Present realities have impelled me to, once again, amplify reasons why Nigerians in general and Ndigbo in particular must vote against Major-General Buhari(retd) in the presidential election scheduled for Saturday, March 28.This viewpoint is written bexause of the litany os propaganda and disinfornation by the agents and propagandists of the All Peoples Congress(APC). . It is vexatious that a man who has caused so much mayhem in the political ambience is still romanticizing with the idea of ruling Nigeria again. The sins of Buhari are so numerous that they cannot be documented in a small newspaper column, but nonetheless I will try to use the available space to list just a few of his infractions and sins against the Nigerian nation.It is pertinent to remind the reader that Buhari was the Military Head of State of Nigeria from December 31st,1983 until he was toppled from power on August 27, 1985.Now, let’s take a careful walk through the mine field of a few of Major-General Muhammadu Buhari’s sins:
(1)The Missing N2.8billion oil money: Buhari was accused of implication in the disappearance of $2.8 billion oil money during his tenure as Minister of Petroleum. In spite of his vehement rebuttal of this allegation, it hangs over him like an albatross. However, whether one believes the allegation or not is a matter for personal conjecture. He was so incensed in the way the Press reported this story that he has a phobia and pathological hatred for the Fourth Estate even to date. The Press gave the allegation a lot of coverage via the so-called VERA IFUDU Scoop. The important thing is that it was the first time a Nigerian leader ,more so, a military leader, was accused of looting such humongous amount of heist in Nigeria.
(2)Buhari’s coup of December,31st,1983: Perhaps, Buhari’s worst disservice to the Nigerian nation is his military coup which culminated in the overthrow of President Shehu Shagari on the 31st day of December,1983. It is sad that at a time Christians all over the world were celebrating the birth of the Risen Christ in the Christmas week of 1983, Muhammadu Buhari , a Muslim bigot, was plotting the take over of the government of the country through a coup de tat. Aside being a Christmas week, Buhari’s coup was plotted on a day the world was celebrating the dawn of a new year. This evinces the fact that he has a deep-seated hatred and animosity for Christianity and humankind.It is distressing that a military officer who overthrew a civilian regime in 1983 should be voted to be civilian president after 32 years of the 1983 coup.This is lamentable.
(3)Distortion of the succession plan in the Presidency: It was this coup that shattered the well planned succession plan of the then National Party of Nigeria(NPN) which had planned that DR Alex Ekwueme , the then Vice President of Nigeria, would be the next President of Nigeria in 1987, that is, after the tenure of President Shehu Shagari. If that template was allowed to run its full course, the ongoing crises of succession in the leadership of Nigeria would have been averted in mid-projectile.. That arrangement would have made it mandatory for the IGBO to produce a President after which the Yoruba nation and the minorities of the North and South would have taken their turns. This would have obviated the need for interminable wrangling and recriminations on the contentious issue a to which part of the country should produce the President.
(4)He is a hater of Ndigbo: There is empirical evidence to attest that the major reason for Buhari’s coup was to stop the emergence of an Igbo President in 1987.It is even pathetic that Buhari does not have the courage to own up the fact that he spearheaded a coup; he prefers to tell gullible listeners that he was drafted to be the Head of State by the plotters of the coup. This is an act of cowardice, hence the boys ignominiously kicked him out of office on the 27th day of August, 1985.As a hater of Ndigbo, while he maltreated the Igbo politicians who he detained after the 1983 coup, the deposed President Shagari was lodged in a Guest House while his deputy, DR Alex Ekwueme, was detained at KIrikiri Maximum prison. Shehu Shagari was later released while DR Alex Ekwueme and the others were incacerated in Kirikiri Maximum prison and related facilities across the country.
