A nation on life-support

Nigeria, like its national leader, is a nation on life-support. Unlike patients in a similar situation, Nigeria does not believe it needs help and medical assistance. Doctors insist the patient must be taken to theatre for a last-minute surgery that could save its life. Supporters of the patient argue the problem is of such magnitude that surgery cannot solve it. This political cum medical standoff has left the nation in a predicament. What shall we do?

In the ongoing confusion and lack of clarity about President Muhammadu Buhari’s health situation, I am deeply concerned that the core leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), comprising national leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and national chairperson, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, among others, have remained silent and relatively out of the public sphere since Buhari returned from his 49 days of medical leave in the UK. When things are not going well in a country, you would expect leaders of the ruling party to stand up and speak out. When a president is indisposed owing to ill health, you would expect party leaders to speak out. When a president fails to attend the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on three consecutive occasions, you would expect the ruling officials to be concerned.

Let us get this point clear. The president was not elected to appear and disappear like a shooting star. The president was elected to govern, to take charge of the government, to oversee important and urgent decisions about the nation. There is no news value, in my judgment, in the Presidency keeping and releasing a diary of the days Buhari shows up in public and keeping mum on other days when no one sights the president.

So far, APC leaders appear to be unfazed about public anxieties over the health of Buhari. APC leaders have adopted the business-as-usual position for reasons no one can really comprehend. Does a man watch while his house is on fire? Perhaps, APC leaders are keeping silent because they are afraid of losing their power, their source of income, and their party positions. They are afraid of irritating the president and his key supporters. APC leaders are not talking. They have become spectators in the party they lead, mindful of the fact that all power belongs to the president.

In our democracy, all members of the ruling party, particularly the party leaders, must be seen to be 100 per cent on the side of the president, even if the president is on life-support. Loyalty to the president must be resolute, regardless of whether the president is in good health or in poor health, regardless of whether the president has been inactive or working hard. There are too many politicians of fortune waiting eagerly and patiently for party leaders, who will fall on their sword before they are pushed. They are waiting anxiously for party leaders to betray the president by advising him to resign on the grounds of ill health.

Owing to the enormous power attached to the office of the president, and the influence the president wields, party leaders may have chosen to remain silent rather than speak out and invite the president’s wrath. A sick president still has the power to dethrone party officials. Regardless of this, party leaders must speak out, to clarify the situation, and to signpost possible scenarios that await the nation. The current uncertainty cannot be resolved through secrecy. Ill health is like pregnancy. You cannot hide it. You cannot cover it with your hands. You cannot interpret for the public what the public can see with their eyes. The Presidency has taken everyone for granted.

The Presidency always plays second fiddle to reports on social and mainstream media about the president’s health. The Presidency has taken the position of a fire-fighter rather than take a proactive position by furnishing the nation with accurate and unexpurgated account of the president’s health. Unfortunately, fighting the fire lit on social media and responding slowly to information, circulating in the public sphere have not helped to pacify the citizens. The strategy has not worked.

As a measure of how low we have descended, Buhari’s public appearances are now celebrated, as if the sight of the president receiving visitors or attending Friday prayers or chairing the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting constitutes a major achievement. There is nothing newsworthy in telling us that Buhari walked from his official residence to attend the Friday prayer, or that he received a group of diplomats.

If Buhari is in good health and carrying out the duties assigned to him by the constitution, there would be no need for the Presidency to tell us Buhari has walked a couple of kilometres to do what he was elected to do. That is no news. You know something is wrong in the leadership of a country when officials of state labour vigorously to justify the president’s absence from official duties or the president’s sporadic appearances to attend public events. As I argued last week, operating a government in secrecy is the first sign of a government in distress. There would be no need to hide or do anything in secret if the President had been performing his duties normally.

Despite pretentiousness of unity in the party, huge cracks have emerged within the APC. In the past one week, angry words have been flowing from APC members in the North, who accuse unnamed party members in the South of plotting to position themselves for the post of vice-president should Buhari resign on the grounds of ill health. The tone and nature of language used have been provocative and quite extraordinary. Last weekend, a former governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, joined the cohort of supporters, who argue that Buhari should hang on to power, whether or not he is in failing health, because the constitution allows him to do so. An odd argument, you might say.

In the middle of all the confusion, other vociferous voices have emerged from northern interest groups, warning that the North will not compromise their divine right to produce a president. How do you explain this puny, inaccurate, and unnecessary rant by Joseph Waku, a leader of the Arewa Consultative Forum, who made the following comment directed at APC leaders in his eagerness to defend Buhari. Waku said: “…Let no human being say he brought Buhari to power. APC didn’t win election; it was Buhari who won. God has a purpose for Buhari to have become the president of this country, and the good Lord that we worship will see him through to finish his calling.”

It is, of course, misleading for Waku to argue that Buhari won the presidential election on his own, without the support of other APC leaders who invested their time, money and other resources to ensure the victory of Buhari. It is on record that some APC leaders in the South campaigned vigorously for Buhari in their states and beyond during the presidential election. Buhari could not have won the presidential election single-handedly without the support of all those who campaigned for him. Buhari knows he did not win the election on his own. He enjoyed the financial and material support provided by top APC leaders in the South East.

Regardless of Waku’s empty threats and the outburst of others in the North, the cowardly nature of their explosion of anger must be noted. None of the men spewing bile has been courageous enough to mention the names of APC members in the South who have expressed ambition for the position of vice-president, if the current vice-president is elevated to the position of president.

It is odd that even as Buhari is battling ill health, some ministers in his government are already pushing the line that the president is strong enough to seek re-election in 2019. Although Transport Minister, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, and Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, are not medical doctors by training, they have gazed at their crystal balls and found that Buhari would be fit to seek re-election in 2019. How grovelling, how self-centred, and how condescending.

Speaking on Channels Television, Amaechi seemed to contradict himself several times. He said: “If you look at the president since he returned to the country, you will see there is a huge improvement. He’s regaining his weight. This is a 74-year-old man, he is no longer a 58-year-old man. He is not 50. He is not a young man. The president is fit enough to govern, and if he makes the decision to run again, I don’t think there is anything wrong in supporting him.”

How did Amaechi know that Buhari is fit enough to govern in 2019, two years from now? Ironically, Amaechi says he is aware that Buhari is 74 years old and no longer a young man. Why did he insist “the president is fit enough to govern”? That kind of statement shows how selfish, overprotective, patronising and unrealistic some ministers of government have become.

Expressions of support for Buhari’s re-election in 2019 are premature and unnecessary at this moment because of two reasons. First, the president is struggling to recover his failing health. It will be mindless for anyone to suggest that Buhari should endanger his health by seeking re-election in two years’ time. Second, Buhari has only completed the second year of his four-year term. How could government officials talk about Buhari’s re-election chances in 2019 when the president is only midway into his first term, when evidence shows the government has not achieved much to justify seeking re-election? Nigeria is truly a nation on life-support.