wife, Safina Buhari. Describing how Buhari was arrested, the writer mentioned how a “stoical” Buhari was found in his living room by the heavily armed majors and how they informed him that they have effected a change of government and that they were there to arrest him. GMB, according to the report, responded to the heavily armed officers with: “Why is there so many of you? One man is enough to arrest me and, in any case, one bullet is enough to do the job.” The general requested for a permission to go and dress properly, which was granted by the young officers. He went into his bedroom and emerged later fully dressed in his military uniform. Before being taken away, according to the report, the general retorted to his captors: “I may no longer be the Head of State, but I am a superior general who still deserves to be respected!” The young officers smartly saluted the general and whisked him away! This further consolidated the hero status of the general in my mind.

The government of General Sani Abacha, in a credibility shopping effort, brought GMB from his post-detention retirement and appointed him as the head of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) for the purpose of judiciously investing a portion of the proceeds generated from the sell of petroleum into the provision social services and infrastructural development. At that time when government’s primary responsibility of taking care of the citizens welfare has virtually ceased, PTF brought a serious relief to the people and was a huge success. It was visible all over the federation particularly in health, education, agriculture and transportation sectors. The hero!

In late 1998, I came across a book written by a lady, Rosaline Odeh, titled “Muhammadu Buhari: the Nigeria’s Seventh Head of State”. The book was a biography of the general and it documented his rise in the military, the various military and political appointments he held as well as how he discharged each effectively. I particularly found very fascinating the book’s description of how GMB, as the GOC of the 3rd Armored Division Jos, effectively dealt with the Chadian army’s invasion of some Nigerian islands on the Lake Chad. The book detailed how, as the commander, GMB relocated from Jos to Maiduguri and how he daily goes to the front to ensure the operation is successfully executed. The Chadian were not only sacked out of the occupied Nigerian territories, but were chased several kilometers into the Chadian territory, something that nearly caused a rift between the general and the then civilian government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. A hero!

2. A Savior (2000 – 2015).

The return of democratic rule in 1999 and the emergence of General Olusegun Obasanjo as the democratically elected president sees the North relinquishing power to the South after twenty years (1979 – 1999). While the return of democratic rule, after years of military dictatorship, was some sort of relief to the ordinary Nigerians, here in the North relinquishing power to the South created a sense of fear, anxiety and mistrust among majority of the people. Some actions/inactions of the OBJ government such as the mass retirement of mostly northern officers in the military that served political appointments, the alleged movement of military hardwares from the North to the South, the Sharia implementation agitations and the government’s response to it, rampant ethno-religious violence in the North, alleged marginalization of the North in appointments in the military and the civil service, the OPC’s series of violence against northerners in the Southwest etc, further aggravated the feelings marginalization and/or even persecution by majority of the people in the North.

It was in the above circumstances that some politicians here in the North begun to search for a leader from the region that can be put forward to led the region in its effort to both protect its interests and by extension rescue the nation from its seeming derailing under the OBJ government. With his history of integrity and patriotism, his sterling record of performance as PTF chairman and the widespread respect and admiration he has among the masses, GMB was the best person for the role at the time. Politicians, opinion leaders, intellectuals and even some of his retired colleagues in the military began to call for the general to join politics and rescue the country! He was promoted in newspaper articles, invited to deliver public lectures by universities and the Arewa House, invited to attend the declaration of Sharia by some state governors etc. By 2002, GMB that was known for seeing nothing good about politics and multiparty democracy, was convinced to join partisan politics by registering with the then opposition All People’s Party (APP). He later admitted that the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, without a single shot fired, was the reason why he became a “converted democrat.”