(5)He is a hater of the Yorubas: Even though Chief Obafemi Awolowo was not a member of the NPN, Buhari mobilized his boys to invade the residence of his house and rummaged/ ransacked it without finding any incriminating documents. As a military Head of State, Buhari did not hide his untrammeled apathy and contempt for the Igbo/ Yoruba nations as well as the fact that he is a Muslim bigot and fiend. How else will you rationalize the fact that while he released the toppled President, Shehu Shagari, from incarceration, he held the others, mostly from the southern part of Nigeria in detention for about a year. This selective justice evinces Buhati’s penchant for dichotomy and parochial mindset.
(6) BUHARI is a Muslim bigot: Again, in order to satisfy his ego of a Muslim fundamentalist/maniac, Buhari chose another Muslim, Major-General Tunde Idiagbon , as his deputy in the aftermath of his December 31st ,1983 coup- thus forcing a Muslim/Muslim leadership on the country to the chagrin and discomfiture of the Christian population in Nigeria.
(7) He is a hater of the Fourth Estate(i.e. the Press): As military Head of State, Buhari did not hide his disgust of the Press and he did not waste time to keep the Fourth Estate under fetters and manacles. In spite of the fact that his military regime was welcomed by the Press, he wasted no time to manifest his pathological hatred of the Press. After barely three months as Military President, he imposed the controversial Decree 4 on the Press. The essence of the Decree was to gag and intimidate the Press to a toothless bulldog that could neither bark nor bite. In January 1984, he had told the now-rested National Concord newspaper that he did not trust journalists and vowed to checkmate the freedom of the Press. His main grouse was anchored on the reports of the press (especially the VERA IFUDU reports) on the missing $2.8-billion oil money. Shortly after this statement, Buhari introduced Decree 4 which gagged the Press . Under this Decree, two reporters, Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor, were both sent to jail in 1984. Decree 4 was patterned after the earlier laws of sedition and libel. According to Decree 4” Any person who publishes in any form whether written or otherwise any statement…..which is false in any material particular or which brings the federal government or the government of a state or a public officer to ridicule or disrespect shall be guilty of an offence under the decree…..” Above all, contravention of this Decree attracted imprisonment for a term of not exceeding 2 years with no option of fine. It was under this obnoxious Decree that the two editors of The Guardian newspaper were jailed for two years each. Again, in 1984, Buhari detained TAI SOLARIN for making speeches which were allegedly embarrassing to his government, even though TAI Solarin’s comment were not as offensive as the kind of statements Buhari makes these days and yet he walks a free man in the streets of Nigeria. Buhari also enacted the obnoxious Decree 2 of 1983 .He arrested Tai Solarin for violating the obnoxious Decree.The Decree 2 of 1984 conferred on the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon,” the power to detain anyone for acts prejudicial to the state security…” Decree 2 of 1984 was originally enacted by the government of Muhammadu Buhari and signed into law on February 8th,1984 but backdated to December 31ST,1983-the day Buhari and his fellow dissidents seized power. The Ibrahim Babangida administration which sacked Buhari,’ regime on August 27th 1985 adopted Buhari’s Decree 2 of 1983 , but amended it to Decree No 12 of1985 to vest the power of detention previously vested on the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters in either the Chief of General Staff (CGS) or the Inspector General of Police(IGP).
It shocks me deeply that in spite of the bare barefaced hostility of BUHARI on the FOURTH ESTATE(The Press), some media outfits in this country have been eulogizing Buhari as a saint who must be allowed to rule Nigeria or else there will be crises galore. The main culprits in this canonization of Buhari include The Daily Sun and The Nation newspaper groups. These newspapers have continued to make inflammatory and incendiary comments on the indispensability of Buhari in stabilizing the Nigerian state. In fact, the post election violence that hit the nation after the 2011 election could be easily traced to the reckless and inciting comments which were incessantly made by the lead columnists of The Daily Sun newspapers. It’s unfortunate that the LEMU Panel which was set up to investigate the remote and immediate s causes of the mayhem was so shortsighted that it could not do an exhaustive review of the ignoble role of few media professionals in that post-election carnage. If they were thorough, they would have subpoenaed the top management of The Sun newspapers to justify some of the seditious, subversive, and inciting statements their senior columnists made in favour of Muhammadu Buhari in the build up to the 2011 election. Even as we speak, these toxic and biased reports are still pervasive and ubiquitous on the pages of these tabloids.In fact, some of them stated clearly that if Buhari did not win, the country would be consumed as Buhari was the only politician who could turn around the fortunes of the country for good. I have a feeling that these journalists who applaud Buhari were either too young during the Buhari years of authoritarian Gestapo or they are under the stranglehold of a dangerous case of amnesia or cognitive dissonance syndrome.Even now , some politicians who now run the “Imo Propaganda(Broadcasting) Cprporation” have been been announcing that the election of Saturday will be a Hurricane Buhari.Politicians who make such vexatious comments talk out of ignorance as they only constitute a nuisance to the Fourth Estate.
