Between Buhari and Shagari

That’s just the tip of the political iceberg. There are many more similarities and differences between the two men, mostly the latter.Buhari visited Shagari less than 24 hours after he returned to the country from a two weeks’ visit to the UK. While the APC presidential candidate was away, Shagari turned 90 years old and […]

That’s just the tip of the political iceberg. There are many more similarities and differences between the two men, mostly the latter.
Buhari visited Shagari less than 24 hours after he returned to the country from a two weeks’ visit to the UK. While the APC presidential candidate was away, Shagari turned 90 years old and President Goodluck Jonathan played a fast one. He rounded up all the living former Nigerian heads of state and took them to Sokoto to pay a congratulatory visit to fellow National Council of State member Shagari. Generals Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar together with Chief Ernest Shonekan went with Jonathan to Sokoto for a great photo op.
 Though Buhari was not there, he sent apologies and he had signed the joint birthday card in advance. The only other living ex-Nigerian ruler, Obasanjo, arrived in Sokoto minutes after the Jonathan-led team departed. He claimed that he was delayed by traffic snarl near the Murtala Mohamed Airport in Lagos but many people thought he didn’t want to be part of the Jonathan-led delegation, given their recent spats.
That Buhari made the visit to Shagari his first public event since his return from UK showed how seriously he viewed Jonathan’s maneuver as well as Shagari’s current standing in Nigeria. A Buhari visit to Shagari inevitably reminded old folks of 1983-85 and all the things the soldiers said and did after they sacked the Second Republic. Shagari, all his ministers and all the state governors of the Second Republic were shepherded into detention and accused of corruption and other crimes. How time changes things. Shagari’s long life has enabled him to witness a tectonic change in his public image. Once derided as the man who led the Second Republic to failure, he is now seen as a man who was personally untainted by the corruption and greed of his contemporaries. Given what happened and is still happening to Nigerian governance since 1983 the NPN men now look saintly in retrospect.
As a candidate in an upcoming presidential election, Buhari’s visit must have reminded Shagari of 1979 and 1983 when he was presidential candidate of the behemoth National Party of Nigeria, NPN. They are very different quantities, these two men. In fact, with respect to many personal character traits Buhari and Shagari are polar opposites. Buhari is the no-nonsense tough guy who finds it difficult to smile and who strikes fear in the hearts of many elite figures with his famed anti-corruption stance. Shagari on the other hand is the benign face of politics. In his heydays he was always well dressed, ever smiling, totally at home with crowds, with ceremonies and with foreign visits.
In the 13 years since he entered the political fray in 2002 Buhari has built for himself the largest and most intense personal following of any Nigerian politician since Obafemi Awolowo. Shagari had nothing of the sort during his three decades plus in Nigerian politics. He did not cultivate a personal following; instead he was an organization man who was content to operate under the huge political shadow of the First Republic NPC leaders Sir Ahmadu Bello and Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. He became president not on his own steam but in continuation of their political legacy.
Buhari is running for president for the fourth time this year entirely on his personal record. APC is the third political party under whose umbrella he is running. In contrast, Shagari didn’t even want to be president. He said in a newspaper interview in 1976 that having been a minister in the First Republic and in the Gowon era, he didn’t want any Executive role again and would vie for a Senate seat. When he was later asked why he reversed himself and sought the presidency, it was Alhaji Aliyu Makaman Bidda, Sardauna’s old deputy, who ordered him to run.
No matter how they arrived at the decision to run, both Shagari and Buhari emerged as candidates out of keenly contested party primaries. NPN’s “nominating convention” of 1978 and APC’s special convention of 2014, both held in Lagos, were some of the most exciting and most transparent party primaries ever held in Nigeria. While Buhari emerged victorious after one ballot, Shagari qualified for a second round of voting alongside Yusuf Maitama Sule and Adamu Ciroma. The two men however graciously withdrew for him.
Shagari and Buhari won their primaries for different reasons. Shagari got the highest number of votes in a six-way race, 900+, partly because many Southern delegates, having zoned the ticket to the North, thought he was more approachable than the others. Buhari did not win the ticket because anyone thought he had a soft image; power broker Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the APC governors thought that his huge personal following is the party’s biggest asset. While Shagari had the active support of the Northern Establishment [traditional, political, business and clerical] Buhari is supported by the Northern masses because they want him to deal with the greedy Establishment, hence the latter is suspicious of him.
The two men’s political platforms are also very different. NPN was much more harmonious than APC is, since it was a resuscitation of the Nigeria National Alliance [NNA] that fought the 1964 election. APC has no such political history. In fact it bucks history, bringing Northerners and Westerners under one political roof for the first time in Nigeria’s history.  
Buhari faces an election opponent that, despite incumbency, is not above him in political stature. In contrast, Shagari had less political stature in 1979 that three of his election opponents namely Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Malam Aminu Kano. It was only GNPP’s Waziri Ibrahim that was his equal, since both of them were First Republic ministers. Shagari was also Gowon’s Finance Minister so he had a slight stature edge over Uncle Waziri.
A person coming to power in Nigeria can hardly hope to inherit a country better than the one that Alhaji Shehu Shagari inherited in 1979, succeeding a regime that was described by all observers at the time as “purposeful.” As for Buhari, if he wins this election he will inherit a broken nation only slightly better than the one he inherited in 1983. Some people might in fact argue that Nigeria is worse today than it was in December 1983 but I don’t think so. To recall one small incident, two friends and I went from one end of Sokoto market to the other in December 1983 but could not find rice, milk or bathing soap to buy.
What about party programs? NPN promised Nigerians two main things in 1979, food and shelter. Shagari tried to deliver both through his Green Revolution and the housing estates. Observers derided the former because the regime massively imported Thai parboiled rice. The housing estates that Shagari built in every state were also derided at the time but they have since become an important housing element in many Nigerian cities. APC’s slogan of “Change” is more opaque that NPN’s Food and Shelter, so we must wait to find out what this change is.
How will Buhari fare as party leader vis-à-vis Shagari? NPN was so mighty and Shagari was so mild mannered that he didn’t dominate it. For example, during the election for NPN’s national secretary at Kano in 1981 Shagari supported Alhaji Sulaiman Takuma but the delegates elected Senator Uba Ahmed instead. These days PDP’s “leader” single handedly selects who he wants as the party chairman. If Buhari were to become president how will he relate with APC and other party figures? Will he permit powerful figures to shine the way Shagari allowed Umaru Dikko, Adisa Akinloye and Olusola Saraki to dominate the scene? Right now, the potential APC Dikkos and Akinloyes are Bola Tinubu and Rotimi Amaechi with others lurking in the background. We must wait to find out.