I recently lost my father, and so I understand what it means to lose a loved one. May the soul of Muhammadu Buhari rest in peace.
Now to the legacy of the man.
I was in the final year when Buhari was campaigning to be president. I had become politically aware and had followed how Jonathan won the 2011 election and the violence that ensued, thanks to the man called Buhari. Fast forward to 2015, the Jonathan administration was having major issues with security and anti corruption fights and came the “no nonsense” former military leader who would fix the country and so we went on the campaign trail. He won.
For 6 months, there was no minister appointed. It was a disaster. The man travelled all around the world, sometimes demarketing Nigeria. Eventually, when he released his ministerial list, it was a disaster. Old, lifeless, uninformed, ancient men and women characterised the cabinet. I gave up! Nothing interesting happened for 4 years, and in his second coming, I knew not to campaign for the man.
Remember his minister of education who confessed that prior to his appointment, he had no experience in how Nigeria’s educational system runs? Remember the Asuu strike of 2016? I graduated in December 2015 but only went for NYSC in January 2017, thanks to Buhari’s ASUU strike. It was a disaster!
How about the multiple doctor strikes? His aloofness? Buhari, as Nigeria’s president, was a disaster of extremely gigantic proportion.
Then the biggest of them all. Endsars. Although I never came out to protest but I was fully supportive of the endsars protest. In 2012, in my first week of university, police men came looking for some guys in my Lodge, and I was returning from Sunday service. Just from nowhere, these policemen brutalised me. Hit me with a gun. Injured me. It was brutal. I will later find out they had mistaken me for some cultists they were looking for. They released me after getting to their station with my injuries. No apology. Nothing.
So, I could relate directly with the endsars. But how did it all end? Blood. Anguish. Pain. And more pain. I felt responsible directly for those who died. That faithful night, I cried. My now wife and then girlfriend was almost caught in the middle of it, and it felt it could have been close to home. Buhari was a hopeless disaster as Nigeria’s president. It was then that I dusted my passport and took off.
The economy? Stupid!
Buhari was a bad manager of the economy. Nothing interesting happened in his 8 years. He left 3 billion dollars in foreign reserves. Lots of debt. Mindless money printing. It was a disaster.
Buhari may be a good man. But the legacy of a leader who presides over 200 million destinies can not be reduced to his goodness or otherwise. In the final analysis, it comes down to how he impacted our lives. And it was not good. It was terrible.
Rest in peace, Muhammadu Buhari.
– Augustine Akande writes in from Winnipeg, Canada.
