Twice as a columnist, in 2011 and 2015, I endorsed the candidature of General Muhammadu Buhari for the presidency, strongly believing he offered us a chance to reinvent ourselves.
Following his victory, and still believing that Buhari was serious about leading Nigeria, when he was scheduled to visit the United States in early 2016, I requested a one-on-one interview. I hoped to help set the tone for robust public engagement.
And no, those interviews were not for me, but for six “media houses.” There would be joint interviews of three houses each for 45 minutes. Coming into the 2015 election, Buhari had dressed himself in the robes of a “converted” or “born-again democrat,” just as he professed to be a corruption-general and a believer in the rights of all Nigerians. He asked Nigerians to vote him in so he could prove to them that they could be proud of Nigeria.
On the question of character, here is a story about Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, the continent’s premiere multilateral bank. I have never met him, but the records show a man of exemplary accomplishment and character. He joined the ADB in 2015 after serving as Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture.
Others were Justice Hassan B Jallow, former Attorney-General of the Gambia and experienced Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals; and Leonard F. McCarthy, a former Director of Public Prosecutions in South Africa who later headed the Integrity Vice-Presidency at the World Bank. They were supported by the retired Irish Supreme Court Judge, Nial Fennelly.
And while the committee had not been required to consider Adesina’s responses, the panel, citing the interests of fairness and of due process, did so. On that point also, it found the President’s submissions to be consistent with his innocence.
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