What we know about President Muhammadu Buhari hardly recommends him to be counted among democrats. This is not really on account of his military antecedents, but also on account of how he has sat, euphemism for discharged his duties, in the various places duty has placed a call on him. He does not seem to like the press as evidenced in the lives of the Nduka Irabors of this world or the Tunde Thomsons of journalism, both of who became the test tubes for the infamous Decree 4, which was a hammer on the media in Buhari’s first coming as head of state. The tyranny of history would not spare him as one whose hammer sought to knock the press into oblivion. But the sweet memory of history will also recall a man who has worn integrity as clothes wherever duty called. He has never been indicted or even rumoured to be allegedly involved in any underhand financial dealings. Those who work with him may commit infractions under his nose as occurred in the matter of a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, who almost got away with contract fraud, but got the sack when the nation thought the President had swept the matter under the huge presidential carpet. The President is not one to be stampeded into taking action on any matter until his conviction drives him to do so. The President is not in the fast lane, which is why it took him about six months to put together a cabinet. The nation had become agitated before he put a team together and there is a tendency that he would not change the team, a clear sign that he is stable and not whimsical like some governors who change cabinets like clothes.
PMB’s official declaration about making himself available to stand election for a second tenure took time in coming but it ought not surprise those who have followed his pace of action. He does not take decisions with the speed and necessity of taking breaths. We now hear that just as he was begged to return to politics from retirement, his admirers had been on the job of getting him to do another term since a year. It took him that long to come to terms with their demand and has now, to their political joy, answered in the affirmative. Those who rode on his back to power would want a repeat. Their faces have lit up with joy. He has acceded to make a move that, in their thinking, would secure their political future. There is no iota of doubt in the comments of those who aver that PMB means well for the nation and so is the question as to the motive of those who have dragged him into the fray again. Do they mean well for him? We need to be dispassionate about this, although such words hardly find space in political circles. The President has been in and out of hospital in this tenure, spending time and resources to bring his health to normalcy as would a man his age. When critics opened their attack, some of us, including yours sincerely, held that those critics were unfair and unjust to he President; a man at that age would have to attend to his health periodically. The President would stand for election next year at 76 and end the tenure at 80, if he wins, as his supporters say he is bound to do. Age, they say, is just a number but health is no number. Those who now urge him to make this move know that God has been kind to this President and has dragged him back from the jaws of death. In one of the many times he went on medical trips, the President confessed that he had never been that sick. On one occasion, the President spent 104 days on a medical leave, as it was then called. In the face of his health challenges, it is evident that those who have ‘begged’ him to run again have shown the stuff of selfish politicians. I have since noted that dispassionate reasoning is a strange bedfellow in politics. PMB might win again. I have a strong feeling that nothing will stop his return, except he answers the final call before the next polls. The forces that brought him to power are alive and well. They have not pulled the rug from under him. There are clear indications that President Buhari would clinch a second tenure. That is the stark reality staring the nation in the face. As a commentator on the side, I feel it is a disservice to drag him into this race not because he will set a new record as the oldest President to mount the saddle, but also because his health may not carry the burden of office. The issue of performance, for me, takes a back seat when placed beside his health. The President has fulfilled a lifetime ambition to preside over the affairs of this nation, an ambition that berthed when the ship was on the verge of sinking and the captain was bailing out before the miraculous happened. As the legendary writer, Chinua Achebe, said through one of the characters in his phenomenal book, Things Fall Apart, a man should not challenge his Chi to a fight. Those who have lured the President into this are making him take his good fortune for granted. He has fulfilled a long-standing ambition and must not drag the matter. Perhaps, those at the fore-front of this want to help fulfil the panicky prophecy of men we would conveniently call fake, who have said things about the President not surviving in office, now turning out to be lies, masquerading as prophecy. Those whose meal tickets are tied to his presidency may raise hell against any contrary proposal. If they love him as they claim to do, they have just done him a disservice. I hope they are not luring the President to danger.