Protest is like a double-edged sword. Like criticism it cuts both ways. And while it serves the interests of many an opposition party or group in its bid to unseat an incumbent regime, when the tables turn around often in favour of the opposition or hard core critic, protest and criticism begins to cut and slash the new incumbent from the skin through the bones. The feeling is of course never appreciated; that is why many of yesterday’s rights activists and honest politicians have turned as dark, shady and intolerant of the opposition they used to be.
Consider the sad case of President Muhammadu Buhari and Hadiza Usman for instance; the latter started the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) campaign movement basically to challenge the immediate past administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan to be more involved and committed to the rescue of the missing Chibok girls. So vociferous and uncompromising was the group that it garnered global support few weeks after its inauguration. However, soon after Jonathan’s government was booted from the corridors of power, the BBOG movement began to lose steam.
The uncompromising protest and campaign group failed to muster the kind of zeal and outrage with which it challenged the government of Goodluck Jonathan and won global support. Pundits claimed President Buhari could see no reason why he should stomach any dissent or condemnation from the group hence he tacitly sought to neuter it from the head.
This explanation and variants of it have been averred as the reason for appointing Hadiza Usman, as the new boss of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). Pundits have accused Mr. President of trying to bribe the BBOG leader; they claimed that by appointing her as a square peg in the NPA’s round hole, the president seeks to shut her up and thus completely end the BBOG campaign movement. This is no doubt a sad commentary on the politics of the incumbent presidency. Critics of Buhari’s recent move noted that having failed to rescue the Chibok girls as he promised while he campaigned for the presidency, President Buhari has suddenly developed cold feet and cannot bear to be lampooned and called out for disappointing the country’s electorate, particularly the poor, helpless parents and bereaved parents of Chibok’s missing girls.
Already the social media space is agog with condemnation of the president’s action; many are of the opinion that, the president had no justification for appointing Usman as the new NPA boss save his desperate bid to save face and shut up the only person and movement that could give him a hard time on his inability to live up to the promise to rescue over 260 missing Chibok girls years after their abduction by Boko Haram terrorists.
Despite the outrage visited on him courtesy his appointment of Hadiza Usman as NPA boss, President Buhari is unperturbed even in the face of argument that his recent appointment of Usman further accentuates the glaring imbalance in his appointment of staff into the country’s public offices.
The appointment was immediately followed by complaints in some quarters over President Buhari’s choice of political appointees, a recurring argument since the president began to appoint key officials.
The reactions on Facebook evolved into a debate about federal character, with some describing the president’s appointments as falling short of the constitutional directive on federal character while some others said it is actually the enthronement of merit and called for an end to federal character.
The reactions have not been limited to social media, as two top national officers of the All Progressive Congress (APC) who spoke on the condition of anonymity shortly after the announcements were made, condemned the appointment, the grumbling APC members, says Buhari has abandoned those Who Helped Him into office.
Born on January 2, 1976 in Zaria, Kaduna State, Hadiza Usman holds a B.Sc. degree in Business Administration from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria and a post graduate degree in Development Studies from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom in 2009.
