#DemocracyDay2020: Abiola’s Son Compares Buhari’s Governance Style With His Father’s Objective

The Shettima of Borno and son of slain Alhaja Kudirat and Bashorun MKO, Jamiu Abiola, has disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari’s approach to governance has striking similarities with the style that would have been adopted by his father, the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.

Abiola junior, who authored a book on his father entitled: ‘The President Who Never Ruled’, explained that he wrote the book in English and Arabic and gave away over 5,000 copies with the hope that his father’s victory in the botched presidential election would be acknowledged.

He expressed delight that Buhari made this possible by recognising June 12 for what it is and moving Nigeria’s Democracy Day celebration from May 29th to the 12th of June every year. He pointed out that “immediately after the presidential declaration, pride to a large extent has overtaken the pain in the hearts of many of us”.

While insisting that Buhari is as transparent as humanly possible and did not honour his father out of political expediency, Jamiu told Vanguard that “My father and this president primarily have the same objective. They both aim to make life easier for the masses.

“Maybe my father might have resorted more to privatization as a means of employment generation but the approaches of both men, if not strikingly similar, would have certainly met at the junction relating 50 people-oriented programmers like the school feeding being carried out by this administration, along with its N-Power programme.

“All in all, it is the result that counts and, looking at how Nigeria was in 2015, President Buhari has done an excellent job,” the Shettima of Borno said.

When asked about the sidelining of southern Nigerians from management positions at the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, he said, “As regards the NNPC, having served the organization for over a decade, I can tell you that tribalism is not a factor in the selection of senior personnel but competence is the determining factor. This is something I know for a fact as I have long had direct dealings with senior NNPC staff from all over the country and still do”.