Gov Buni: A Man Whose Greatness is Desired

Odimegwu Onwumere

It was the legendary William Shakespeare who was credited with the following statement: Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.

As if Shakespeare had the indefatigable Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State, born in Buni Yadi, Gujba Local Government Area of the state at heart when he made that statement, the governor has shown rare mettle by surmounting all odds to fix the once dreaded All Progressives Party’s National Convention for February 26.

Before this date was fixed, it was litigation to another by some perceived aggrieved members of the party, since June 2020 that Buni was appointed as the Chairman of APC’s Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC). He however remained steadfast to the duty he was called upon to do through his show of kindness being the essence of greatness. Men of noble character like Buni do not toy with their fundamental characteristic of kindness.

The brave and born-leader Buni didn’t hinge on his greatness to belittle the political traducers who marshaled out against him (as it was fad that great men often belittle people of low minds), he rather stood his grounds not for his personal ambition but for the life of the APC in a country that has experienced the good, the bad and the ugly in all facets of human and administrative endeavours.

Buni didn’t want to sacrifice the APC for self-aggrandizement, he kept away from shylockick mindset knowing that as he was born great, he can also make his political party that could be gasping for the breathe to be great no matter what marooned minds were up for, for the party.

One thing that has endeared Buni to his followers and political analysts across the world was his ability to endure critics, who were not criticising him constructively, but with some venoms of deconstructive bile in order to seeing that he bit the dust. Nonetheless, like the phoenix, Buni didn’t bite the dust. He resurfaced with the February 26 agenda for the party. Ovation has rented the air since this proclamation.

While the APC was seen as a great party by those who believed in its manifesto, it was saddening that resentment characterised the party, not by defined oppositions, but by its members who were not pleased by Buni’s greatness and decisively sense of leadership. They forgot that the humane Buni had the desire to serve others, by moving on in making sure the party succeeded.

The APC is greater than any member of the party but some folks in the party have proved the contrary, while Buni saw to their glee that they wanted to make sure the party bit the dust, and he created time for greatness to follow his party.

Buni could be better captured in a statement by Theodore Roosevelt Jr., often referred to as Teddy or his initials T. R., who was an American politician, statesman, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer that served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909.

Roosevelt Jr. was credited with the following comments: It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Buni’s face was marred with sweat and cajoles but he was optimistic and knew he was destined for a task greater than him. And he has been living it without impossibility in his coffer. He understands that to be simple is to be great therefore he kept doing what must be done positively for happiness of souls that trust him and the greatness of what ambition ought to be.

Like Martin Luther King Jr., says in his ‘A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches’, it is very important to align Buni in the evergreen statement that was credited to King Jr., saying: There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.

Buni didn’t take the chairman of APC’s caretaker committee position as safe, politics, nor to make him popular, but conscience led him and today, hilarity in towns and villages by those who looked up to him, has worn out people in their quest to celebrate his feat in steering the committee to something better for the party.

Even as a governor, Buni might not be with the calibre of persons Nigerians know that have powerful political connections or great wealth; but like the librarians, his strength lies in not burning the APC down, just as librarians’ strength do not lie in burning books.

The APC has its own proverbially public library of which some of its members fighting Buni nearly burnt down for the lucre of politics and open vendetta against Buni whose patriotism for his party was not hidden and he faced reality.

The behaviours of the political demagogues in the APC could be the reason one Robert Orben said to Americans: “Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian.”

While Orben humorously said that the Indian should be investigated as the aliens in the USA., Buni got God to himself in the words of Abraham Lincoln who was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865, saying: My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.

When the history of Governor Mai Mala Buni would be written, his greatness would be exposed to be as a result of his sound moral principle and this has shown as a bet and evidence of his strength, which has been leading him in perpetuity to achieve feats for his APC political party and personal endeavours. No man is great who has not affected the mind of his generation. Buni has.

*Odimegwu Onwumere writes from Rivers State