After Buhari, Who Next?

Mufu Tijani

As the count down to the end of this administration begins and with President Muhammadu Buhari himself affirming that he is determined to hand over in 2023 as he swore by the Koran to and eagerly looking forward to retiring to Daaura his hometown in Katsina, all speculations alluding to a third term agenda are dead on arrival.

Expectedly, there has begun intense politicking, political alignments, and debate about which zone or political bloc produces the next President. While the political parties are grappling with the issue of zoning, an array of aspirants has emerged jostling to take over from Buhari as he exits in 2023.

The dominant argument today is that power should shift to the south. Those making the argument point at the fact that the north, represented by Buhari has been at the helms of affairs for eight years. Just as events played out in 2007, after Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s two terms of eight years, he handed over to the late Umaru Yar’Adua, a northerner from Katsina State, they want the same scenario to be replicated this time around.

The popularity of this argument is supported by a certain unwritten agreement for power rotation between the north and the south rather than the six geo-political zones. Therefore, now that Buhari is in the twilight of his administration, it is only natural that the parties begin to look down south for a replacement.

However, there are those who scoff at the idea of power rotation or zoning describing it as outdated, archaic, and undemocratic. For them, Nigerians should be allowed to choose who leads them voluntarily without limitations. While this option appears attractive, the danger, however, is the suspicion in the south that the first census figures that gave the north over 56 per cent of the population would give the north a permanent undue advantage over its southern counterpart.

So this brings us to the more important question of today’s write-up: What type of leader do Nigerians need in 2023? Given the complacent nature of Nigerians, it is so easy to please an average Nigerian. Nigerians are great followers even to the point of being categorized as gullible because they ask nothing from those who lead them and accept all forms of dehumanizing treatment and impunity handed to them without complaints.

But what do Nigerians ideally want? Given that Nigerians are already used to suffering and neglect by successive governments that always enforced the creed of sacrifice on them, Nigerians could do with the very basic amenities. Since successive governments abdicated their basic responsibilities of providing the citizenry with potable water, electricity supply, affordable healthcare, access to quality and affordable education, etc, the citizenry has all along resorted to self-help. Thus any leader that has the political will to provide Nigerians with these basic amenities would be a hero.

So looking up to 2023, the kind of leader Nigerians would want to succeed Buhari would be expected to have the following attributes:
Be a True Nigerian – This presupposes that the person has to be detribalized and be able to rise above tribe, ethnicity, and religion.

Given that our past Nigerian leaders have always been selected based on ethnic, religious considerations, the next President must see himself first as a Nigerian and also take the entire country as his constituency regardless of who voted for him or not and what his state of origin is. He must be passionate about Nigeria and put Nigeria’s interest first and above his personal or any other interest.

Empathetic – Our leaders are far too detached from the people and because they are not in touch with the people, they fail to feel the pulse of the people and are not sensitive to their needs. In 1983, the media reported that Nigerians were suffering to the extent of scavenging from the dust bins, former President Shehu Shagari’s powerful minister, the late Umaru Dikko debunked the claim. In reality, with credit lines drying up and little foreign exchange to import goods, Nigerians spent endless nights queuing to buy essentials from the government-established Nigerian National Supply Company (NNSC) the sole company vested with the power of importing essential items to be resold at controlled prices to Nigerians at that time.

Dikko could not have known the truth because a typical government politician and the appointee and family are catered for by the government. Accommodation, transportation, feeding, medicare, insurance, etc are all taken care of by the government at the expense of the taxpayer and these sets of people do not care a hoot about what happens to the taxpayers. It is so because they do not shop from the same market, go to the same schools, get treated by the same hospital. In fact, most government officials are treated abroad. So, as a result of these perks of office, the politician and appointee are shut off from reality and their reactions are more punitive than empathic. That has to change with the next President.

