it was shocking to many Buhari worshippers when Mallam Nasir EL-Rufai, a devout Apostle of the gospel of change wrote a critical epistle to St. Buhari, admonishing the Messiah himself to turn away from iniquity and follow the narrow path of salvation. El-Rufai wrote: ‘‘In very blunt terms, Mr. President, our APC administration has not only failed to manage expectations of a populace that expected overnight ‘change’ but has failed to deliver even mundane matters of governance outside of our successes in fighting BH insurgency and corruption. Overall, the feeling, even among our supporters today, is that the APC government is not doing well.’’
El-Rufai’s epistle was actually a rehash of what is already in the public space. The only difference is that this is coming from a close ally and major stakeholder in the Muhammadu Buhari presidency. The president has been criticised for his unrelenting blame game on past administrations without doing much to right the perceived wrong. El-Rufai appears to share this view. ‘‘However, we cannot, after more than a year in office continue to rely only on this ‘blame them’ explanation. We were elected precisely because Nigerians knew that the previous administration was mismanaging resources and engaged in unprecedented waste and corruption. We must, therefore, identify the roots of our enduring economic under-performance as a nation, and present a medium-term national plan and strategy to turn things around. We must persuade Nigerians that they have to withstand the individual pains of today for the collective gains of tomorrow.’’
One issue raised in this epistle that was quite courageous was the issue of sectionalism at the highest level of government: ‘‘There is a strong perception that your inner circle or kitchen cabinet is incapable, unproductive and sectional. The quality and the undue concentration of key appointments to the North-East and exclusion of South-East are mentioned as evidence of this.’’
So far, there is no official response from the Presidency on the El-Rufai epistle to Buhari. Reactions from the public have been mixed. Some consistent critics of the Buhari administration feel vindicated while some sympathisers accuse him of disloyalty and unbridled ambition. For the Buharideens, they are too shocked to react and are yet to reconcile El-Rufai’s position to their belief in the infallibility of their hero. The usual reaction would have been ‘‘corruption is fighting back’’ or ‘‘he is a wailing wailer, who is crying over the stoppage of free money from government’’ but this is El-Rufai, an apostle of St. Buhari, whom they dare not denounce like other opposition figures.
However, what should be discernable to the critical mind is that there is an on-going realignment of forces within the ruling APC. Beginning with the spectacular performance of acting President, Yemi Osibanjo, which exposed the inadequacies and inherent deficiencies in the leadership style of President Buhari that is now further highlighted by the El-Rufai epistle, it is manifestly clear that the realigning forces within APC, are determined to take their party back by gradually but steadily, separating the party’s original agenda of change from President Buhari’s idea of change; an idea that is narrow, shallow and empty, which has failed according to El-Rufai to move the country away from the maladministration of the past to an institutionalised good governance structure, today that will guarantee a prosperous future for Nigeria and Nigerians tomorrow. If the APC will be re-invented, it has become expedient to denounce the presidency of Buhari, as not the agenda of the party but the idea of Buhari and his sectional and incompetent kitchen cabinet. The denouncing of the Buhari presidency by progressive forces within the APC will be re-assure Nigerians, who believed in the party but who are now mostly disillusioned by the dramatic failure of the Buhari administration to deliver on most of its campaign promises and will go a long way to reposition the APC for a competitive edge in the 2019 general elections in the face of a wobbling and fumbling PDP.
There is no doubt that the Muhammadu Buhari brand has become a burden and liability to the APC and the northern political establishment. A candidate by whom millions of Nigerians faithfully stood since his foray into partisan politics in 2003, have become an unforeseen disappointment in power. The North, which is the president’s power base, would have remained unchanged if not worse off in every index of development at the end of his tenure in 2019. Nigerians and the APC will have to look beyond Muhammadu Buhari for good governance. It is not enough to fly the flag of integrity. It is more important to possess the twin qualities of wisdom and knowledge to deploy your integrity positively for the common good of the citizenry, without which your integrity may degenerate negatively into a dishonest integrity. The president typifies a strong cult of personality with a large dedicated followership of devout worshippers, who like Boxer in animal believes that Buhari, like Napoleon, is always right. One important lesson from history is that leaders, who revel in cult of personality end up impacting negatively on the affairs of nation building.
The APC must not only denounce Buhari but must present a clear cut alternative to what is currently available. A process D-Buharinisation will have to be carried out in the APC. The ruling party must move away as far as possible from the Buhari legacy of nepotism, cronyism, favouritism, ethnicism and regionalism collectively known as sectionalism.
Mallam El-Rufai has displayed a rare courage, which will open a floodgate of similar open denouncing of the Buhari presidency in order to save the APC from going down in infamy along with the president the same way the PDP went down with former president Goodluck Jonathan because leading members of the party lacked the El-Rufai courage and objectivity to call him to order.
By this epistle El-Rufai has put his loyalty to the nation above personal loyalty to a mentor and kinsman. His objective assessment of the Buhari administration reveals a man who is in a justifiable hurry to see Nigeria evolve into a great and prosperous nation.
El-Rufai, like other prominent northern influential but critical voices as Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II of Kano, Prof Ango Abdullahi, Junaid Muhammed, Farooq Kperoogi, Jafar Jafar, Zainab Suleiman and so many others too numerous to mention clearly shows an emerging class of northern political elite that are not willing to sacrifice the interest of Nigeria on the platter regional sentiments. These courageous voices of truth and objectivity from the North is a clear indication that the region will play a critical role in the post-Buhari era, if not lead the process of a new political order that will attempt to usher in a system of the change we still seek.