PMB And The Morality Of Durability With Credibility 

By Bala Ibrahim

“Buhari is Nigeria’s Most Popular, Only Credible Leader Ever”-Osinbajo.

Longevity is a noun that is the aspiration of all, especially when it comes to long existence in life and in good health, or clean stay in service. Longevity becomes more beneficial, when combined with a durable attribute of credibility, more so, if the credibility featured prominently as an inherent characteristic of a person.

President Muhammadu Buhari is not only endowed with good height, but also the given quality of good predisposition, which is a rare virtue that comes with people of credibility.

His enriched and acknowledged credibility was attested to last weekend in London, by no less a person than Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osibanjo. At an interactive session with officials of the Nigerian High commission in London, Professor Yemi Osinbajo said, President Muhammadu Buhari is the only politician in Nigeria at this time, with the charisma and credibility to rally the whole country behind the patriotic push to rise above it’s current challenges. He is possibly the only person, who can go into a place or somewhere without bossing people to gather and they will come and listen to him speak.

“We need that level of credibility to be able to solve problems in our country. And I think because of his level of credibility, despite everything, he is still the only one that can call everyone, and even people, who do not necessarily agree with him know that he is a man of his words.”-VP Osibanjo.

In extolling the credibility of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Vice President was only reiterating the obvious. Many, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is now attempting to rewrite history, by changing the narratives of his earlier assessment of Buhari, have made similar, or better observations about the credibility of Buhari as a person, and as a President.

At the countdown to the 2015 election, and at the London launch of his book, My Watch, which was banned from being launched in Nigeria, former President Obasanjo, characterized  President Jonathan’s tenure as clouded by “ineptitude, ineffectiveness, inefficiency, carelessness, callousness, insensitivity, cluelessness and selfishness”. But despite his now belated tacit disfavor for Buhari, he couldn’t help defending him at the height of the heated debate about the unfortunate difficulty in locating his school leaving certificate.

While commenting on the credibility of the contestants in the election of 2015, Obasanjo said Buhari’s credentials are full of credibility. “The fact that Buhari went through military staff college means that he attained the equivalent of a Masters degree. Instead of campaigning on real issues, we have degenerated to campaigning on trivialities, to the extent of dishonoring the Honorable. All the skeptics, who are refusing to believe the credibility of Buhari, are doubting Thomases that would be put to shame”-OBJ.

The Supreme Court supported Obasanjo, by insisting that President Muhammadu Buhari was eminently qualified to contest the presidential election, despite the mischief on his school certificate. The court held that neither the constitution nor the Electoral Act required the respondent (Buhari) to attach copies of his certificates to INEC nomination form CF 001.

That attestation by Obasanjo, who knows the sincerity of Buhari for long, and the pronouncement by the apex court, have combined to add another feather to the cleanliness of Buhari’s trustworthiness, and the morality of keeping such credibility going for long.

Before now, when he came to prove the critics wrong about his readiness to transform from a military dictator to a democrat, the general averments against him by the attackers was that he is uncompromising, unbending, unyielding or utterly unpersuadable. Yes, too difficult to tilt towards dis-credibility. They couldn’t nail him with corruption or any of the banes biting Nigeria.

While in uniform, and as a military Head of State, they accused him of executing drug dealers, returning looted state assets and sending soldiers to the streets with whips to enforce traffic laws. With oil prices slumping and Nigerians saying foreigners deprived them of work, Buhari’s military regime ordered nearly one million illegal immigrants to leave the country. Government workers arriving late to work were forced to perform squats.

He didn’t stop there, his war against indiscipline, WAI, which he executed with his no nonsense deputy, late General Tunde Idiagbon, won many followers, even though my colleagues of the own’ profession, criticized him a lot, for detaining journalists critical of the government, and for passing laws that allowed indefinite detention without trial.

Ironically today, the same people are accusing him of being unduly sluggish in handling Nigeria’s multifaceted problems. His new name, which he acknowledged and accepted is, Baba Go slow. That’s Nigeria and the absurdity of sticking to the principles of credibility.

In what may be another effort at strengthening the efficacy of his credibility, President Muhammadu Buhari has organized a two-day Mid-Term Ministerial Performance Review Retreat, which is ongoing now, with the object of assessing the progress made by ministers and other appointees, towards the achievement of key priorities of the his regime.

And according to the Special Adviser to the President on media, Femi Adesina, the President has delivered quite well on his mandate to Nigerians. “In all truth, can we compare the security situation of 2015 to what we have now? As of 2015, yes it was only insurgency then, but the way bombs were going off like firecrackers in all cities, can we compare that to today? We met an insecure country. We went at it and there was some stability and after a while, it exploded again and became hydra-headed. Before, the insurgency was the only issue, but now banditry, kidnapping and cultism came in. So, it’s a serious issue. It will be disingenuous to say that there has not been improvement in certain areas of security.”

And I say many Kudos to PMB, for the durability of his credibility.