OPINION: Mboneko Munyaga: Africa Should Emulate Nigeria

The All Progressives Congress (APC) led by Major (Rtd) General Muhammadu Buhari that won the polls, had in 2013 published its election manifesto – Roadmap to a New Nigeria – that prioritised education and youth employment as its two main rallying points in the coming general election.

However, observers believe that failure to rein in the Islamic insurgents, Boko Haram, is actually what blew away the political fortunes of President Jonathan, who many had trusted when he became president in 2010 that he would continue the strong leadership legacy of the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), in power since 1999 when Nigeria returned to civilian rule.

Furthermore, Jonathan’s hold onto power dangled on a cliffhanger when with just six weeks to go before polling day, former Nigerian president, General Olusegun Obasanjo publicly tore his PDP membership card and left dazed a delegation of ward party leaders who had gone to beg him at his residence in Lagos not to be critical of the President.

General Obasanjo, the first of the ex-soldier rulers to be democratically elected President of Nigeria (1999 -2007), charged that President Jonathan had plans to scuttle democracy and hold onto power by “hooks and crooks.”  General Obasanjo, widely regarded now as the Father of Nigeria’s democracy after years of military juntas, was military ruler of Nigeria from February 13, 1976 to October 1, 1979, succeeding General Murtala Muhammed and was in turn succeeded by General Shehu Shagari.

Internal and external capitalism

President-elect, Major (Rtd) Muhammadu Buhari, who campaigned as a “converted democrat,” is no stranger to Nigerian politics. He toppled General Shehu Shagari and was head of state from December 31, 1983 to August 27, 1985 when he was also toppled by General Ibrahim Babangida.

Buhari came to power when the economy then was in shambles. He instituted a number of changes by fighting the excesses of both external and internal capitalism under measures that came to be known as Buharism. He now inherits a Nigeria ranked as Africa’s biggest economy but a country still highly troubled by the Boko Haram phenomenon. Under the current African political landscape, terrorism poses serious issues of human rights abuse.

Based largely in Northern Nigerian, Boko Haram have claimed more than 5,000 lives in their more than six-year armed campaign to establish a caliphate based on Islamic sharia law.  Buhari has promised to show the insurgents the power of the collective will of Nigerians, which may indeed earn him the colours of a born again democrat but one that mcarries also the risk of darkening his newly found political sunshine.

Magical economic growth

However, what Africa wants is to see a Nigeria in which people of different backgrounds are free to move, associate and be guaranteed freedom of expression regardless of their colour, tribe or religious persuasion.

Last year, Nigeria adjusted its economic data and came up with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US dollars 510 billion, beating by far the US dollars 370 billion GDP of former African economic giants, South Africa. Interestingly, part of that “magical” growth was as a result of the contribution to the Nigerian economy by the Nollywood film industry, which no doubt would suffer tremendously under a state of curtailed individual freedoms.

Mr Buhari and his running mate for Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo will be sworn-in on May 29, this year for a four-year term as Nigeria once again continues to shine and play as role model for many countries in a continent better known for its economic woes and social strife.

Courtesy: East African News Agency