BBP: Buhari’s Bully Pulpit

The object of President Buhari’s bullying is Atiku Abubakar, the PDP flag bearer running for Buhari’s job.

American President Theodore Roosevelt coined the term “bully pulpit,” which described the power of the presidency to command attention for the sake of an important initiative. Roosevelt served as President from 1901 to 1909 and during that time, he used the word “bully” as an adjective to mean “wonderful” and “superb.”

In his book “Leaders in the Crossroads: Success and Failure in the College Presidency,” author Stephen James Nelson has a chapter called “The Bully Pulpit: Use it or lose it” in which he said;

“The bully pulpit must be used wisely, smartly, and with considered judgment.”

Sadly, in Nigeria, we have a President in Muhammadu Buhari whose actions are a complete about-face from Roosevelt’s definition of the word back at the beginning of the 20th century.

The object of President Buhari’s bullying is Atiku Abubakar, the PDP flag bearer running for Buhari’s job. Since the President can’t match Atiku in presenting effective policies to the Nigerian polity and ran away with his tail tucked between his legs from debating Atiku face to face, he has resorted to tactics of outright intimidation.

In November of last year, candidate Atiku arrived in Nigeria from holiday in Dubai and instead of the normal procedure of meeting with Immigration, Customs, and Health officials, his plane was subjected to a search by plain clothed men who identified themselves as “security officials.” These men didn’t say which agency they were from, stormed the candidate’s plane, and even searched his baggage looking for lord knows what. This was clearly an act sanctioned by Aso Rock with the intention of harassing him and his traveling crew.

It didn’t stop there.

A month after the invasion of his return to Nigeria, a residential building in Maitama, Abuja was the subject of a raid by the EFCC. Occupants of the building included Mustapha and Aliyu Atiku, sons of the PDP candidate. Following a pouring of outrage, the EFCC stated that the subject of the raid was the son of the former Governor of Abia state, Senator Theodore Orji, who is also a resident in the building.

How convenient.

Now, the latest act of intimidation which took place on Monday, Feb 18th, involves the arrest of Mr Uyiekpen Giwa-Osagie, lawyer to candidate Atiku. This by the same EFCC which carried out this outrageous act with a small battalion of 20+ officers. They invaded his office at noon, detained him there for over 9 hours, before taking him into custody. No reason has been given for his arrest. No access was allowed to him while this latest over-the-top act was executed.

A clear pattern has been established here. A target has been placed on the opposition candidate and all associated with him. This is abuse of power on the part of the ruling party and President Buhari. This is clear overreach. This is bullying in every negative sense of the word that Theodore Roosevelt never intended.

It’s bad enough that elections were delayed at an unprecedented eleventh hour with the intent of blunting Atiku’s momentum, but now Buhari is using state resources to attempt to destabilize the Atiku camp from every angle.

Why?

Fear.

That’s why.

The President is afraid of the very real possibility of losing. Desperation and insecurity have set in and its leading to very brazen acts of abuse that are happening right under our noses.

At this point, we have mere days to go until the rescheduled “Back to Daura you go” elections on Saturday. We need to send a message to this administration that we see everything going on, we can read between the lines, and we are going to take action by placing our fingers in ink, and imprinting it in the space allocated for Atiku on the ballot paper.

When you stand up to a bully, he always backs down.

Written by Aroture Odiri

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