By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Barely 80 days to the end of his tenure as Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari will be honoured with the prestigious ‘Icon of Democracy’ award by sub-region bloc, the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS).
The community says the award is in recognition of President Buhari’s achievements in the defence and promotion of democracy in the subregion.
This comes amidst allegations of disobedience to court orders against the the former Nigeria military ruler.
Critics have accused President Buhari of contemptuous disdain to court pronouncements, dwarfing his human right records and profile with regards to rule of law.
Despite several court orders discharging and acquitting the embattled self-determination campaigner and leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, he has remained in custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) in the past two years since his extraordinary rendition in 2021 from Kenya.
But ECOWAS leadership believes the outgoing Nigerian leader deserves recognition for doing “more than any other to support democratic governments in West Africa, just as he had done exceptionally well, waging battles against the emergence of non-democratic regimes”, a statement attributed to Garba Shehu, the president’s spokesman said.
According to Shehu, on the sidelines of the ongoing fifth UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries in Doha, Qatar, the ECOWAS Chairman, Guinea Bissau’s Umaro Embalo communicated the willingness of the bloc to recognize the Nigerian leader during a bilateral meeting.
Embalo said the leadership of the subregional body approved the award for the president as he prepares to leave office upon the conclusion of his two-term tenure.
According to the ECOWAS chairman, Buhari will have his name on the ‘Roll of Honour’ in the community’s new headquarters building upon its completion in Abuja, Nigeria.
This, he said, would enable future generations of West African citizens to know about the greatness he (Buhari) achieved and to emulate his laudable examples.
Buhari welcomed the proposition, stressing that democracy is the best pathway to bringing together diverse people and a dependable vehicle for the achievement of national development, the president’s spokesman had said.
Buhari is currently in the eye of the storm following a Supreme Court order which voided his directive on the use of old naira notes, particularly the N500 and N1,000 notes as legal tender.
The Supreme Court last week ordered that the old currency notes should remain in circulation as legal tender till Dec. 31, countering an earlier directive by Buhari that the old notes have lost their legal tender status.
There is nothing to suggest that the order of the Supreme Court has been complied with by the Federal Government.
Recently, under the president’s watch, an election which was largely questioned by international observers, brought in Bola Tinubu, the candidate of his party – the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), as President-elect.
Commenting on the outcome of the polls, US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), “failed to meet the expectations of the citizens.”
In an op-ed titled ‘The Elections of February 25,’ she urged INEC to “address the challenges that can be resolved ahead of the March 11 gubernatorial elections and to undertake a broader review of the problems that transpired during the last elections.”
Four years ago in the aftermath of the 2019 presidential election, critics suggested that the president did not win his re-election on a clean slate.
