Joe Biden vs Donald Trump debacle: Nigeria must not entrench a gerontocracy -By Olu Fasan

Two significant events hit the world from America recently. One is positive, the other negative. The positive is the criminal convictions of former President Donald Trump and Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son. Both are unprecedented: Trump is the first former US president to be convicted of a felony, and Biden Jnr is the first son of a sitting president to be convicted of a crime.

That suggests no one is above the law in America. However, the negative is the disastrous presidential debate between Biden and Trump. Both the positive and negative events have relevance for Nigeria. That relevance is worth exploring. But my focus here is the nerve-racking debate.

There is no human being who watched last week’s presidential debate who will not weep for President Biden and shed tears for America. That Biden is so frail, physically and mentally, and yet in total denial is disheartening; and that Trump, a convicted felon, is likely to become president again is saddening. During the debate, I feared Biden might collapse, and the permanent smirk on Trump’s face betrayed the absence of a moral compass. Yet, Trump is backed to the hilt by his party, while Biden has refused to withdraw from the race. Politicians are the most selfish and self-deluded people on earth, yet they always have self-serving people who urge them on, who tell them they are God’s greatest gifts to humanity.

We had that experience in Nigeria in 2015 and 2023, didn’t we? In 2015, every right-thinking person knew that General Muhammadu Buhari was mentally and physically unfit to be president. Yet, Bola Tinubu self-interestedly foisted Buhari on this country, saying he was Nigeria’s General Eisenhower and General de Gaule. But now, as president, Tinubu says his administration inherited “a totally ruined economy” from Buhari, whose presidency was also dogged by his prolonged undisclosed illness. In a country where there is no accountability for failure or misjudgement, Tinubu is barefacedly dissociating himself from Buhari’s government, and some shallow-minded people are buying the deception.

But what about 2023? Everyone knew Tinubu was not physically fit, with his wobbly gait and slurred words. He said he was “running for president, not WWE wrestling or 500 yards”, as if a president doesn’t need to be physically fit. But Tinubu’s supporters said that even if he had to run Nigeria from the sickbed, he was the best man for the job. They touted ad nauseam his overrated achievements as Lagos State governor. But one year as president, Tinubu is not only struggling physically, but also lacks the mental agility to tackle Nigeria’s multifaceted problems. Matthew Parris, a prominent British writer, once said that there must be in every government “the presiding intellect with the intelligence to grasp the problem.” Tinubu has not demonstrated he has the cognitive health to do the job.

Recently, Vice President Kashim Shettima condemned those who mocked Tinubu when he fell and had to be helped to get back to his feet during this year’s “Democracy Day” event. Well, it was wrong to mock Tinubu. But it misses the point to say that he’s human and elderly. Of course, he is. But he schemed and muscled his way into the presidency. Now that he’s president, he must do the job with the physical fitness and mental fecundity it demands.

Let’s be clear, it is utterly selfish and unpatriotic for any individual to ignore his physical and mental frailties and insist on running for president. But that’s what President Biden is doing by insisting on running for a second term against wise advice to quit the race. “I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious. I don’t walk as easy as I used to do,” Biden said after his disastrous debate performance. “But I know what I do know, I know how to do the job.” Really? Even if he slips and falls all the time, even if he rambles and stumbles over his words, even if he often loses his train of thought. It is classic self-interested politics.

In June 2015, a month after he became president, Buhari said he wished he was younger. “I wish I became president when I was governor, a few years a young man,” he said. Then, he added factually: “Now at 72, there is a limit to what I can do.” But did Buhari not know that before he ran for president? Well, he didn’t talk about the limitations of his age during the election. Why would he? He wanted power at all costs even if he knew there was a limit to what he could do. And it wasn’t just a limit: he performed woefully, disastrously!

But what about Tinubu? For a start, his age is shrouded in a miasma of dubiety. An interview published in The Guardian in October 1998 started thus: “Senator Bola Tinubu, 52, returned from self-exile recently.” Unless the newspaper erred, if Tinubu was 52 in 1998, he would be 78 now. But he says he is 72. Well, let’s stick with the “official” age. Would Tinubu publicly admit that there’s a limit to what he can do given his age and, perhaps, his health? Of course not. Indeed, some praise singers are already saying he MUST do a second term.

Last week, Shehu Sani, a former senator, said some Northerners were planning to unseat Tinubu in 2027 and warned that if Tinubu wasn’t allowed a second term “it could destroy the unity of Nigeria.” Really? Between 1999 and 2023, the North produced president for 11 years; the South-West for eight years; the South-South for five years. The Igbos in the South-East have produced none. Surely, for Nigeria’s unity, the Igbos should have produced the president in 2023. But Tinubu said it was his and Yoruba’s turn. Did he think about Nigeria’s unity? No! Did his Muslim-Muslim ticket promote unity? No! By the way, if denying President Jonathan a second term in 2015 did not destroy Nigeria’s unity, why should unseating Tinubu in 2027 do so?

Anyone who has read Jason Weeden and Robert Kurzban’s book The Hidden Agenda of the Political Mind would not take Shehu Sani seriously. He’s not a disinterested commentator. He’s Tinubu’s cheerleader because Tinubu fell out with Nasir el-Rufai, his archenemy. So, El-Rufai’s enemy has become Sani’s friend. But those who abuse their public profile to make misguided interventions undermine their own credibility.

But here’s the overarching point. Nigeria must avoid being governed by old, senile men. It needs a new generation of leaders, not gerontocracy.