The enemies in President Buhari’s camp by Ademola Adeoye

I have read through scores of articles in the last 365 days—unveiling some of the perceived enemies in the camp of Mr. President, but each time I read through those articles, it becomes clear to me as water that most of our people do not know the real masked-enemies in the camp of the strong man of veracity from Daura. When I climbed out of bed in the wee hours of today, the initiative to put some words together on this smoldering and disturbing issue walked up to me as a baby would walk up to his mother and I warmly embraced it even while I was trying hard to escape from the loving grip of sleep.

The number one enemy in the camp of the number one citizen of Nigeria is Mr. President himself. You think Abba Kyari is the enemy in Buhari’s camp? To an extent, I think not. The major enemy that PMB is having is Buhari himself. President Buhari chose his core team himself, because we were made to understand that he refused to allow serving governors pick his hub and nucleus team-members for him. And the truth is; no leader is superior to the collective strength of character and intelligence of those he chooses to surround himself with. Over the years, it has become so clear to all that Mr. President has employed those he is not strong enough to fire. And it is an error in leadership to employ folks that one cannot fire as a leader.

In being Nixon, A Man Divided, Thomas shows the whole world an enigma shrouded in paranoia. Tricky Dick was a walking study in contradictions. Combative in public, he had a massive inferiority complex in private—and was surprisingly easily manipulated by the people that surrounded him in the White House. Here was a man—who deplored IVY Leaguers, but he was torn between trying to be good and giving in to his darker impulses, but above all, Nixon was a man who badly wanted approval.

Nixon comes off as haughty and always suspicious of the potential plots swirling around. By surrounding himself with men like John Erichman and H.R.Haldeman, players who enabled Nixon’s sense of paranoia, he enabled a shaky conspiracy that spiraled out of control. That included the hiring of two seemingly incompetent men (E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy), which led directly to the all important Watergate burglary. Without mincing words, the current President of Nigeria is deliberately toeing the path of Nixon of this world. President Buhari deliberately surrounds himself with some incompetent men that he is incapable of firing.

One of the things Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan said he would do differently on the condition that he got re-elected was to change his cabinet members from belly-driven politicians to skilled, proficient and think-tanks—who are excellence-centric and results-driven, but it was too late for him to put his house in order, because he got whitewashed and routed at the 2015 presidential polls. When it comes to governance, at the highest level in the land, those President Buhari has chosen to surround himself with would largely determine whether he fails or succeeds at the end of the day. Remember, at the end of 2018, the common man on the streets would judge his administration.

President Buhari’s number two adversary and foe are those who day by day worship him as a god. They are the ones who cheer him on, even when he is clearly wrong. Last year, Mr. Femi Adesina came on air (during a radio show) and he luminously articulated that PMB once asked him to always hold him accountable, no matter how difficult the issues are. Why did Mr. President say that? He said that because I presume he knows that there is only one thing that “yes men and women” do; they are experts at making an enduring failure out of a President. “Yes men and women” daily suck life out of an administration. And any President who want desires to be triumphant would need to distant himself from them.

“Yes men and women” are those who will never see anything wrong in a President. They are the masked-enemies of the country, not those who brilliantly and objectively criticize the administration of PMB. “Yes men and women” would take you on each time you ask the right questions on how we are going to move forward as a people. The truth is; when PMB asked for people’s votes, he has in some way empowered them to criticize him. When I cast my vote for a man, it means the man has empowered me to constantly call him out whenever he is wrong. Buhari will fail to deliver on his promises if the citizenry do not daily demand for them. That is how it works. It does not work by keeping quiet. Keeping quiet is not patriotism.

Abdulrasheed Maina’s saga is beginning to cause the people of Nigeria to start doubting the reliability of Mr. President. Those who detest him are the ones, who are keeping hushed on the issue that shall boomerang and ricochet in the days to come. A few months after PMB was sworn in as the current President of Nigeria, I told him to do all his best to restore the lost public trust. But as days are turning to years, it seems the number one citizen of Nigeria does not care a hoot. He has done nothing in about three years to bond with the people of Nigeria. And there can never be true leadership without an intimate relationship.