In A country ruled by desperados, Benjamin Achi wonders why politicians and military men struggle to rule a country they would sooner ruin
Eight years ago in 2015, Nigeria witnessed the inauguration of a retired army general who earlier had a 20-month stint as a military dictator, having taken power by force on the 31st of December 1983, but had his reign cut short by yet another coup on the 27th of August 1985, this time a palace coup, which was spear-headed by his army chief.
This erstwhile army chief of his, was to hold the reins of power for the next 9 solid years, a duration that would have been elongated if his plans to perpetuate himself in power hadn’t hit the brick wall.
Before 31st December 1983 and after 27th August 1985, we’ve had other military incursions into power, with each of the regimes lasting for various durations, but not as short as the Buhari/Idiagbo regime. This reality most likely ended up as a principal source of emotional and psychological pain and frustration for Muhammadu Buhari, who must have felt the rug pulled off his feet rather too early, just as he was settling down to have his own share of the “consoling breasts” of our motherland.
And this, perhaps, made a “Mr. Desperate” out of him.
Boom! There was this return to civil rule in 1999, and the desperado in the lanky, gap-toothed, Katsina-born General found full expression. For the next three electoral cycles, the name of this man was to find its place on the presidential ballots.
He would try;
he would fail;
and
he would come again.
At the fourth attempt, he had his way by force, having threatened a free flow of tears and blood on the Nigerian streets, if he is not allowed his own turn to savour the juicy sap of the Nigerian State he had a little taste of 30 years earlier. Thankfully, there was a Goodluck Jonathan who, in a totally strange and unprecedented move quite uncharacteristic of an average Nigerian politician, was ready to jettison his own ambition to circumvent what was a sure bet for a mindless bloodletting.
Young Nigerian children in elementary school in 1985 were told they were the leaders of tomorrow, remember! And the man who told them this back then, felt it was still his turn to have power 30 years after and was ready to spill the blood of those same children he addressed that year, should they be found anywhere close to the power corridors of what is supposed to be that tomorrow of theirs he referred to. Yes! 2015 was supposed to be the tomorrow of the Nigerian elementary school child of 1985. That is by the way, but let that sink in.
Now, he has had the chance he was desperately looking for, and we’ve seen the score card of the past eight years.
Today, he has left , and we watched in disbelief as he handed over the reins to yet another desperado, with all the more reprehensible credentials. The new kid on the block claimed it was his turn and chided the sitting president not to dare renege on their preposterous agreement, and like jokes, the general yielded.
That’s the Nigeria we’ve found ourselves in.
And need I remind my beloved reader that a certain “Atiku Abubakar” is a name that has been on virtually every presidential ballot since 1993. And that not even his having been a second-in-command for two terms of eight years has been able to assuage that power thirst? Neither do I expect us to have forgotten the failed attempt of the Ota farmer, Olusegun Obasanjo, who, after his first stint as a military head of state from 1976 to 1979, still staged a come back, by one rare stroke of luck; had two terms of eight years and still wanted to bend the laws to have a third term.
Now, tell me what better describes such a nation, if not one ruled by desperados
Author
