By Sadeeq Shehu
“whether one likes Buhari or not, one must invariably accept that Buhari is an unexplainable phenomenon.
Probably no other Nigerian politician can survive the combined onslaught and mischief of IBB, OBJ, TY Danjuma, powerful clergy both Muslim and Christians, some disgruntled traditional rulers, judiciary, SP Saraki, Speaker Dogara, Atiku, Buba Galadima, Kwankwaso, Tambuwal, Opadokun, Afenifere, media, numerous “powerful” decampees too numerous to mention, National Collusion, CUPP, BBOG, wishers of death, marabouts, poisoners, letter writers, crooked lawyers, already arraigned /likely to be arraigned EFCC customers , investigators and diggers of past history , forensic accountants bent on discovering dirt, disgruntled persons who have developed a sense of entitlement, mischievous labour leader and strike organizers, school certificate searchers , economic saboteurs, old age, personal health challenges and ear problem and still remain standing.
No politician , no leader can encounter the bad fortune that PMB did in the case of Boko Haram, bandits of Zamfara, farmers/herders clash, economic recession, and still retain his popularity and trust with the masses.
Probably, no Nigerian politician has so much public trust, so large a reservoir of goodwill, so big a savings account (opened and operated for the past 40-45 years) , so much political IOUs which he can convert into political capital in case of either personal mistakes or the mistakes of his aides.
No politician with so little money to throw could assemble so big a crowd of supporters. When errors of judgment occur (and indeed several missteps have occurred under his watch) there is no Nigerian politician whose teeming supporters are ready to forgive and forget and understand and accept that his errors are honest mistakes all made in a zeal to serve them.
In the history of Nigerian politics and Nigerian politicians, Buhari is an unusual, abnormal, atypical, peculiar, bizarre, unconventional, unexpected, unfamiliar, strange, odd, curious, out of the ordinary, and an extraordinary kind of politician never seen before in the Nigerian political terrain.
Buhari , (to wax Churchillian) is an enigma , wrapped in a mystery inside a puzzle. He resembles noone but himself. How does one define or rationalize Buhari? If you say he is a phenomenon , you’d be right. If you say he is using charm , juju , some would (like reportedly Sule Lamido said) some would also believe you. Would we ever see such a politician in Nigeria about whom all is forgiven, all is understood?”
~Sadeeq Shehu.
