Tunde Fagbenle: The Buhari-cult phenomenon in Maiduguri

by Tunde Fagbenle 

 

Buhari maiduguriThe Buhari phenomenon is cult-like. And that is the frightening part. Cult mob do not accept anything other than their viewpoint and no result other than that which favours their hero (cult leader)

What was brought to our views on several television stations on February 16 of General Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign visit to Maiduguri was too stupefying for words. It was simply incredible.

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress was in Maiduguri in continuation of his tour of Nigeria preaching to Nigerians to vote for him as the next president in the forthcoming presidential election. But Buhari could not deliver his campaign speech, and he had to leave Maiduguri without being able to say a word of campaign.

Hostile security forces? Hostile mob? Boko Haram? Nay, none of that.

What prevented Buhari was the unbelievable number of supporters for him and his cause. As early as 6am, according to reports, Maiduguri had woken up to the alarming sight of scores of thousands of broom-wielding people on the streets, many of them dressed in APC T-shirts, singing and dancing in anticipation of the arrival of their hero. By the time General Buhari and his APC team arrived in Maiduguri about 10am, the intended rally venue had filled to capacity and overflowed to the point of an impenetrable human fortress!

READ: The Crowd At Buhari’s Borno Rally Looks Even More Impressive When You Compare With Pres. Jonathan’s

The sight was unbelievable. Was this not Maiduguri, a focal town under threat of Boko Haram insurgency? Had we not been assailed by the report of Maiduguri and its environs being deserted in droves from the fear of Boko Haram? Had we not been made to believe that people were dying in tens and scores daily from enemy or ‘friendly’ gunfire?

So where did such unprecedented number of people come from? It was a security nightmare. According to Leadership newspaper, “At a point, the apparently exasperated soldiers and policemen were forced to shoot into the air and release some canisters of tear gas in a failed attempt to keep the crowd at bay.”

And yet the crowed milled and surged with hell-defying fury. We watched it on TV as Gen. Buhari’s motorcade crawled into view enveloped by the massive, jubilant crowd. All pleas for calm were drowned by the deafening decibel of the cheering and jubilating mob.

Leadership report captured what occurred well: “The crowd went wild when Buhari had to walk through the elevated isle of the mega podium. Fans went out of control as they broke through the iron barricade that fenced them out and rushed towards the stand. The friendly show of support and love for the APC presidential candidate suddenly became a threat as all pleas for them to calm down fell on deaf ears. Sensing that it would amount to a waste of time if he should insist on speaking, Buhari took the advice of his aides and quickly allowed them to whisk him out of the venue.”

Such cult following is frightening in its number and intensity. It is crazy and should send the jitters through the spine of any observer, most of all those in the opposition. I am not sure what we witnessed in Maiduguri, where the candidate had to leave a venue and the town of rally without being able to say a word on account of overwhelming supporters, has any precedent in the present campaign rally of any of the candidates, not even Buhari.

If the ‘conceit’ can be permitted, the only time I have witnessed something akin to it occurred during my senatorial campaign in 2003. And an account of it was given in my belated gratitude column of 17/05/09, titled,“I want to thank Ore,” which is also contained in my book, “A Thousand Laughs, A Thousand Cries: Nigeria!” —page 248. In gratitude and bewilderment, I here excerpt:

“Not being a politician, I had pitched my tent with Gani Fawehinmi’s National Conscience Party (NCP), a party that best approximated my political viewpoint since the Constitution debarred independent candidature.

“My campaign team and I were rounding off our campaign in Odo-Otin, I think in Okuku, when some couple of youths on motorbikes approached my top aides imploring us to come by Ore before calling it a day. The demand was brought to my ears just as I thought we were to head back to Osogbo, our campaign headquarters and the state capital, for a badly needed rest.

“Ore? Where is Ore? Do we really have to do this? Yes, we should, urged my guys, it would not speak well of us if we didn’t; the youth that came had expressed how much the people of Ore wanted us and looked forward to our coming, and how my guys had promised them before they headed back to Ore to herald our coming.

It was getting dark, and no one seems to know exactly how to get to Ore. At best, there was a general idea of which direction to head. We did.

“As it is wont to be in those areas, full darkness befell by 8pm.! The forest and darkness were enveloping. The motorcade —of one lead van, my car, and a rear bus full of volunteers —plodded on. Then, at about 9.30pm, we caught sight of the stretch of cemetery that generally indicates the approach of town in these parts. The front van turned on the speakers, blaring our campaign tunes and slogans, amplified by the silence of the night.

“Then the magic of Ore. The town that had gone off to sleep suddenly began to rouse. I could swear that we saw ghosts and spirits sprouting from the ground in what was the most amazing massing of people. From nowhere we found ourselves suddenly surrounded by a sea of heads – old folks, aged women, fathers, the youth, little children – Ore had woken up to truly receive us. No one in my team could believe what we were seeing. This is an ungodly hour for a rural town. Is this real?

The motorcade crawled into town centre then stopped where three roads crossed (in Yoruba it is called, oritameta). As I made to step out, I suddenly found myself being carried aloft, held up in the air by a thousand hands, amidst chanting and singing to the deafening blare from our loud speakers. Then began the tumultuous procession up and down the town, with me still floating atop the sea of heads. It was surreal!

Every now and then, I would make from where I perched up there on a plateau of hands to say something, to calm the crowd, to start my now habitual oration. But the crowd would have none of that. Each time their response to my mere greetings would be a resounding applause and then more chants, more songs, more dancing. Would I not be set down? Ever?

Don’t say anything, the crowd kept saying, you don’t have to say anything. We the people of Ore are all for you. We know you; we love you; and we shall vote for you en masse! We don’t want PDP; we don’t want AD; we want Tunde Fagbenle; we want NCP!

I made to say some thanks, only succeeding in arousing them the more and starting a fresh round of ecstasy.

“And we don’t want your money here. Don’t pay us for anything. We are voting for you free and freely!”

When finally we were allowed to set off and find our way back to base, we were too dazed for words. Did what we just experienced really happen? Throughout our month-long campaign, nowhere, not even amongst my people in Igbajo, my hometown, were we so joyously and sincerely received and assured.”

That was my eerie experience. But I must quickly admit that my experience pales into insignificance compared to what was seen of Buhari in Maiduguri. And, although it has not happened elsewhere for Gen. Buhari to be friendly-mobbed out of talking, we have also seen the maddening crowd that has attended this lean and hungry looking man’s rally in other towns, north and south.

The Buhari phenomenon is cult-like. And that is the frightening part. Cult mob do not accept anything other than their viewpoint and no result other than that which favours their hero (cult leader). We can still remember what followed Buhari’s loss in 2011. If we can’t, the families of those whose children, parents, or loved ones were mob-killed remember. Hundreds of innocent people lost their lives in the uprising that followed the declaration that Buhari had lost in the overall presidential election result and would not be president.

With what I have seen of Maiduguri, and elsewhere across the country and not just in the North, all I pray is that Buhari wins or we are all “done for”, as they say.

And that’s saying it the way it is!

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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