Unifier – As was noted earlier, Nigeria’s major faultlines are ethnicity and religion and these two divisive factors dominate political decisions in Nigeria. This has to stop. The next President must strive to respect the secularity enshrined in the 1999 Constitution as amended regardless of his religious affiliation. Rather than encouraging regional integration, the next President should strive for federalism, identify and unite the different ethnic groups some of which may be as tiny as a dot, and give them a pride of place in the union. The use of divisive language like the one Buhari used to describe the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) would certainly stoke the flames of rebellion and destabilize the country.

Ideas man – The next President Nigeria needs is an ideas man, a visionary, young and energetic, and a futurist with a Big Picture. He must be a critical thinker, bold, courageous, and not afraid to fail, learn from the failure, and forge on. He must be able to think Big and out of the box. We need a President whose ideas are beyond crude oil.

The next President should insert himself in the time frame of nearby Dubai’s leader and comprehend how suddenly a desert has been transformed to eldorado. While Dubai depended on oil in the past to build its economy, today, less than 1 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is from crude oil. Nigeria is far more endowed than Dubai and only needs someone with the capacity to catapult the country from the third world to the first world. It can be done where there is the will.

Charismatic – Nigerians need a breath of fresh air and a paradigm shift from the current gerontocracy. The next President apart from being young, energetic, a man of ideas and visionary, has to be charismatic and appeal to both sides of the divide, men and female, young and old, home and abroad. It would not amount to setting the standard so high if we say our next President should be in the mold of former American President Barack Obama. His rock star personage, power of oration, confidence, poise, and bewitching smile stood him out and differentiated him from other Presidents before him. Nigeria needs such a charismatic leader to rally Nigerians behind a cause.

Knowledge – Oftentimes, we have had reluctant individuals, who were unprepared and had no capacity to lead foisted on the polity as leaders. In the end, because they were unprepared, they also had no agenda and kept moving from one bad policy to the other till the economy is totally in ruins. Today, the next President must be deliberate and ready to lead and sell his agenda aggressively to the people. We must be able to see clearly even before his election what his agenda is. He must show how well he understands Nigeria’s diversity and how prepared he is to manage it. He must also show how well he understands Nigeria’s complex problems and show clearly the roadmap to rescuing Nigeria back from the brink.

Communication – While it is fashionable to have a solid cabinet populated by reputable and accomplished individuals to help drive the President’s vision, the President should always be able to conceive and communicate his policy direction clearly to his cabinet. A situation where a President is clueless on issues and allows himself to be made a caricature of by some of his cabinet members who may decide to run rings around him on account of his lack of communication skills should no longer be the norm.

Optimism – No matter how bad the situation may look locally or internationally, the next President must show optimism and display hope that things are going to get better. Rather than painting a gloomy and bleak picture that would demoralize your cabinet and people and send wrong signals to the international community, Nigeria’s next President must tout optimism like a talisman with which he waves at home and abroad to keep hope alive.

Honesty – In this era of fighting corruption, the next President must be honest, transparent, and come clean in everything he does. He must lead by example if he wants his people to emulate him. A leader that is dishonest can not command the respect of his people. He must mean every word he says, be open, and have nothing to hide.

Inspire – Nigerians are leaving the country daily for greener pastures provoking brain drain and creating huge gaps in critical areas like medicare, education, ICT etc. At a time like this, Nigeria needs an inspirational leader to create a convincing narrative backed by action to keep our people home. A leader who inspires is an asset to his people. He would easily provoke patriotism in the citizenry and get them to back government action or policy.

Strategic – The next President must be deliberately strategic in both thinking and action. He should be able to read global and local trends and adjust strategies to meet the challenges of the time. It has been proven time without number that those who react to situations impulsively end up in deep regrets as against the leader who takes time to strategize before taking that leap.

Accountable – This amounts to going to equity with clean hands. As a leader, you hold the sacred trust of the people which means that you must exhibit the highest degree of probity and accountability. You must not be found wanting and tampering with the people’s commonwealth or stealing from the treasury. Most times, leader serve their personal interest rather than working for the general good. It is not surprising that such leaders oftentimes end in disgrace and incarceration. The next President must be above board.