Long Live King Buni!

Nseobong Okon-Ekong warns that the inclination to allow Governor Mai Mala Buni serve in two executive capacities as governor of a state a national chairman of a political party has the capability to destroy or impair our democracy

After floundering from multiple crises which beset the seeming well-decorated stateship of the All Progressives Congress (APC), President Muhammadu Buhari stepped in in June 2020 to save the ruling political party from going under. This very skilful and opportune move resulted in the creation of the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) with Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State as acting National Chairman.

Buhari believes Buni is the APC talisman; the goodluck charm that would reverse the ill-fortune of the days of Adams Oshiomhole leadership. However, from unfolding events, it looks like Mr. President underestimated the magical powers and Buni’s capacity to bring good luck. His initial tenure was to lapse in six months; meaning December 2020. But Buni turned on his power to fascinate others. He tested the waters with his first time-buying process; a registration/revalidation of members of the political party. It was a seemingly ingenious method of galvanising interest in the APC and opening its doors to compulsive joiners. Many now know it was a decoy to divert attention from the Yobe Governor’s real intention to perpetuate himself in what was supposed to be a set assignment with an agreed terminal date. Buni, however, has adopted the slippery mannerism of a snake in the grass. This was not immediately clear to many.

A registration/revalidation was not part of his mandate, but when he came up with the idea, he was widely applauded, anyway. What made it appealing was the fresh opportunity for APC membership-anyone and everyone was free to join; as opposed to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where congresses had been held in many states and the executives properly constituted at the ward and state level. APC’s first National Chairman and former Governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande raised an alarm, warning that the CECPC was alien to the constitution of the party and therefore, acts carried out by it would be null and void, in the eyes of the law. No one paid him any attention. Buni’s charm had captivated the APC hierarchy, the media and, arguably, all the stakeholders. A couple of plausible and hitherto impossible things started happening. Inside the life of his initial term of six months, Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State dumped the PDP on November 10, 2020. It was a strategic foothold that increased the visibility of the APC in the South-east and brought it two states at par with the PDP, which was already in control of Enugu and Abia. With Ebonyi joining Imo, the APC fold in the South-east witnessed an appreciable increase in size.

Basking in the glory of that admirable exploit, Buni asked for an extension of time, which was quickly granted. Again, his negotiation skills served him well and he was able to snap Cross River and Zamfara states from the PDP to the APC. Buni had become unstoppable! Three former governors of the main opposition PDP have been hypnotized by Buni.

Like many success stories, he was steadily assuming the mentality of the invincible! Success had gone to his head. In his eyes, he could do no wrong; of course, urged on by a teeming population of sycophants. He requested and got a third tenure extension. By this time, Buni had achieved what former President Olusegun Obasanjo in all his military bravado and civil cunning failed to achieve-a Third Term! Everything is now set for a long reign with Buni as APC National Chairman. This possibility was nearly wrecked with the Supreme Court judgment on the 2020 Ondo governorship election, which has been differently interpreted by pro and anti Buni tendencies in the APC. While the argument rages on, what is becoming increasingly clear is that Buni doesn’t intend to relinquish the APC top job. Already, Abubakar Malami (SAN) has bolstered the Yobe State Chief Executive’s confidence with his own understanding of the law, positing that Buni can serve in two executive capacities.

Buoyed by an unthinkable interpretation of the law, Buni is going no where from the office of the Chairman of the APC. Having previously served as National Secretary of the ruling party, from where he became Governor of Yobe State, Buni understands and craves for the power of the Office of the National Chairman, from where he would hold all the aces to decide governorship candidates and the party’s presidential candidate in 2023. The question is if he so much desired the national chairman’s office why did he go on to warm the seat of Governor of Yobe State? The answer can be gleaned from the Yoruba legend of Ajantala, the Demon Child. The Ibibios have a similar folklore called Akpan Eka Amanta; a Buni-like being that persistely torments. This harrowing experience is what APC has foisted on its members with Buni in the saddle. His self-destruct inclination is nothing but the illicit disposition of the average Nigerian politician to corner everything to himself.

The people of Yobe State have been made to pay dearly for their choice of a Governor who assumed the position half-hearted. Driven by the lust of office which compels the typical Nigerian office seeker, Buni apparently has nothing to offer his people than the bogus Agbada and the salutary appendage of ‘His Excellency’. They call him ‘Abuja Governor’ because he is hardly at his duty post, to mind the business of Yobe State, for which he was voted. But Buni is not alone in his love for allure of Abuja. Many governors of Northern Nigerian states are in his league, perhaps, except Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State; northern governors, mostly live and work out of Abuja because of the dark cloud of insecurity that has enveloped their states.

In all his days as Governor of Yobe, Buni cannot point to five projects solely conceptualised and executed by his administration without help from the Federal Government, its agencies or international donors. Though the National Bureau of Statistics rates Yobe State as one of the fastest growing Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) state in Nigeria , Buni does not live and work in its capital, Damaturu to understand what he needs to do to lift his people out of poverty. Yobe State generated N8.44 billion in 2019 as against the N4.38 billion generated in 2018. However, Yobe is one of the poorest states in Nigeria, with a poverty rate of 72.3 per cent – being the seventh highest in the country according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The Buni malaise is not of a peculiar kind. Its generic strain can be felt all over the country, as a majority of Nigerians groan under the maladministration of the APC government. Buni can be safely said to be a parody of Buhari; aloofness, unsympathetic and headstrong. These are beside the point, the most damaging thing that the Buni phenomenon has done to Nigeria is the capability to destroy or impair our democracy. Because of Buni, we may have a situation where state governors now assume the duties of chairman of the ruling political parties in their respective states. After all, if Buni can do it at the national level, it opens the door to a free for all, that will definitely destroy the structure of political party administration in Nigeria. And because of the propensity to emulate evil, perhaps, the PDP may copy this bad example. Then, democracy as it is known elsewhere will take a flight from Nigeria; just because Buni and those who control the levers of power in the APC must have their way.
The only saving grace may be in a judiciary that finds its voice and insists on the rule of law. So, APC can revel in wantonly breaking its own laws and the law of the country; until they meet their nemesis in courageous judges. Imagine, a situation where the APC wins the presidency and its opponent goes to court to challenge the role of Buni; and like it happened in Zamfara, the court decides in favour of the opposition. That will be a new day in Nigerian democracy. Buni and the APC may just hasten this reality. Like Ajantala and Akpan Eka Amanata, Buni will wreck the house he built.

QUOTE

The answer can be gleaned from the Yoruba legend of Ajantala, the Demon Child. The Ibibios have a similar folklore called Akpan Eka Amanta; a Buni-like being that persistely torments. This harrowing experience is what APC has foisted on its members with Buni in the saddle. His self-destruct inclination is nothing but the illicit disposition of the average Nigerian politician to corner everything to himself