By Favour Nnabugwu
AHEAD of the May 29, 2015 inauguration of President-elect, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), his supporters have taken over the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. Now, Buhari’s change slogan, Sai Baba, Sai Buhari, has been adopted as a way of greeting by residents.
Indeed, the slogan had been popular among Okada riders, market men and women and even in corporate offices even before the March 28 presidential polls.
The slogan went virile on the very day the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the72-year-old former military dictator as the winner of the election.
President Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat to former Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, paving the way for an unprecedented peaceful transfer of power in Africa’s most populous nation.
•Residents greet one another with Sai Baba, Sai Buhari change slogan
Being the first time in the country’s history that an opposition party has democratically taken control of the country from the ruling party, Abuja was agog with celebrations. Cars honked and people waved brooms in the air, a symbol of Buhari’s campaign promise to sweep out the nation’s endemic corruption.
INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, while declaring Buhari the winner, said Buhari got 15,424,921 votes to Jonathan’s 12,853,162, eliciting spontaneous celebrations in Abuja including the satellite towns where Buhari is revered. Young men on motor scooters performed wheelies as hundreds of youths chanted, “Sai Baba, Sai Buhari” and cars honked their horns in support.
An Okada rider, Suleima Garba, said Buhari is the people’s choice Giving an interpretation of Sai Baba, Sai Buhari, Garba said it means, ‘Only Baba, Only Buhari.’
On why they referred to him as Baba, the rider said Buhari could pass for most Nigerians’ father or grandfather and since it was argued in some quarters that Buhari was too old to contest, then Nigerians should accept him as Baba (father).
In Garki Market, an Akwa Ibom woman by name Enem Udoh, a vegetable seller who was obviously elated, said ‘’we yearned for change not because President Jonathan is not good but we just desire to see the next level that change will take us to.
The austere and strict-looking Buhari has described himself as a belated convert to democracy, promising to stamp out corruption and the Boko Haram insurgency in the North.
The country’s over 170 million people are divided by a slight margin between Christians and Muslims but in the Presidential election, Buhari for the first time won states in the South-West and even took one-third of votes in the South-East, an unprecedented development that many say was a reflection of his rising acceptance among the electorate.
Buhari’s fourth bid to become president was boosted by the formation of a coalition of major opposition parties two years ago. The APC’s choice of Buhari as candidate presented the opposition with the first real opportunity in the history of Nigeria to oust an incumbent president.
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