Significance of Buhari’s second term posters

BY CHUKWUMA OBIORAH

Within the past one week, an array of positive comments on the president has been unleashed by a mass of right thinkers. These comments have overshadowed the negative reports about his health.

From an incoherent echo of alarmists who tried to raise unnecessary concern over the president’s health, the narrative about the true condition of the number one citizen’s health has hit the ‎airwaves with a reassuring thud that has confirmed that President Buhari is nowhere near the negative reports but closer to the fit and fiddle enigma Nigerians have always known him to be.

Vacuous and laughable reports that tend to suggest that the president is finding it hard to eat and drink have been overtaken by provable reports of his presiding over meetings and attending to official matters.

Driving the narrative a stretch further to indicate that the Nigerian President has grown past the stage of being hoodwinked by a cabal, an intervention from people who ought to know, who have taken the narrative to the next level, to wit that not only is the president healthy, but that he is ready to offer himself to serve Nigeria for another four-year term at the expiration of the current tenure which ends in May 2019.

Championing this new vista that offers hope and light to Nigeria is the former governor of Rivers State and current minister of transport,  Rotimi Amaechi who has offered point blank that not only is the president healthy and carrying out his functions dutifully but that he is ready to go for another term.

Place that side by side with the assurance from the leader of the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, Olumba Olumba, who said the president would definitely outlive his tenure then the bigger picture unfolds.

But of utmost importance is that during the week, posters of the president urging him to run for a second term have appeared in many parts of the country like Kaduna, Abuja, Lagos, port Harcourt and Makurdi to mention but a few.

What this implies is simply that the citizens appreciate the efforts of the president who though being human and has been constrained ‎by few instances where he was indisposed, has unarguably given Nigerians his best.

This point is not lost on Nigerians who flout the gains made in the degradation of insurgents thereby improving the security situation in the county as worthy of commendation and the blow dealt on corruption and wastages leading to the recovery of trillion of naira within a short period and the rescue of the economy.

Those who try to make political capital out of the few instances the president has been indisposed are oblivious of the fact that a larger percentage of the populace feel pained that some citizens would wish Nigeria to go back to its dark says of infamy where insurgents take hold of territories, kill at will and after the government of the day.

They are also at a loss how some that witnessed the orgy of looting of the past administration would have the guts to cast aspersions on a man who had nothing to gain but yet offered himself to serve the country.

Nigerians still can’t believe that the foundation for waste and squandermania, lack of vision and plan for the economy, would be preferable to some to the current situation that offers hope and confidence.

Some of the posters are a sight to behold, they not only call on Nigerians to think of their future but have even thumb-printed in the image of ballot paper for the president.

Others are simply a chant for him to continue his good works while some are reminders of what makes the Buhari personal tick.‎

A closer observation of these outings would reveal that much as they are ‎simplistic, they carry weighty messages that should be appreciated by the average Nigerian.

Most strikingly is that they are obviously personal interventions not sponsored by money bags, but glaringly coming from an array of individuals who appreciate the effort of the president and would want him back.

This, of course, is the background to the popular support revived by the president in 2015 and what this means is that his popularity has joy waned.

Some of the persons who have offered to do this for the country should be identified and encouraged.

But most importantly, the message in the posters should not be lost; Nigerians have not had a true and sincere leadership as they are having now and would want it to continue, hence Buhari must be encouraged to run again run for the Presidency in 2019.

Obiorah, a public affairs commentator, sent in this piece from Abuja