Buhari’s Return To Kaduna
By Shuaibu Gimi
Former President Muhammadu Buhari’s return to Kaduna from his hometown, Daura, in Katsina State has necessitated a retrospection on his past life as an ex-military leader and presidential candidate, post-mortem of his 8-year tenure as an elected president as well as varying speculations about the basic patterns that will characterise his engagements with the people as Nigeria’s immediate past leader.
It is easy to recall that during the 12 years (2003-2015) within which he contested for the country’s presidency 4 times (2003, 2007, 2011 & 2015), he established contact with various parts of the North and even beyond. The tremendous support and confidence he enjoyed, which translated into his ultimate victory in 2015, were clear products of a sustained activism that defined his participation in politics.
As a serial presidential candidate, Buhari had varied reasons to, in the course of the contest, align with several groups that represented diverse political interests, all of which found in him a dogged and reliable struggler who could lead the crusade for positive change as desired by majority of the Nigerian masses. It was, in fact, from Kaduna that he pulled the unbelievably large crowd that eventually constituted his support base and which also became the force that ensured his success during election.
Having now been back in this cosmopolitan city, he is effectively in the same location from which he sprung up, established networks across the country and ultimately clinched the presidency. It was therefore the combination of his personality in which the masses had faith and the location, which guaranteed him utmost visibility, that worked for him as a presidential candidate.
However, as a Kaduna returnee, the former president must have to contend with the many new realities that are manifestations of the dominant perceptions the various groups of people have about him now. After 8 years as president, he must have been thoroughly assessed by all those who, prior to 2015, were either his opponents or supporters.
Either as critics or fans, all those with whom he will continue to live and associate will definitely require him to account for his tenure as president, whch means that they will put him through a scrutiny just to determine whether or not he served the purpose for which he was elected. A comparison of what prevailed before he emerged as president with what obtains now in especially those areas that are critical to the life of the North and by extension the country will be continuously done as a way of developing a record of performance of his government.
Even while in Daura, Buhari must have heard the widespread complaints about his failure to address insecurity, joblessness and infrastructure deficit. He must have, right from there, perceived the feeling of disappointment among millions of Nigerians who were hitherto fully confident that his vow to make them a lot happier would be kept.
Now, as an ex-president who will be judged on the basis of his accomplishments, not promises, Buhari should be prepared for an unusual relationship between him and all those who may, either as neighbours or political associates, be close to him. All those who may, at any time, decide to visit or engage with him are most likely to be different from the ones that were familiar to him before he became president.
He, in other words, has to be prepared to live without all those with whom he allied in the course of his protracted contest, most of whom genuinely shared what was widely perceived as his vision for Nigeria. All those individuals and groups, mostly of Northern extraction, which collapsed into one another and formed an exceptionally solid support base for him are no longer there.
The conclusion that Buhari, unlike some past elected leaders, will never be able to wield any reasonable influence in both the APC and his immediate environment is, on account of this new reality, very valid. Even with all the visibility that Kaduna can guarantee him, he can not be the same Buhari who towered over and above all other policians in the North.
Gimi is a public affairs analyst based in Kaduna
