Political analyst, Dr. Sam Amadi, has said former President Muhammadu Buhari would have been remembered as a national legend had he not returned to power, arguing that while Buhari embodied personal discipline and dignity, his second term exposed the limits of his provincial worldview in governing a complex, diverse nation.
Amadi, in and interview with ARISE News on Monday, has said that former President Muhammadu Buhari will be remembered as a man of discipline and spiritual values, but not necessarily as a leader of integrity in the broader sense required of a multi-ethnic nation.
He made the comments,reflecting on Buhari’s legacy following the former president’s passing.
“Well, I think it could be said that every person’s legacy is mixed, but it depends on what comes to that mixture,” Amadi began. “First, there’s no doubt that maybe for more than two decades, he has ruptured our mind and emotion against Baba Ghaskeya. So, he had a legacy.”
According to Amadi, Buhari’s supporters viewed him as an incorruptible leader known for self-discipline and simplicity, attributes rarely associated with Nigerian political elites.
“His believers, his supporters think he was perhaps the most puritan of Nigerian leaders in terms of self-possession, self-dignity, discipline. And we, Nigerians, it’s common to hear stories of expensive lifestyle, of grease, sleaze and graft around Nigerian important political persons. But up until now, there are no such stories around.”
“He lived simple. He lived provincial. I mean, provincial may be seen as a negative word, but in this sense, he lived close to province. The values of a provincial person who was happy with his environment, left power, didn’t set up any NGO before he came the second time, didn’t speak on any big conference, spoke to Hausa for Hausa, BBC and VOA. So, a typical provincial person of dignity and honour.”
However, Amadi said Buhari’s provincial character became a liability when leading a diverse and complex country like Nigeria.
“But the problem is when you leave the provincial and get to the widening landscape of multi-ethnic, multi-religious nation with complex and social nuances, provincialism becomes a problem. And so, his second coming as president stretched him and divided him into something close to him. He didn’t quite get it all.”
He argued that while Buhari was often described as a man of integrity, the reality of his governance fell short of that definition.
“So, I think his legacy that we can always say, somehow, this was a man who, as upright as he was in physical, he was shown his discipline, his courage, all the beliefs he had. Even those beliefs that many of us could see as partisan, ethnic, ethnocentric. But he probably said what he meant more than most politicians. And often times he described as a man of integrity, but if you define integrity in a more negative sense of integration, then his second coming quite exposed that he probably wasn’t a man of integrity as such, but probably a man of discipline and spiritual values.”
Amadi further noted that Buhari’s reputation suffered in the age of social media and lacked the narrative control enjoyed by some of his predecessors.
“I think maybe, I want to start with St. George here, who said history will be kind to me because I intend to write it. I think not so much, it’s going to unravel in history for two reasons. One, I think that we are in age of social media and narratives. The fact that he was alive, the narrative was very bad. They didn’t have opportunities like Jonathan, probably who had to do some, you know, narrative himself by getting the TCD.”
“The other left office perhaps demonised by a section of the country, perhaps liked by a section. But since he left office, he had the good fortune of being involved in things that has repositioned himself. And then there was Ebu Hari who cast a more good glass, you know, lights, the spotlight changed because in contrast also the difference.”
Amadi said Buhari did not benefit from that same repositioning after office, and his public image remained largely static.
“I think Ebu Hari didn’t have that advantage that he has to do something that contextualise some of the things people didn’t know about him. But his left man, we saw Gaga Bashir come out with the death and we’re going to see some more people come out to say he’s the other side of this great man. But I think overall that he started losing his title.”
He suggested that had Buhari never returned to power, he may have been remembered more fondly.
“If he didn’t win the election, he would have been a legend. Today we’re talking about how he was the best president they ever had. Because that dignity and that great intellectual acuity was there.”
Concluding, Amadi said Buhari’s long-term reputation may fade outside his loyal circle.
“So my sense would be that he would diminish as we go through that history, but remain this humorous, comical, nice, straight-talking, loved by that small section of his friends and loyalists who saw perhaps that discipline he had. But for the rest of us, his public record would be the reference point and my prediction is that he might start to lose.”
“The same great presidents come, pick and sample,” he added.
Boluwatife Enome
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