Life has a way of coming full circle to expose the unworthy who would otherwise have gone to their graves, hailed as heroes.
It unmasks and strips naked fakes to reveal the rottenness underneath.
34 years ago, Buhari was in power as military Head of State, after Shehu Shagari was toppled, in a coup that in self righteous outrage, accused that civilian administration of everything bad governance and maladministration represented.
In truth the Shagari government engaged in squander mania and there was the usual corruption, politicians living large while the masses lived in penury.
Nigeria declined but the politicians lived in denial, one of them Umaru Dikko saying there was no poverty, because he hadn’t seen any Nigerian eating from the dustbin.
Fast forward 36 years and the man who toppled Shagari is in his second term as civilian President.
In my assessment, things are worse today than they were under Shagari, with worse levels of incompetence, maladministration and corruption.
New sufferings have been added under Buhari – Islamists insurgency, banditry, ethno religious killings, nepotism and corruption running riot.
While it was just Dikko who took the stage to disparage Nigerians when we complained back then, there are hordes under Buhari’s miserable government, who daily insult us for daring to call attention to his woeful performance.
They call us “wailers and haters” among other derogatory names, then hold sham gatherings to score themselves high marks.
The reality though is different with the country scoring marks that rank us high on every index pointing to being a failed state.
Poverty is endemic and today, the figures show not less than 100 million Nigerians live below the poverty line and go to bed hungry.
Buhari has borrowed Nigeria into a debt hole and spends 90% of revenues to service it, leaving nothing for even recurrent costs, so he borrows more.
Strange though that while he blames fall in revenue for his borrowing, MDAs have failed to remit 2.7 trillion naira to federation account almost annually.
Fixing refineries would have saved trillions more, but it is five years into his administration and not one of our refineries has been fixed. Niger now supplies Nigeria petrol.
Looking back, I cannot but wonder what nerve Buhari had to accuse Shagari of maladministration and sundry offences, when today he has proved to lack the capacity to have made that call.
I am happy that Shagari lived long enough to see for himself, how a man who toppled his administration for all the reasons he used in the public lynching back then, turned out to be not only a misfit as President, but I dare say, one fit to be tried for criminal negligence, dereliction of duty and subverting the course of natural justice and equity as enshrined in the country and according to the oath of office that he swore to.
For those of you who lived and knew what it was like under Shagari and have now lived through 5 years of the administration of the man who toppled his administration, I would like to know who you would choose as a lesser evil, to choose from were you to be in such a position to make that pick, knowing what you know now?
Vote 1 for Shagari or 2 for Buhari.
I voted just one year into this administration and have not seen any reason to change my mind.
No matter how much he wishes it, history will never be kind to Buhari.
Had roles been reversed in 1984, with Buhari as civilian President and with today’s level of misery and despair, I believe Nigerians would have prayed he be thrown into jail and the keys thrown away.
Nigeria is so many things gone wrong under Buhari, one of which is the constant reminder that “he who goes a borrowing reaps a sorrowing”.
Vote now if you feel up to it.
-Akpan, a social commentator, writes from Lagos
