A President's Ruined Legacy - Eighteen-Eleven Media

By Rasaq Olasunkanmi

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari’s ascension to power in 2015 had deep moral roots. After the years of the holocaust superintendent by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), characterised by abuse and arrogance of power, the Nigerian people were in need of an ethical personality that could rescue the rapidly descending nation from the abyss of moral rectitude. Thus emerged the dour, stiff General from Daura who had built an unimpeachable reputation as an epitome of uprightness.

Riding to power on a strong moral character, he set for himself three broad goals corresponding to the ideal needs of Nigeria in 2015. These goals centred on corruption, security and the economy. He hoped that by the time he rounded off his term of office, he would be remembered for leaving a legacy of successfully combating Nigeria’s endemic corruption, securing Nigerians and improving the economy.

He set forth to achieve these lofty dreams. But alas, a few months to the end of his administration, even the blind could see that corruption has festered and reached alarmingly high levels, insecurity became the order of the day and poverty rate nearly doubled, signifying an economy in shambles.

For the wily old General, he knew he had failed on all three fronts. Though some of his advisers and assistants believed in the contrary and even succeeded at a time to convince the General that he had done well. But realities at the tail end of his administration provided the perspectives he needed to know he had failed. From Kano to Katsina, Zamfara to Borno, it is a harvest of jeers for the President from among the million ‘talakawas’ that adored and literally worshiped him.

All leaders want to be remembered for something good and positive, that is, their legacy. It is what comes to mind when their names are mentioned. For President Buhari, his desire to leave a legacy of fighting corruption, securing Nigerians and improving the economy became a mirage; a still-born; a millenarian golden age that never becomes a reality.

Yet, he wants to be on the positive side of history by leaving a great legacy. Having made a mess of the economy, failed to secure Nigerians and was unable to fight corruption, he zeroed in on the election. As a serial victim of flawed elections, he believed he could build a new legacy around organising credible elections in 2023. He found a willing ally in a dissociative personality professor of political science, Mahmud Yakubu whom he appointed as Independent National Electoral Commission)INEC) Chairman. Yakubu sold BVAS and IREV to the President as the ultimate game changer in Nigeria’s electoral democracy. Still searching for worthy legacies, currency redesign was also sold to him to sanitise and clean up our electoral processes. The President became happy, believing that he would bequeath a legacy of free and credible election as well as a redesigned currency to the nation.

But within 5 days, these two residual legacies that Buhari had banked on to symbolize his presidency imploded and failed. The election that he had hoped would partly define his presidency became the worst in the history of the Nigerian election, thanks to Yakubu’s inefficiency and blatant disregard for the law. The currency redesign, which was a reminiscence of his first coming as a military head, was also thrown out by the Supreme Court after it had deepened poverty and further pauperized average Nigerians.

And there go President Buhari’s legacies. He had hoped to give us a clean election, instead, he would be leaving us with a deeply flawed election. On the currency swap, he would be remembered as the President that weaponized hunger and made the Naira a scarce commodity for both the rich and the poor. Unfortunately, any positivity that may come out of the currency redesign policy would be taken by the new administration.