How Muhammadu Buhari leveraged on 25th Law of Power to become Nigeria’s President
Law 25: RE-CREATE YOURSELF
JUDGMENT
Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Re-create yourself by forging a new identity, one that commands attention and never bores the audience. Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define it for you. Incorporate dramatic devices into your public gestures and actions–your power will be enhanced and your character will seem larger than life.
-Robert Greene, 48 laws of power
OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW
In 2013, a group of opposition political parties decided to come together and forge an alliance that would be strong enough to wrest power from the ruling political party. These opposition parties formed a new political party called All Progressive Congress (APC); and after their preliminary elections, an ex-army general, Muhammadu Buhari was nominated as the party’s presidential candidate. Prior to that time, General Buhari had sought to be president 3 times, having contested in the 2003, 2007 and 2011 elections all of which he lost. And though he often scores a high number of votes from the northern region of the country, he always failed to garner
the complimentary votes from the southern region that could secure him the much needed victory in the elections. The reason for his recurring losses in the southern region was primarily because of the perception of the southerners of Buhari as an Islamist and a northern fundamentalist who, once in power, would subjugate the predominantly Christian south and impose Islamic laws on the entire country. Buhari was also the same army general that had seized power through a coup from a democratic elected civilian president two decades earlier, thus adding another layer of dirt on his persona and exacerbating his electoral short-comings as his opponents used it against him to label him an enemy of democracy. They also flayed him about his old age, for the man was way above 60; thus, with this nonstop war of attrition on his persona, Buhari’s chances of winning the election dimmed. However, upon Buhari’s emergence as APC’s presidential candidate, the party strategically hired an American political consulting firm called “AKPD Message and Media” — a Chicago based firm known for its leading role in President Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008 and 2012. Buhari’s longstanding electoral problems were accurately identified as his perceived image, and his new handlers went to work in rebranding it. Soon, photos of Buhari began to pop up everywhere — on billboards, social media, TV stations; the normally stern-looking ex-general, who was known to be always dressed in the traditional northern attires of flowing gown called Baban Riga, now appeared in a dapper tailor-made suit with a bow tie, and posing loftily behind a plush marbled desk, smiling broadly at the camera. Another such photo showed him sitting stylishly across the edge of the table, smiling and giving a young kid a hi-five.
In other photos, he adorned the Buba and Fila — the traditional attires of the Yoruba of south-western Nigeria, and then in another, he was wearing the Isiagu top, the traditional attires of the Igbo people of south-eastern Nigeria, even carrying the Ofor, the stick wielded by Igbo elders as a symbol of authority. These pictures filled the public domain and then, gradually psyched people into seeing a different persona of Buhari. Buhari’s vice-presidential candidate was Yemi Osinbanjo, a professor of law who also doubles as a pastor in one of the most popular churches in the country, with arguably the largest number of worshippers as well. Also, Osinbajo hails from the town of Ikenne, the home of the political leader of the Yoruba people, the late Obafemi Awolowo. Even more befitting, was his wife, Dolapo Osinbajo, who is Awolowo’s grand-daughter. Osinbajo was then referred to as Awolowo’s in-law, and all of his essential qualities were accentuated in the media, tactically to counteract Buhari’s perceived failings — former military dictator and a law professor, Islamist and a Pastor, northern fundamentalist and a southerner, who is an In-law to the great Awolowo. Buhari’s beautiful wife, Aisha also was thrust into the spotlight. Before then, she was almost unknown to the public, but once publicized, her beauty endeared her to many and she instantly became active with the election campaigns to get her husband elected, adding a whole new sensation to the polity. By the time the elections were held and concluded in March 2015, Buhari emerged victorious. He defeated the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan by scoring an unprecedented high number of votes from the southern part of the country.
Interpretation
When General Muhammadu Buhari came to power in 1983 as a military ruler, he ruled with a kind of stiffness — an unbending character, which eventually led to his overthrow. Three decades later, when he joined politics as a civilian, he projected more or less the same character as of 1983; and then politics being the dirty game it was, his character was viciously smeared with the religion and ethnic bigotry charge, yet he seemingly did nothing or little to counter those allegations, best he did was to deny being what his rivals said he was — with words. But in the elections of 2015, he made a better move. Rotimi Amaechi (then the governor of Rivers State in Southern-Nigeria) correctly pointed it out when he said to Buhari, “the problem that you have in politics which I have come to observe, is that those who managed your image in the past did not manage it properly. They allowed the erroneous label of you being a religious bigot to stick”. Governor Amaechi, who until then had been a close ally of the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan and a member of his party, had jumped ship to Buhari’s party after falling out with Jonathan. Buhari eventually made Amaechi head of his campaigns, and Amaechi could as well be credited with some of the ex-general’s image recreation strategies. Later on, at a night party organized to celebrate Buhari’s victory at the polls, Amaechi told the story of how he had hired a local firm, ahead of several other foreign firms to manage Buhari’s campaigns; and then how he managed to convince the ex-general to wear the suits in his photo-shoots. “That was probably the first and last time Buhari would dress that way”, he had remarked. Nevertheless, the suits and photo-shoots did serve their intended purpose; so did the
attires of the different tribes, the photo with the kid, the public appearance of the wife — Aisha Buhari, the peculiar choice of the vice presidential candidate, and all the other tactics did have a profound effect on the voters, albeit subconsciously, leading the hitherto unelectable General Buhari to a historic victory. Such is the power of the Law of Self-Recreation, as was observed by General Buhari.
Takeaway Quote
“Your new identity will protect you from the world precisely because it is not “you”; it is a costume you put on and take off. You need not take it personally.”
-Robert Greene
Excerpts is from my book “Applications of the 48 Laws of Power in Nigeria
available on Amazon Kindle with the link below
NB: If you require a creative ghost writer for your memoirs, autobiographies, tell-all-tales, reach me via
email:serrickbytes@gmail.com
Whatsapp: +2348024910945
