Buhari's 'Reputation of Integrity'

by Eze Eluchie

'Buhari comes to office with a reputation of integrity'
- U.S. President, Barack Obama.

The stretch, mileage and mountains some in our clime have sought to build with the above quote, coating it as one of the major 'benefits to Nigeria and Africa' of the recent private visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to the United States, exposes a worrisome desperation for external acceptance and endorsement. 

When one realizes that clergymen, teachers and others imbued with fiduciary responsibilities, who {sexually} molest persons in their care and trust also had a 'reputation of integrity' prior to being exposed for the miscreants they are, the fact that the U.S. President merely put his mastery of the English language to good use by not openly endorsing a man he had no real personal knowledge of in any way whatsoever, suddenly hits one like a bolt out of the blues. 

That you come with a 'reputation of integrity' has no bearing whatsoever on whether one has integrity or not - you have to prove you have integrity!

Surreptitiously restricting inquiry and investigations into past corrupt practices to periods that craftily eliminate inquiry which could unearth corrupt practices which implicate President Buhari, his fellow military officers who had ruled Nigeria in times past and some of his key financiers; Appointing your former associate (Ms. Amina Zakari) as Chairman of the country's Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and another kinsman (Mr. Lawan Daura), who had acted as member of his political party's 'Campaign Intelligence Committee' as the Director General of the Department of State Security (DSS); Failing to make available to the public the detailed inventory of personal assets despite explicit and trite promises during the electioneering periods to make same available, amongst several other non-altruistic acts, tend to derogate from the persona of a 'person of integrity' and rather present an inner, perhaps long hidden from most others, character of bigotry, untruthfulness, opportunism, deception, selfishness and a total absence of integrity.

Integrity is the fulcrum of leadership and good governance. Integrity flows from actions and mannerisms and not merely from utterances of people far removed from your environment.

It is hoped that the present administration will focus more of its energies in proving the presence of integrity than getting stuck in the perception of a ‘reputation of integrity’.

Picture: Muhammadu Buhari (as a presidential candidate) with Lawan Zakari (member of Buhari’s political party's Campaign Intelligence Committtee) who President Buhari has just appointed Director General of the Department of State Security {DSS} - the equivalent of the American F.B.I. The opposition PDP has accused the DSS of embarking on partial witch-hunting of its members.