President Buhari: A “Democratic” Dictator?

Although am a post graduate student overseas, I have been following with keen interest, the political developments in Nigeria after the hand over by the then President Goodluck Jonathan. The ex-President, who happens to been described by many as Nigeria’s democracy HERO (See Leadershipng) has been applauded by both local and international communities (See Sunnewsonline).

Nigeria as a “democratic” state is presently facing truncation due to the dictator styled leadership patterns of President Muhammadu Buhari who was once a coup d’état installed leader (See Wikipedia). Unfortunately for Nigerians, President Buhari who was installed through a comprehensive electoral process by ex-President Jonathan has since his inauguration as Nigeria's President has led to citizens show of concerns over Buhari’s leadership style (Dictatorship in nature). These concerns have also been expressed by the main opposition party,‘Peoples Democratic Party’ (PDP). The PDP politicians and various civil society organizations who have all expressed fear of losing that hard fought democracy, which might be truncated by President Buhari’s military styled leadership as he continued to show total disregard of Nigerian’s constitution which he swore under oath to protect (See CNN).

Sectionalism:

Appointment Bar Chart

It’s quite unfortunate that President Buhari has been applying sectionalism since he assumed office as the commander in chief of the federal republic. A clear example to this, are his appointments as he has completely thrown out the federal character throughout his appointments, by completely excluding the South Eastern (0 appointment as at 20/09/2015, over 100 days of inauguration) part of the country from his appointments. The critical question is “Does it mean that nobody from that part (Southeast) of the country is competent enough for him to appoint?” (See fulllist of his appointments)

 Appointment Pie Chart

Marginalized South Eastern groups

Terrorism:

 Boko Haram 

Abducted Chibok girls #BringBackOurGirls

President Buhari has been known to be a supporter of violence. It would be recalled that he contested for the 2011 general against ex-President Jonathan and lost woefully. During that election process, he vowed to cause violence if he loses and he indeed kept his ugly promise of violence which caused loss of 800 lives and properties (See Human Rights Watch report).

President Buhari has also been known to be sympathetic to Boko Haram, the now globally linked terrorist group and abductors of the Chibok girls which brought about the famous #BRINGBACKOURGIRLS campaign. This dreadful group, Boko Haram has continually killed, maimed, and caused huge loss of properties within the west and central African countries via suicide bombing. Buhari’s campaign against this terror group has been seen as a mere cosmetic approach as many observers have seen him as a HUGE sympathizer of the Boko Haram sect. This is evident following his week-in week-out continuous release of alleged Boko Haram suspects instead of prosecuting them – I mean this is not healthy to the Nigerian state, security wise (See over 128 Boko Haram suspects released). See pics of some of the released suspects below

Another incidents of national worry is that the spate of killings all over the nation under Buhari is unprecedented; something that he promised to curtail the menace during his presidential campaign tagged“Change”

Imagine, security agencies extra judicial killings of innocent unarmed civilians in Anambra state as they (IPOB) were observing a peaceful evangelism, simply because they are Biafran agitation group (See HERE); my empathy goes to the victims and their families in the alleged instant killing of 3 persons and the over 30 injured people. This is a barbaric act by the security agencies (Navy & Police personnel) saddled with the responsibilities of protecting its coastlines and citizens respectively. More worrying is the fact that the law enforcement agencies had to fabricate cover-up stories to defend itself and also in the process issued an intimidating official statement to the incident; this and many more killings have become our constant daily consumption; SIGH.
See graphic pics of the brutal killings below:

Political intimidation:

Since inauguration, President Buhari through various security agencies i.e, EFCC, ICPC, DSS have continued to intimidate other political parties and their members, especially the main opposition party PDP. The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) have been used by President Buhari as a political tool to intimidate politicians, mainly from the PDP. The presidency alleged ordering of the Directorate of State Security (DSS) to politically intimidate PDP members (both political and non-political office holders) has become the order of the day.  At this junction, what can one say about DSS’s illegal invasion of Akwa-Ibom state government house few weeks ago? That was a complete disgrace to our “democracy” under President Buhari (See Guardian).  It’s also important to note that the presidency has allegedly been using this same agency to frustrate the efforts of the election tribunal in several states, mainly states governed by PDP (Rivers and Akwa-Ibom states) by trying to fabricate all kinds of evidence and counter evidence including intimidation against witnesses of the PDP candidates who was elected by the people (See Guardiannews).  Ultimately we’re convinced that all their grand plans will be futile.

Our democratic setting is in HUGE problem as President Buhari’s indirect actions and inactions are tantamount to scuttling the process. Legislative arm of government which ought to be 100% independent from the Executive and Judicial arms according to the constitution has witnessed undue interference from Buhari and the ruling All Progressive Alliance (APC) leadership. In the election of principal officers into the National Assembly (NASS), they have been doing this in order to have 100% control of the legislative arm of government and Nigerians are frowning over these ugly developments. A case in question is the present case of the senate president Sen. Bukola Saraki who has gone through all kinds of political intimidation and all forms of fabricated accusations from an alleged aggrieved faction within his ruling political party APC, simply because their supposedly “leader” Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and cohorts are against his emergence as the senate president, as he (Tinubu) had favoured another APC member as his preferred candidate (See HERE and HERE). May I ask if Tinubu is now the owner of Nigeria as he’s widely known to own a large percentage of Lagos state according to the report by AIT documentary (See Youtube video)? Tinubu Seems bent on claiming ownership of Nigeria through all his indirect actions of trying to nullify and install his choice principal candidates against the wishes of Nigerians… Nigerians should wake up! A stitch in time saves nine!!!