In the early 2000s the wind of Sharia implementation agitations was blowing fiercely in the Muslim North. After the declaration by Zamfara State, there was a lot of pressure on all governors in the region to follow suit and implement Sharia. On the other hand, quite understandably, the Christian community in the country were also afraid of the Sharia implementation and were resisting it by all the means at their disposal. The tension in the country was so high and palpable. President OBJ summoned a meeting of the Council of State to discuss the issue, among others. After the meeting, the then Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, informed the nation that the council had agreed that Sharia declaration be suspended across the country. GMB and some of the governors that attended the meeting publicly disassociated themselves from the announcement made by Atiku by insisting that no such decision was made by the Council. This singular action further endeared GMB to the people of the north. He was the only voice among the various former presidents from the region that was being heard in solidarity with the people of the region. A savior!

By 2003 GMB was on the ballot contesting for the office of the president on the opposition ANPP, while OBJ runs for the ruling PDP. With the feeling of marginalization and/or even persecution high among the people in the North, PMB was seen as the only savior that can save the region and by extension the nation from the “corrupt and inept” PDP government under OBJ. The love, confidence and trust people had for him was unimaginably fanatical. A savior!

After contesting and loosing the 2003 elections, the love people have for Buhari only increased. He contested and lost again to Umaru Musa Yar’adua in 2007. For the people, Buhari was being rigged out by the “forces of evil” that are against the emancipation of the Nigerian masses. The elections were no doubt everything but free and fair. But whether GMB at the time has enough national acceptability to win an election was out of concern to us, his teeming supporters. However, the existential threat that Boko Haram constituted to the North in particular and the nation in general under President Goodluck Jonathan, provided the necessity for a unity of purpose between the masses that supported Buhari over years and some of the elites that were against him. While the masses sees as their one and only savior and emancipator, the political elites saw him as the only formidable politician with a support base large enough to unseat a sitting president with an opposition merger. Against the odds, the savior made it in 2015! It was a historic, remarkable and exciting moment for millions of Nigerians that were tired of the status quo and yearning for positive change!

3. A President (2015-2023).

Now christened PMB, Buhari assumed office on May 29th, 2015 amidst unreasonably high hopes from most of the people that elected him to power. As a career opposition candidate, the president has vehemently criticised all the governments before him, condemning them for corruption, insecurity, poor management of the economy, high poverty and unemployment rate, fuel and power scarcity, bad education and health policies etc During his years of campaigns, he has made a lot of promises to immediately and effectively change things for the better if elected into office. Naturally, majority Nigerians expected nothing short of miracles from him.

With high hopes, acute and dwindling resources, a nation at war in many fronts, serious health challenges, endemic public sector corruption , PMB government started on a very bad and difficult footing. These, coupled with the president’s slow approach to decision making, uncompromising attitude and poor oversight over subordinates etc all contributed to the terribly below expectation and disappointing outing of PMB as the president.

Unfortunately, from his speeches and body language, PMB seems to believe, and off course many Nigerians at the time, that having a honest president who will not steal or conspire with others to steal; a president who will give all the institutions and functionaries of government the freedom and the resources to discharge their duties, based on established laws and procedures, is enough to make the nation work again and rescue it from the precipice! As a leader, he seems to believe that in as much as he has done his best, by way of approving and providing what is needed to, for example, fight insecurity and terrorism, or fight corruption, or provide social intervention, or build roads, etc he has done his best and the people down the line of authority and responsibility should be held responsible and accountable for whatever failure that may arise. In short, in as much as he has done his own part honestly and patriotically, the people and the law should hold those who haven’t done so responsible and accountable. Many of the people he entrusted make good use of this shortcomings of the president to do what they like. Either the law or history, or both, will certainly take care of this.

4. Sweet and Bitter Farewell.

As the president retires to Daura tomorrow, as his ardent supporter for many decades, I am both happy and sad for him. I am sad that the president has performed far below even the reasonable expectations Nigerians had on him in virtually all sectors. However, I am also happy for him that he has succeeded in living above board and returning home with his personal integrity intact.

I really don’t mind the insults and curses some Nigerians are raining on the president at the moment – that is our convention. From Balewa to Buhari, no leader was spared of insults and curses while in power. We only celebrate our cursed leaders in nostalgia – after they left power.

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