Buhari's seeming mismanagement of victory
August 3 2018 By Abiodun Giwa
Aisha Buhari and her husband, President Muhammed Buhari
President Muhammed Buhari, once a beneficiary of defections that helped his election, is currently faced with the dilemma of his own party members' defections.
Buhari's response to the worrisome defections of notable members of his party, few months to his reelection bid, is a reminder of his benefit from defections of ruling party members, that enhanced his victory at the polls.
Although Buhari and his party supporters have not shown any sense of worry or say their party is facing a bigger challenge, in view of the defections from the party, many observers say that the president and his supporters have come against a hard political rock.
However, Buhari has wished defecting members, that include the country's senate president, Bukola Saraki and governor of Sokoto State, AminuTambuwal, best of luck in their future endeavors. But bad feelings against defecting members have also been manifested.
On Tuesday, newspapers in Nigeria reported Buhari as having described defecting members as bad eggs and that he said God will continue to fish out bad eggs in the party. But there is nothing to show that it is God that has fished out these defecting members, whose complaint against the ruling party is that the party has made being members of the party an uncomfortable affair like that of a bad landlord and tenants.
The defecting members grudge is a sharp reminder of Aisha Buhari's earlier complain against her own husband that those who have helped her husband and the ruling party to victory at the polls have been marginalized, while few unknown powerful persons have hijacked the running of the party's affairs, at her husband's instance.
Aisha is the country's first lady and the president's wife. She is the first person who has warned her husband about his seeming mismanagement of his victory at the polls. She has threatened she would not support her husband's reelection, if the husband as president fails to accord recognition to party members, with whom she said he has earned victory at the polls, instead of allowing a few unnamed hijackers, whom she accused her husband of allowing to run the government.
Therefore, on the hindsight of the current defections from the ruling party, Aisha's words also resonate and that the president's mismanagement of his victory may have caused the current defections, after a long period of efforts and meetings to manage the dissatisfaction voiced by affected members. The party never said there was not a cause for dissatisfaction by defecting members. The real cause of the dissatisfaction is what is yet to be known. And the party does not think defection should be last resort. If there have been defections in the past as an instrument of settling political disagreements, why does the party think there would no longer be defections, when no one has done nothing to discourage or stop defection?
Instead of making stereotype statements such as calling members of the opposition party as thieves or that the opposition party as a party of thieves, when in the real sense of the Nigerian equation, the ruling party itself cannot be said to have entirely angels as members, Buhari's supporters ought to exercise restraint and accept the current fate of the party, since they have said these defections will not stop the president's reelection.
It is stupid to call any party a party of thieves, when both the opposition party and the ruling party are known to harbor the good and the bad among Nigerian politicians. The threat by some ruling party members to fight over the senate's presidency and cause morally equivalent of war if they fail to wrest the crown from Saraki, amounts to a show of being above the law and that Nigeria is a lawless country, ruled by thugs or motor park touts.
In sane countries, aggrieved politicians settle issues by resorting to the law courts, and not by threatening fire and brimstone and lawlessness.
Buhari's response to the worrisome defections of notable members of his party, few months to his reelection bid, is a reminder of his benefit from defections of ruling party members, that enhanced his victory at the polls.
Although Buhari and his party supporters have not shown any sense of worry or say their party is facing a bigger challenge, in view of the defections from the party, many observers say that the president and his supporters have come against a hard political rock.
However, Buhari has wished defecting members, that include the country's senate president, Bukola Saraki and governor of Sokoto State, AminuTambuwal, best of luck in their future endeavors. But bad feelings against defecting members have also been manifested.
On Tuesday, newspapers in Nigeria reported Buhari as having described defecting members as bad eggs and that he said God will continue to fish out bad eggs in the party. But there is nothing to show that it is God that has fished out these defecting members, whose complaint against the ruling party is that the party has made being members of the party an uncomfortable affair like that of a bad landlord and tenants.
The defecting members grudge is a sharp reminder of Aisha Buhari's earlier complain against her own husband that those who have helped her husband and the ruling party to victory at the polls have been marginalized, while few unknown powerful persons have hijacked the running of the party's affairs, at her husband's instance.
Aisha is the country's first lady and the president's wife. She is the first person who has warned her husband about his seeming mismanagement of his victory at the polls. She has threatened she would not support her husband's reelection, if the husband as president fails to accord recognition to party members, with whom she said he has earned victory at the polls, instead of allowing a few unnamed hijackers, whom she accused her husband of allowing to run the government.
Therefore, on the hindsight of the current defections from the ruling party, Aisha's words also resonate and that the president's mismanagement of his victory may have caused the current defections, after a long period of efforts and meetings to manage the dissatisfaction voiced by affected members. The party never said there was not a cause for dissatisfaction by defecting members. The real cause of the dissatisfaction is what is yet to be known. And the party does not think defection should be last resort. If there have been defections in the past as an instrument of settling political disagreements, why does the party think there would no longer be defections, when no one has done nothing to discourage or stop defection?
Instead of making stereotype statements such as calling members of the opposition party as thieves or that the opposition party as a party of thieves, when in the real sense of the Nigerian equation, the ruling party itself cannot be said to have entirely angels as members, Buhari's supporters ought to exercise restraint and accept the current fate of the party, since they have said these defections will not stop the president's reelection.
It is stupid to call any party a party of thieves, when both the opposition party and the ruling party are known to harbor the good and the bad among Nigerian politicians. The threat by some ruling party members to fight over the senate's presidency and cause morally equivalent of war if they fail to wrest the crown from Saraki, amounts to a show of being above the law and that Nigeria is a lawless country, ruled by thugs or motor park touts.
In sane countries, aggrieved politicians settle issues by resorting to the law courts, and not by threatening fire and brimstone and lawlessness.
Widget is loading comments...
