The Peoples’general Mount The Saddle By Okoi Obono-Obla

It is immutable and incontrovertible that on the 29th May 2015, General Muhammadu Buhari would be inaugurated the 5th elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He had made three previous attempts in 2003, 2007 and 2007 to become the President of Nigeria and failed.


He came out badly bruised and devastated by a ganging up against him by a conspiracy between the elite and the electoral commission using the worst form of chicanery and electoral roguery to deny him.

The poor , the wretched of the earth and the political , social economic marginalised fringe of the population were decidedly the strongest followers and supporters of the General whom they believe has the panacea to their quagmire and their faith, empathy and bond they established with him ensure that the hope in the General remain glimmer.

However determinedly and ruggedly tried to use the judiciary to upturn the large scale cheating and rigging visited on him these three attempts but crass legalism and arid technicalities were invoked and used against his causes.

The law has always being an instrument used by the governing elite and the propertied class from time immemorial. This is why the Marxian say law is part of the superstructures of the Bourgeoisie State!

Law is simply a set of conduct of conduct and regulation prescribed by the governing elite in society or community contrived and handed down to maintain social harmony and equilibrium in order to safeguard the vested interest of the governing elite and maintain its stranglehold on the poor and dispossessed.

So it is mere wishful thinking for anybody to expect that the judiciary would be revolutionary to the extent it will rock the boat and deliver justice to a populist candidate such as General Buhari in 2003, 2007 and 2011 when he challenged the results of the presidential elections.

The Court in a conservative society such as ours raked by corruption cannot be used to redress a political question such as an electoral contest that could only be decisively and squarely resolved by the sovereignty of the people.

General Buhari was subjected to unrelenting and deep seated campaign of vicious character assassination, defamation and hatred to demonize him among the right thinking members of the society and make him look the devil incarnate that is not worthy of being elected the President of the country but like a true soldier he never gave up.

He was taunted as perpetual and serial electoral loser. He was ceaselessly blackmailed as a man fixed with endless desire and obsessed with grabbing political power to use it to witch hunt his detractors and enemies but Buhari never balked, he remained undeterred and focused.

General Buhari has seen it all. He is surely a man of diverse background. He comes from humble background. He lost his father when he was barely four and was brought up by his mother. He was a cattle herder before he went to Secondary School. He joined the Army in 1961 shortly after Nigeria’s Independence.

He fought in the Civil War as a young Army Officer to preserve the unity and territorial integrity of the country. He served in the military government (General Murtala Mohammed/General Olusegun Obasanjo) that took over the reins of government after General Yakubu Gowon was toppled on the 29th July 1975.

He became Head of State in 1984 and his government was toppled by some of his close friends and colleagues in August 1985. He was imprisoned for almost four years after he was overthrown. For nearly 30 years he was in the wilderness but staged a comeback powerfully when he won a landslide Presidential Election in March, 2015. General Buhari has no excuse not be his own man. He must work tirelessly to clean the Aegean Stable and move the country progressively forward to new era. This is the only he way he would etch his name in the foot prints of time, so history would judge him kindly.

General Buhari must strive to be our own version of Charles De Gaulle of France; Mustapha Kamal Ataturk of Turkey; Franklin Roosevelt of the United States of America, men who through dint of hard work and vision permanently changed the fortunes of their countries on the throes of disintegration and extinction.

OKOI OBONO-OBLA