By Tomori Adewale
It is a misrepresentation of fact for anyone to ask President Muhamadu Buhari to resign based on his condition of health. The president is first and foremost a human being and the fallibility of his state of health is not any different from that of any other person.
However, being a president is the reason why we all knew that Mr. Buhari has a health challenge. Otherwise, he has the right to keep his health condition private to himself and his family. The Constitution of Nigeria, which is the bond between the people of Nigeria and her president doesn’t presume that the president will be a super human entity, who should not submit to the vagaries of health and ill-health. The constitution makes adequate proviso of the procedures that must be followed when the president falls ill. And the question to ask right now is if President Buhari followed all the procedures spelled out in the constitution in order for him to attend to his health challenge.
Unless there are veritable objections to how the president followed those constitutional procedures, I see no logic in any argument as to whether or not the president should resign his position. The condition for being a president is predicated on statute and the possibility of a president resigning too is a matter of the dictate of the law.
Inasmuch as President Buhari has not contravened any law in the manner he has chosen to attend to his health, it is contemptuous of anyone to ask for his resignation.
There have been a lot of arguments from some quarters questioning the reluctance of some civil society advocates to mobilize against the continued absence of President Buhari unlike they did with President Umaru Yar’Adua when he underwent a similar health challenge as president. The truth of the matter is that the two circumstances are not similar in any way.
Whereas President Yar’Adua ‘refused’ to transfer power to his deputy as required by law, and in so doing allowed the cabals in his presidency to loom large in the ensuing power vacuum, President Buhari in his own case transmitted powers to his deputy, notified the national assembly of the reason why he is seeking a vacation and, indeed, keeps no one under any sort of illusion about whether Acting President Yemi Osinbajo can exercise full presidential powers.
Whereas in the Yar’Adua situation there was an infraction (whether intentional or circumstantial) to the law upon which the civil societies could be mobilized, in the case of Buhari what really could be the raison d’étre of a protest calling for the president’s resignation? Inasmuch as you would want to give it to organizers of the protest that they possess the rights to freedom of speech, it is very important to drum home the point that modern activism is subjective to logic and it is that very logic that defines the lawful bounds of activism.
Modern day activists refrain from being swayed by emotion and sentiment and are fully conscious of the effects of their actions and inactions on a particular cause. The re-birth of democracy in Nigeria in 1999 has witness the emergence of many civil society groups and social activism.
In the days of military governments, the late afro-beat maestro, Fela Anikulapo Kuti was a prodigious fighter for the masses as he took on the military government head-on on any anti-people policies and actions by government officials that seem to trample on the freedom of the common man. No one could fault the great Fela on the logic of his activism, and also, the reason why his name and fame continues to be evergreen cannot be far-fetched.
The demise of Fela in 1997 and the passage of time passed the baton of social activism to the famous Charlie Boy. To a very large extent, Charlie Boy has lived up to the expectation of mobilizing the masses against unpopular government decisions and like the great Fela, he is widely loved and his voice brings febricity to the corridors of power in Nigeria.
It was however, disappointing that our own Charlie Boy will accept to be the chief promoter of a protest calling for the resignation of President Buhari if he (Buhari) refuses to cut short his medical treatment within 90 days.
Like, seriously?
I will not join the league of those who chastise Charlie Boy for this low that he brought his brand. It is better to pardon him and it is hoped that he too, has done some self-introspection and understands that he misfired big time this time around.
Apart from the fact that there is really no basis for asking for the resignation of Buhari since the president has not committed any offence in the manner he tidied his desk before entering is conclave for medical reasons, I also think that there is something beneath the threshold of morality in asking a sick man to resign his post on his hospital bed.
Again, if Charlie Boy and his co-travelers are convinced that they are promoting this protest for the good of country, shouldn’t they also see that the mood of the country is so tense and thin that protest like this will further aggravate the situation. These are the kinds of situation that merchants of crises and destruction are craving for in order to perpetrate the sinister motives.
It pays no one to have a country in crisis because we all have nowhere to call home, other than Nigeria. We all should have a reflection of the kind of society we want to bequeath to our children and generations coming after us. In such a time like this we should busy ourselves by giving our utmost support to political leadership to mend the ills in the land.
Charlie Boy should know better.
Adewale sent in this piece from Ibadan
