The recent pleas for forgiveness by President Muhammadu Buhari and some governors to Nigerians after deliberately turning a deaf ear to the voice of reason for eight years, smack of hypocrisy, writes Louis Achi
It’s a season of apologies with glib pitches for forgiveness from chubby-cheeked and sharp-eyed politicians shortly exiting the stage. But according to US-born author, Cathy Burnham Martin, “apologies require taking full responsibility. No half-truths, no partial admissions, no rationalisations, no finger-pointing, and no justifications belong in any apology.”
It’s debatable whether the weight of the apologies of these swaggering leaders meets with Cathy’s specifications.
President Buhari and some governors, most of whom turned a deaf ear to the cries of Nigerians for eight years, recently chose to plead for forgiveness for their acts of omission and commission.
No doubt, President Buhari’s eight years administration will end on May 29. He emerged as President in 2015 amid heightened hope as a messianic figure that would rescue the country from downslide.
The president rode into power under the change mantra, promising Nigerians a more profitable deal than the erstwhile President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration offered the country.
The administration claimed it had been one of the best things to happen to the country. On several occasions, the government argued it had fulfilled most, if not all, the promises it made to Nigerians during its campaigns.
Though opinions are divided on whether the administration has kept faith with the people, Buhari has always maintained that it dwarfed the performance by previous governments.
However, as the end of his tenure inches closer, Buhari penultimate week caused a stir when he asked Nigerians to pardon him, especially those who might have felt hurt while he was discharging his duties.
In his apology to Nigerians, he declared: “God gave me an incredible opportunity to serve the country. We are all humans, if I have hurt some people along the line of my service to the country; I ask that they pardon me. All those that I have hurt, I ask that they pardon me.”
The president, who spoke to residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), at an occasion to mark his final outing on Sallah Day, said he accepted all the complaints and criticisms in good stead, knowing it was part of the leadership he prayed and asked from God.
President Buhari has every reason to apologise to Nigerians, at least for leaving the country debt-ridden.
Many believe it will take several decades for the country to wriggle out of the debts incurred by President Buhari’s administration.
Though his handlers claimed that his administration had degraded Boko Haram, the insecurity he inherited in the North-east has spread to all parts of the country.
His critics believe that he is leaving Nigeria worse than he met it as Southern Kaduna, Benue and many parts of the country have become killing fields while kidnappers and bandits operate freely on the highways, schools, farms and homes. Many even feel that he brought strong division in this country with some comments.
Meanwhile, in this season of apologies and seeking of forgiveness, President Buhari certainly has several bedfellows.
Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku of Taraba State ostensibly seized by this seasonal passion after he successfully installed a successor – retired Lt. Col. Kefas Agbu – also apologised to Taraba people, especially those he might have “stepped on their toes” during his eight-year tenure.
Ishaku tendered his apology during a thanksgiving service organised by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Taraba State chapter, at the CAN Secretariat in Jalingo.
Ishaku had also earlier during a Special Easter Thanksgiving Service at the Anglican Church Mayo Dasa in Jalingo, the state capital, knelt before the congregation and sought the forgiveness of all that he had offended during his eight years as governor of the state.
“Biblically, we are taught to forgive those who offend us. In this case, I am asking those I have offended to forgive me. I did this in the House of God and if they did not forgive me, it is between them and God,” he reportedly declared.
Indeed, the scorecard of the outgoing governor of Taraba State in terms of development of infrastructure is said to be unimpressive.
His opponents attributed his the below-average performance to the health challenges which kept him outside state on many occasions.
Till date, he has not been able to find solution to the killings and frequent loss of lives in the state as many indigenes have turned destitute in their towns and villages.
Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano had earlier asked Kano residents to forgive him, a week before Buhari’s plea.
Following the established tradition of begging for forgiveness in a religious arena, the governor, while attending a Ramadan Tafseer in Al-Fruqan Jumaat Mosque, Alu Avenue Kano, said he had very few days to leave office, hence the need to seek forgiveness.
He told the Kano indigenes that he had forgiven anyone who offended him.
“For those whom we have offended, already our Imam has preached about forgiveness. From my own side, I have forgiven you all. Whatever someone said about me I forgive him. I also beg you to forgive me.
“But for this long period, there must be some places where I did right and where I did wrong. Sometimes someone will commit an offence on your behalf. For whatever wrong I did, please I seek your forgiveness.”
Though Kano was safe and secure under Ganduje, his opponents alleged that he ran a corruption-ridden administration, which denied his people the dividends of democracy.
In the unfolding pious drama, Benue State was not left out, as Governor Samuel Ortom also joined the fray.
Ortom, a member of the Governor Nyesom Wike-led G-5 that threw spanners into the wheels of Atiku Abubakar’s presidential bid, was defeated by Dr. Titus Zam of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the February 25, 2023 senatorial election.
“For those I might have offended in this journey of serving the state and our country, I seek your forgiveness, as I also forgive those who have offended me,” the governor said after recently meeting with State Executive Council members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Makurdi.
A significant dimension in these apologies is that these politicians, except Ortom, chose religious platforms or events to push their forgiveness narratives.
But his opponents accused him of using the herdsmen’s invasion of his state to mask his alleged poor performance in terms of building infrastructure.
However, his supporters were quick to point out that securing lives and property should remain the priority of any government as opposed to building roads and other infrastructure.
The emerging consensus is that all the beggarly contrition by the powerful outgoing political leaders cannot repair the considerable damage done to the delicate fabric of the Nigerian state. On this count, many see President Buhari as particularly culpable given the nature of the central command federalism being operated.
From the security, economic, judicial, religious and ethnic prisms, Buhari is seen to have been offered an opportunity by history to write his name in gold but failed woefully. From the nightmarish debt-profile he is bequeathing to the next administration to the quantum of innocent blood shed under his watch with little consequences, many rightly or wrongly see his call for forgiveness as a tough one.
Therefore, the call for forgiveness by Buhari and some governors may not be enough to placate the deeply hurt Nigerians. They must take responsibility for their actions and point out their errors to their successors, so that they can fix them.
