In 2014, many Nigerians were fed up with the governing party, Peoples Democratic Party. It is easy to forget how things were in those days. The Governor of the Central Bank was sacked because he blew the whistle that 20 billion dollars was stolen from the treasury.

Therefore, there was intense focus on the choice of the APC candidate. There was a feverish desire for Buhari because the issue of corruption loomed large. However, some of us were not convinced. I wanted to see the back of Jonathan but welcoming in Buhari was a big psychological hurdle. In one of my networks, we spent over a week debating this choice.

This evening, I decided to go through my comments. I have redacted details that can give away other participants. Most of them are no longer fans of Buhari. In fact, I have been more supportive of Buhari than most of them because I take into consideration the damaged economy he inherited and the shocks of oil prices collapsing to less than 30 dollars from highs of more than 120 dollars.

The first post I am sharing was a response to an article that Professor Soyinka wrote about Buhari that was posted to the forum. People just went for Soyinka, rather than considering the merits in his comments. Here, I highlighted the lack of ideology in the two parties and suggested we needed to scrutinise Buhari and consider whether he is the best choice within the APC. Most of those in the discussion are not partisan politicians.

In my second post, I queried Buhari’s capacity as a leader, wondering if he has shown track records of strength needed to fight corruption. It is not enough to be incorrupt, a leader also needs to be able to challenge the corruption of others around him

As often was the case, passions were riding high and people were insinuating I was a PDP sympathiser. I made it clear that if Buhari secured the APC ticket, he would be my preference.

Somebody posted an article where Dele Momodu waxed lyrical about the glory that Buhari would bring. The same Dele Momodu is now a strong critic of Buhari today and is working for Atiku, one of the candidates within the APC that Momodu considered inferior to Buhari then. Interesting with our people, the second choice in 2015 is now the saviour of 2023

Another Buhari fan accused me of mastering the art of writing non stop. This is probably because of the whole group, only three of us were sounding a note of caution about Buhari.

Just as people are excusing Buhari about this currency redesign, saying he was badly informed, people were excusing Buhari about the raid of Chief Awolowo’s residence that happened under this watch. I opined that if you are a leader and you don’t know what is going on, it is a problem.

Those of us challenging Buhari’s record were described as Buhari sympathiser. A younger chap summoned up courage to challenge Buhari’s record. I used the word courage because it is not easy in our culture to challenge the view of those who are much older than you. Some of these people graduated from our high school before I was born.

And just because we challenged Buhari’s records, somebody insinuated that it was our love for money that was driving us:

I wonder what the person who wrote the comments above think today? I am still in contact with him and I received a mail from him today. He is really disgusted with Buhari and as been so since just after Buhari won his second term.

Looking back the Economist was right, describing the choice nigeria faced as a least awful choice: read here.

On Facebook, I commented: