Stateof the Nation with Olu Fasan

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari recently told leaders of the Arewa Consultative Forum who paid him a congratulatory visit that he would work harder in his second term. “This is my last lap”, Buhari said, “I will try to work harder.” The subtext is an admission that he didn’t work hard enough in his first term. Most people would say he didn’t work hard at all! But a president who ballsed up his first term cannot blithely promise to work harder in his second because it’s “my last lap”. Why is Buhari’s “last lap” more important than his first? Four years is too significant in a nation’s life to be wasted!

LET’s get down to brass tacks: Muhammadu Buhari won this year’s presidential election, and Atiku Abubakar lost it. The election was, of course, marred by significant irregularities and shortcomings, including violence, intimidation, disenfranchisement and vote-buying. But, as the doctrine of substantial performance goes, while these anomalies undermined the legitimacy of the outcome, they didn’t materially change it. So, Buhari won, Atiku lost!

GENERAL Muhammadu Buhari was elected president in 2015. He was not a good, rounded person for the job. He lacked knowledge of economic management. His economic philosophy, Buharinomics, as military ruler from 1984 to 1985 damaged Nigeria’s economy. He also lacked the quality of inclusive leadership; he couldn’t treat all Nigerians equally; championing, for instance, Fulani herders against non-Fulani farmers. Furthermore, he wasn’t well. This was apparently disguised during the 2015 election, but illness later hobbled his presidency.

PRESIDENT Buhari has deliberately upped the ante on corruption in this campaign because he wants to make next month’s presidential election all about graft. His decision last week to suspend and replace the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, on allegations of corruption was calculated to escalate the issue of graft in this election and upend his main opponent, Atiku Abubakar and his party, People’s Democratic Party, PDP. But in seeking to outsmart his opponents and win next month’s polls, Buhari is abusing his incumbency and trampling on the rule of law in a way that risks undermining the credibility of the entire elections.

PRESIDENT Buhari told a gathering of heads of anti-corruption agencies of the African Union in Abuja recently: “The momentum for our electoral victorycould not be separated from the revolt of the people against glaring endemic corruption”. He said he was elected to fight corruption.