Opinion: Why muhammadu Buhari cannot be voted out if he runs in 2019 - naij.com

Muhammadu Buhari became the first Nigerian politician to defeat a sitting president through the ballot box. Goodluck Jonathan called to congratulate his opponent even before the official results were announced. And now many Nigerians claim that Buhari can be voted out like his predecessor. However, Azuka Onwuka, in his latest piece for the Punch, explains why Buhari cannot allow himself to be voted out in the upcoming presidential election in 2019.

One gullible proclamation a few Nigerians make is: "Jonathan fizzled us and we voted him out; come 2019 if Buhari falls flat us, we will vote him out." Really? Could President Muhammadu Buhari be voted out in the event that he chooses to keep running in 2019?

Give us a chance to take a gander at a few issues that will help us gage if this is conceivable. In 2003, there were not kidding allegations against Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who was then president, that the races did not mirror the desires of the general population.

For instance, in 1999 the Peoples Democratic Party lost decisions in all the six conditions of the South-West. It was viewed as a dismissal of Obasanjo by his Yoruba family. He was derided by numerous hence.

By 2003, with no conspicuous ascent in the PDP's prominence, the gathering abruptly won five of the six South-West states. Lagos got away on account of the quickness of the legislative leader of the state then, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Given the abnormal state of appointive negligence in that race, that triumph was viewed as sketchy and incredible. In numerous different states, there were protestations of discretionary extortion. In any case, the one that was in the end upturned by the court was the triumph of the PDP in Anambra, where the gathering's hopeful, Dr Chris Ngige, who came fourth, was announced the champ of the decision rather than Mr Peter Obi, who won the race.

Inquisitively as well, Obasanjo that was not mainstream in the South-East was even proclaimed to have vanquished Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, in his home state, Anambra.

It looked odd. In any case, the vast majority were not astounded, for Nigerian officeholders were not known to permit themselves to be announced washouts while in office.

Jonathan's representative If the 2003 decision was awful, the race of 2007 was repulsive. Having lost the offer to have a change of the constitution to permit him a third term in office, Obasanjo picked the then legislative leader of Katsina State, Alhaji Umaru Yar'Adua, the more youthful sibling of his past representative, Major General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, as the presidential competitor of the PDP. He additionally picked Dr Goodluck Jonathan, who was then the legislative leader of Bayelsa State, as Yar'Adua's running mate.

The PDP's tradition where the presidential competitor would be "chose" was a fait accompli, with the EFCC breathing down the neck of anyone who contradicted Obasanjo's choice.

While the Independent National Electoral Commission was blamed for frustrating the constituent choice of the general population on a vast scale in 2003, in 2007, INEC did not by any means try to give appointive materials to numerous voters. That was additionally the year the voter enlist had names like Mike Tyson and Michael Jackson. Race spectators required the decision to be scratched off.

However, Yar'Adua was initiated as president on May 29, 2007. Like in 2003, the 2007 presidential decision was tested in court yet was lost. In any case, states like Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun got their outcomes (which all supported the PDP) upturned.

As President, Yar'Adua even recognized that the decision that acquired him was not "perfect". With the demise of Yar'Adua in office in 2010, Jonathan turned into the President and administered the 2011 decision. The decision was not incredible, but rather one thing a great many people recognized was that it was a takeoff from the discretionary pattern from 1999.

One thing that offered trustworthiness to that was that the individuals who developed as victors over the league were recognized as the top picks of the electorate. Indeed, even fat cats of the PDP, lost decision, including the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Dimeji Bankole, and little girl of Obasanjo, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo. What's more, the PDP lost the control of a few states.

In the South-West, for instance, the PDP lost all the six states as it did in 1999. There was recharged trust and confidence in the discretionary framework. The presentation of innovation in the constituent framework to stop various enrollment and voting improved the appointive procedure even.

Prior to the race, the restriction was certain that it would vote out the officeholder President Jonathan. At the point when that happened, Jonathan called his adversary, Buhari, and praised him for his triumph. It was uncommon in Nigeria and most African nations. The dread that had mounted over the destiny of Nigeria as an aftereffect of the race scattered.

On the off chance that Jonathan had altered the outcome and was announced victor, it could have brought about some emergency in the country. In any case, on the off chance that it was a president that favored control over existences of the general population, the military and the police would have been drafted to shoot at demonstrators and suppress any post-decision riots. The general population would have felt severe and powerless, yet the President who stole their command would have proceeded in office for a long time. Since accepting force, has Buhari demonstrated that he would salute a rival if vanquished? State decisions were held in Kogi, Bayelsa, Rivers and Edo.

In a race that was dealt with like a war with numerous losses, the PDP (as the national resistance party) grabbed triumph from the jaws of the tiger in Bayelsa and Rivers (apparently in light of the fact that the governors of both states were of the PDP). Inquisitively, Buhari did not compliment the PDP competitors who won in those states, however he did that in states won by his gathering, the APC. The nature of the races too has not demonstrated any change or even equality with the 2015 race.

Also, the way Buhari's administration has responded to demonstrators is an indication of how he will respond in 2019 on the off chance that he is reported as the victor and individuals hit the roads in dissent. For instance, for challenging the confinement of their pioneers, individuals from the Indigenous People of Biafra were shot at. Absolution International's report said that the vast majority of the IPOB losses were shot at the back, an affirmation that they were escaping from the security specialists when they were shot at. Some of them were even shot inside an auxiliary school in Aba where they were appealing to God for the arrival of their pioneer, while some were shot at inside chapel premises where they had accumulated to stamp the commemoration of the statement of the Republic of Biafra in 1967.

 Correspondingly, individuals from the Shiite development were additionally shot at in transit and later in their homes for supposedly obstructing the method for the Chief of Army Staff. No less than, 347 Shiites were affirmed to have been shot dead and covered. Since December 2015, the pioneer of the Shiites, Sheik Ibrahim El Zakzaky, has not been seen after he was brutalized by the armed force and taken away. He is accepted to be in detainment. As opposed to the arrangements of the constitution that nationals can't be confined uncertainly without being charged to court or being exceptionally requested to be kept in detainment by a court, Zakzaky has not been charged or discharged or requested to be kept by a court for security reasons.

The way Buhari made arrangements into INEC and the security offices likewise demonstrates that he wouldn't like to take any risks about what's to come. In this manner, it is credulous for individuals to state that they will vote Buhari out in 2019 on the off chance that he neglects to satisfy desires. On the off chance that Buhari chooses to keep running for the 2019 race, nothing can make him not to be pronounced the champ. What's more, in 2023, whoever he picks as the hopeful of the APC will be proclaimed the victor of the gathering primaries and also the presidential decision.

He won't hazard permitting an adversary to succeed him. Like Obasanjo, Buhari is a resigned armed force general and previous military head of state. African officers don't acknowledge overcome from regular people. African presidents don't acknowledge to be vanquished. That Jonathan did it was an abnormality instead of the standard. Buhari can't permit himself to be voted out. On the off chance that he has two terms, no one can stop him. What's more, whoever he succeeds him when he is done will succeed him. That is the truth. Anyone who thinks generally is living willfully ignorant.