Buhari And The Metaphor Of Saul

They are many rulers with execrable vices that President Muhammadu Buhari compares to. My good friend, Che Oyinatumba, thinks the president stands in good company with Emperor Nero, who fiddled while Rome burned. I am aware of the abiding comparisons but thinks that Buhari is not undecided as to what to do. He is merely acting true to type when his tribe and interests are not at stake. No matter his pseudo-patriotism, Buhari’s love of country is decided from the prism of his religion and ethnic stock – Fulani. Any other thing is wash, like we say in local parlance.

History has a way of throwing up character equivalents through ages. Here Nigerians have a Saul-like character in their president. My consolation in this piece is that the vice president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and presidential spokesperson, Mr. Femi Adesina, are both Christians and can easily relate with the Saul persona. After all, Adesina as an acclaimed pastor is in the habit of using Biblical figures to justify the deplorable iniquities of his boss the president.

The Bible in the Book of 1 Samuel 9:1 notes that Saul, a Benjamite, was not only handsome, but ‘head taller than anyone else.’ Who can argue with the fact that Buhari is handsome and taller than most? Though from the smallest tribe in Israel, he was anointed King after the whole of the people had agitated for a king to be like their neigbours.

We were all witnesses to how there was a groundswell that Buhari be crowned king in 2015. And to the wishes of the ‘majority,’ he was made king like Saul and on May 29, 2015, he sounded all embracing, humble and inspiring like the man he is being compared to.

Is it not said that power changes an individual? Power has exposed the hubris of many rulers through the ages. They become haughty, immune and insouciant to the cries of those who have made them kings. As it was with Saul, so is it with Buhari. Saul could no longer listen to God that picked him from nobody to the palace.

The Bible in 1 Samuel 13 records that given his impatience and over-bloated sense of self, he offered sacrifice which was not his to offer, and Prophet Samuel described his action as a ‘foolish thing’ which has taken the kingship from the House of Saul.

Also, in I Samuel 15, Saul in what has become a second nature disobeyed God in not destroying the Amalekites and their loot from the war. It so angered God that the Bible says: God told Samuel, “I am sorry I made Saul King; he has disobeyed my command.”

How does all these relate to Buhari? Buhari rode on a wave of goodwill, and he made the point when he uttered the memorable quote: ‘I belong to nobody; I belong to everybody.’

Over time, Buhari has shown that all Israel (Nigeria) does not belong to him, rather only his tribe and religion belong to him. If it were not so, Buhari will not keep still after almost two years as suspected Fulani herdsmen run amok maiming, raping, murdering, plundering and sacking entire communities.

If Buhari still listens to God, he will not allow the land to be crimson red without arresting the abomination in the land. If Buhari were not like Saul, he will not be consulting the dead in the name of mistaken appointments. Remember that when the spirit of God had left Saul, he went consulting the witch of Edom, and the implications of that is obvious.

At least in the case of Saul, he even had paroxysms of remorse when the implication of his action was made known to him, but that is far from his latter day equivalent. Let it be known that for what the president has done in not quelling the horror across the whole of the Middle Belt, Nigeria is now Ichabod! Ichabod in Hebrew means no glory, and is mentioned in the first Book of Samuel as the son of Phinehas, a malicious priest at Shiloh.

Ichabod was prematurely born on the day that the Ark of God was taken into Philistine captivity and hearing of this, his mother in 1 Samuel 4:20-21, cried out: “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured”. I am persuaded that with the amount of blood spilled wantonly while the president issues lame and lackluster statements and refuses to identify evil by its name, the glory of his presidency is taken, and like Samuel, I dare say, the kingdom is taken, and to another shall it be given.