By Emeka Obasi

This is my own crown and I owe no explanations. Problem is I do not possess the necessary financial muscle to organize this event which should take place in Owerri, my state capital. Perhaps, I should ask my governor to help me with a befitting statue of President Muhammadu Okechukwu Buhari.

President Buhari

Nigerians will not forget 2018 in a hurry. The year our President was reported to have changed planet, albeit erroneously, more than five times. Thanks to social media, we were greeted with all sorts of photographs showing the sorry state of the Commander–in Chief.

I would not know if President Buhari was trying to play Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, whose demise was reported by the Nigeria Television Authority [NTA] on November 3, 1989, almost three weeks to his 85th birthday. The Owelle would spend seven more years with us before departing on May 11, 1996.

Buhari turned 75 this year. And he spent quite some time in the hospital, outside Nigeria. To a large extent he was in a world of his own, or so we were made to believe. The Nigerian High Commission, London became a Mecca of sorts as high ranking officials from Aso Villa to Akwa Ibom turned pilgrims all in the bid to have a glimpse of our ruler.

When Zik’s death was announced, he spoke to us. The Owelle said: “As a member of the journalism profession, I feel very sorry that somebody should defame another—with impunity.”

Buhari kept us all guessing when rumours of his passage hit the social media. Our President was invisible. Only his doctors knew what was going on. It is probable that a miracle was performed.

The same President Buhari who seemed to have lost steam eventually came back wearing a brand new look. Fit as fiddle, he is already warming up for a second term. He was a marathoner as a cadet.

How does one explain the Nigerian situation under Buhari at this time? Corruption has not left us and is not in any hurry to depart from our shores. The President ascended the throne smoking. He told us he was going to kill corruption which according to his supporters was given a chalet at the Villa during the Dr Goodluck Jonathan years.

Today, corruption has not left the high walls of Abuja. From Petro dollar racketeering to Pension Fund even down to such mundane issue as grass cutting, the chalet could eventually become a full blown brothel.

We are still talking of Boko Haram, a group that was declared technically defeated a few months back. Our soldiers are killed, civilians are slaughtered, cities and villages are bombed. Buhari’s admirers told us he was going to send Boko Haram to the grave, the way he almost marched to Ndjamena, the Chadian capital in 1982.

Boko Haram are not in the Premier League anymore. Fulani Herdsmen are in the lead and like Manchester City in the English Premiership, the wandering cattle men have not lost any game. They butcher in Ekiti, murder in Benue, behead in Plateau, rape in Delta and destroy in Enugu.

Unlike Boko Haram, Fulani Herdsmen are untouchable. While our soldiers and airmen fight Boko Haram, they do not look the way of the Herdsmen. Boko Haram are headquartered in Sambisa Forest, at least, they are a little restricted, confined mostly to the North–East. Fulani herdsmen have no inhibitions. Nigeria is their territory, from the Savannah to the Atlantic.

Nnamdi Kanu came on strong with IPOB. The sound of Biafra snatched Buhari’s cheer mood. The military left Boko Haram, overlooked Fulani Herdsmen and moved to the South–East to launch an offensive that could be likened to a Second Asaba genocide.

The irony is that Buhari was honoured with a chietaincy title by a group of Igbo leaders after the battle of Umuahia. This is the same President that has not forgotten the five percent Igbo votes he bagged in 2015.

We hear that Buhari has Igbo friends. I am talking of Major Juventus Chijioke Ojukwu,whose Boys manned the Biafran Armoured Car: Corporal Nwafor, and Col. Chris Ugokwe, the man who drove Lt.Col Bukar Sukar Dimka and his Young Revolutionaries from Radio Nigeria, Ikoyi, Lagos in February 1976.

They told us Buhari knew his way round oil. Even his friend, Prof. David West, boasted that petrol will go for 40 Naira per litre. Last Week I bought 400 per litre and some of my kinsmen parted with 15,000 Naira each to jump unto a bus traveling to Aba.

In 2018, there was no Christmas in Nigeria. In fact, Jesus wept for his children who could not  join to celebrate yet another birthday. December 25 was a bad day. All the days of Yuletide in 2018 have been bad.

Governor General of Nigerian politics, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the Jagaban himself, was sidelined most of the year. Just before the ember months, President Buhari offered  him  gratis visa to Aso Villa. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar jumped out of the APC bus.

And Buhari is waxing stronger. Nigerians are suffering and smiling. There is something about Buhari as he still stands tall in the midst of poverty, frustration and uncertainty. For this, I vote him my man of the year. Sai Baba!