Karl Marx and Muhammadu Buhari are two different personalities whom nature bestowed upon us as a gift to humanity within two different centuries(Marx-19th, Buhari-20th). I must admit that I understand the reaction that will trail this piece of work which will of course create a bipolar opinion arising from the fact that these two personality in which the article is written about have a cult like Political followership both locally and globally.
For the sake of those not too familiar with Sociology, Political Science, Philosophy, Economics and other Social science discipline, I will try as much as possible to disect to you who Karl Marx was and why of all other great thinkers of his time, I decided to pick him as my focal point for this write-up.
Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a German philosopher whose work cut across many discipline namely Political Science, Sociology, Economics and modern philosophy. He was the brain behind COMMUNIST MANIFESTO in collaboration with Friedrich Engels in 1848. The document will go on to be regarded as one of the most important political document ever written in human history. He developed many school of thought which are still relevant and strongly adopted among Political thinkers, leaders as there Political philosophy and ideology. Ideas such as Marxism, Conflict Theory, Neo Socialist predisposition are all attributed to Karl Marx. Marxism which originated from the name of the propounder Marx is a school of thought, international relations theory that strongly belief that for the society to be better, we all need to rise up against our common enemy which is CAPITALIST society led by those he termed BOURGEOISIE and there must be an entromennt of a new political ideology which Marx refer to as SOCIALISM.
The second personality Muhammadu Buhari is an household name within the Nigeria Political space who came to limelight during 1983-1985 military regime; notable for being ruthless and strong anti corruption campaign throughout his regime as a military head of state and currently serving as an President of Nigeria having won the presidential election in 2015 got re-elected in 2019.
These two personalities (Karl Marx and Muhammadu Buhari) are the two king's who will never rule. But Gbenga, Muhammadu Buhari is the current president of Nigeria, what do you mean he will never rule? The fact fact that Muhammadu Buhari is the current president does not mean he is the one controlling the affairs of the country base on his performance as the president.
The main reason why he (Buhari) is struggling can be traced to the fact that, he has built an ideology for himself (buharism) which is not compatible with the present day reality in Nigeria political system. We need to understand that his first attempt of the nation leadership was as a dictator which makes the running of governance simple to administer because in a military regime, he was not subjected to the constitution, there was no national assembly to carryout an oversight, he does not need the judiciary to implement or give interpretation to his decrees. Another point I will like to turn the beamlight upon is the fact that Mr Buhari has failed in the area of upgrading his academic reserve which would have helped him to understand modern day of Statecraft. Looking through his curriculum vitae one will come to realize that all his academic investment was mostly during his time in the military which is a very bad omen for anyone who wants to govern a civil society and most importantly a democratic nation. Another hurdle the Buhari presidency is facing is as a result of the presidential political arrangement (Democracy) creates multi layers of leadership built around the principle of separation of power which is a strange island to Buhari personality. He is not a democrat and he will never be a democrat irrespective of whether he is ruling under a democratic administration because a leopard cannot change his spot. A clear understanding of Muhammadu Buhari political philosophy which I termed buharism will always make it difficult for him (Muhammadu Buhari) to achieve his aims and desire as an elected president under a democratic administration Unlike the military regime where all powers of the state (executive, legislative, judiciary) reside in an individual make decision making easy to go by, but Democracy is not going to permit such situation which in summary has rendered the buharism ideology to be in effective in managing the administration of the country.
Buharism is a Political ideology centred on fighting corruption at all cost irrespective of how it affects the social, Political and economic life of both Man and Beast alike. This ideology believes that the wealth of the nation must be evenly distributed across all class of the society, it also posit that favoritism is not a crime, and lopsided appointment is good if it is for the advancement of the state.
However, the buharism ideology with all it's inherent good features is not suited for a secular, pluralistic society like Nigeria. The ideology also fail to nail down in a clear semantic form, what corruption is really all about (moral, theft) and who determine who is corrupt (president, political parties, judiciary). Another major disadvantage of the ideology (buharism) is that it lacks a coherent economic policy and economical framework which makes it anti-progressive as regards economic development and growth.
Many Nigerians may be disappointed about the turn of events in the country but permit me to say I am not surprised, in fact i expected worse than what is currently obtainable in the country because I believe that unless there is a change of approach in the Political think tank, within the buharism political think tank we are going no where as a state (Nigeria) simply because the Buhari ideology is too acade for modern human Political society. The issue of fighting corruption is rues and a mere Utopia, no country in the world can stop corruption the best that can be done is to minimize it's effect on the larger society. The buharism ideology also fail to understand that most advance and industrialized nation's also have corruption crises though not the extent of Nigeria, so fighting corruption ruthlessly as Buhari will always put is a waste of time and tax payers money because the manner in which
Just like Marxism, buharism is a good Political philosophy which is only good on a paper document and moral for the human mind just like the communist manifesto but the fact remains it is an Utopian ideology. A classless society is impossible, equal distribution of wealth is unattainable, egalitarian society is synonymous to a bigger dreaming to ride on a horse.
In conclusion, Karl Marx and Muhammadu Buhari are two great personalities with good intentions to create an ideal state through their Political ideas and philosophy. But just as Marx never rule, Muhammadu Buhari will also go down in human history as a king who has a throne but never reign.
Adewunmi Gbenga
Political and Economic Analyst
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