I have watched videos and listened to ‘clear ‘ and ‘undoctored’ audios of the Town Hall meeting featuring President Muhammadu Buhari and ‘Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo as presidential/Vice-Presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC with Kadaria Ahmed as moderator. I have five things to say.
- Buhari did not disappoint: He did not disappoint anyone who has been paying attention to him over the years – with regards to his abilities in articulating clear policy goals and development themes in a way that can inspire and/or unite a nation, using the English language (for it is possible he does better using other languages or body language). To be fair, he actually improved his ‘listenability’ quotient. In past debates, Buhari was always guilty of answering whatever he felt the question was. This time around, he was humble and human enough to make the effort to try and hear the questions. When he finally did hear the question after a few repetition by Kadaria and echoing by Osinbajo, he again made the effort to be ‘heard’. Often, that included having his vocal palates make some introductory alien sounds – but, to be honest, his elocution was better. His ‘Ps’ came out as ‘P’ and not as ‘F’. His comportment also improved. In previous debates, it seemed like he was more interested in projecting the infamous body odour, sorry, body language that has now been proven to be benign and not enough to curb corruption. In this media exposure, Buhari was slow and deliberate. He was not deep: never was. He was not cerebral: he clearly has no Noble laureate ambitions. Poor guy. Was he clueless? Sometimes – in a Buhari sort of way, answering in rural metaphors what the rest of us would prefer he engaged with some complex metropolitan dribbles as President of Africa’s largest economy. He answered the questions that Osinbajo could not deflect away and onto himself from his limited world view using his limited English vocabulary. Best part: he had help that he was prepared to accept at every turn: Osinbajo. It was not a stellar performance. But, nobody who has followed his career would have expected more including the very educated who voted for him. However, it is not wrong or unfair to ask the question: could Nigeria not do better to have a President with the intellect of Osinbajo and the vote magnet of Buhari?
- Can Buhari stand up to an open debate in 2019? Not that he could in the past – even if he did try in his previous incarnation as a failing presidential candidate – APC should swallow hard and just agree that they have no presidential candidate who can go head to head with Madam Due-Process, the Sahara-Reporter fella, the Inspirational talk dude, the retired Central Banker, etc in 2019. Their Vice President can though – but he is the Vice Presidential candidate. Buhari, in English language (to keep it real), has a problem stringing together coherent policy thoughts relating to governance, save in a few areas where he is very comfortable. Statistics, dates and actual names of government agencies – except EFCC, ICPC, Police and the Army, escape him so easily that you can tell he does not bother with such ‘inanities’. Those are the spice of modern debates – even if they expose one to the brutal witch-hunt of fact checkers.
- Will Buhari lose his core support even if he debates Obama for the 2019 elections?
Thanks to the PDP and those who decided to hate on Buhari right from the day he won, the standards for re-election has been lowered, actually, dumbed down, for PMB in the minds of his voters. There are now a few check-lists he needs to tick to get their tick in his margin. Number one: is the man asking for their vote Jubrilu/JewBeReal/Jibril/etc from Sudan? Answer: No. Check. Number two: is the man sickly and gutted by age? Answer: No. he actually appears to be in great health and looks so much better than his actual mates, just in case the official number is lower. Check. Number three. Does he have an able and loyal Deputy if somehow he decides to turn in early? Check. Yes. He does. Nigerians now universally agree, many grudgingly even while calling him a ‘midget (which he is not), that Osinbajo is a Vice President that can be trusted with the levers of presidential powers. And number four. Does Buhari retain some convictions? Check. He retains a narrow and somewhat nebulous convictions-pool which he may never ever articulate coherently: which others may need to articulate when he is through.
- Did the media outing win him some votes? Yes. Aged persons will likely vote for him. They will like that he has cheated death and still can hold himself together – even if he sometimes needs to have a question repeated three times with a microphone to hear it. Many young people who have never frankly listened to him give an extensive live interview like that since he became president could think him gross and old – but not exactly a Monster. Age has mellowed him some – and that’s not bad thing when compared to the hyperbolic epithets, all bordering on the sinister, that his political rivals like to deploy against him. When such hyperbole reign, they have a way of backfiring when angry youth come face to face with the supposed subject and discover, to their chagrin, little more than a bumbling old guy with some diminished fire in his bones. And let’s not forget the millions of Nigerians with disabilities: they may have gotten one of their own, ear-wise, in Aso Rock already.
- Will Buhari ever make a great inspirational president? No. He will always be a transitional bridge to somewhere – if we make the destination ever – or a transitional bridge that led back away from somewhere that we shied away from because the price seemed too great to pay. Reason: he is incapable of articulating any great vision involving more than two or three of the policy realms that Nigeria require its President to straddle to really let fly. Problem is: none of the well oiled rival mouths campaigning right now against him seem to care too for such a highfalutin vision that can be transliterated into multiple indigenous brainwaves and still retain its essentials when it re-emerges in the lingua franca. Voting out Buhari is what the majority of Nigerians hear from them. The Prof and the Madame sound syrupy and practiced. The Sahara guy sounds like today’s Lake Chad water-wise (he would need to convince that there is enough water wherever to divert to graze his fattened policy cows). The Atikulated project daily looks like an articulated vehicle at a round-about, Fela the brand exponent is beginning to sound like Fela the Afro-Juju exponent when he speaks 2019 policy. And that may be the tragedy of this election: Nigerians may resign to not having a great President – just one with some convictions, even if very narrow or selective convictions. That is, except some candidate finds the matches to self-combust into something special this late in the game. And if Buhari wins again, the emergent government would need to find the inspirational hub/personality to unite the country or it could even be harder to govern the second time around. And that would not be good for Nigeria.
SAM ELEANYA
Sam Eleanya, poet and author is a legal and socio-economic policy strategist. He is the author of Preambles before the preamble and founder, LawNigeria.com]