(8)In 2003, Buhari asked Muslims to vote only for Muslim candidates:
Buhari is an ethnic and religious irredentist who sees everything from the binoculars of a Muslim fanatic. In 2003, Buhari had, in a public ceremony( a Book Launch), asked the Muslims to cast their votes for fellow Muslim. In spite of the furore raised by this toxic comment and efforts made by prominent Nigerians like Rev Father Kukah to defuse the tension, Buhari remained unrepentant and recalcitrant as he refused to tender apology or issue a rebuttal of the statement. He was so insensitive to the pandemonium which was generated by his unguarded and vociferous diatribe against people of other faiths.
(9)He is psychologically unstable: He is very unreliable, choleric, mercurial and tetchy. In 2011, be broke down in crocodile tears as he wept inconsolably in a public event and told a global audience that he would not run for the office of the President again. He made this statement when it dawned on him that the result of the poll might not favour him. It is distressing that in spite of this statement which most people were glad to hear, Buhari is shamelessly desperate to participate in the 2015 poll. Unfortunately, his attack dogs in Igbo land are not reminding him that in 2011, he had promised to retire from partisan politics. He has become so desperate that, prior to the presidential primarires, he issued a threat to the APC that he would dump the party if he iwas not given the presidential ticket. The spectacle of a crying military general is not my idea of a statesman with good and effective leadership traits.It is distasteful that Muhammadu Buhari, a military general(retd), is unable to actualize a pledge he made in the presence of a global audience.Whither integtity and statesmanship.Why is he so desperate to return to the levers of power after over 30 years of his ill-fated coup of 1983?
(10)The extra-Judicial murder of three Drug Pushers: The fact that Buhari is a sadist is exemplified by his execution of three cocaine drug pushers even though the crime was committed at a time it was not punishable by death. What happened was that the Lagos zone of Miscellaneous Offences Tribunal had convicted the three men for drug trafficking, an offence the Buhari/Idiagbon regime later made punishable by death. In spite of entreaties from the global community for justice to be tempered with mercy, more so ,since the offence was not punishable by death at the it was committed, Buhari remained recalcitrant and gave approval for the execution of the three youths. The youths include Lawan Akanni Ojulope(38), a car dealer; Barthlomew Owoh(26), a United States- based student, and Bernard Ogedengbe(29), a business man . Saddened by the execution of his son, Alhaji Ojulope, father of the late Lawan Ojulope, wept inconsolably as if his lachrymal glands had burst and in an emotion- laden voice queried :”How can Idiagbon and Buhari, especially Idiagbon, live to old age since they have insulted my grey hair. They were deaf to the voices of the people which were God’s to commute my son’s death sentence to life jail, but Idiagbon was blood-thirsty. He spilled the blood of my son on the stake of Kirikiri”. So, Buhari lives under a curse placed on him by Pa OJULOPE and if you take a very deep look at Buhari, you will easily know that he is a man at war against humanity , a sadist, a misanthrope. As predicted by PA Ojulope, Major General Idiagbon has since died young ; he did not live to old age. It’s dangerous to hand over the levers of power of ASO ROCK to Major-General Buhari (retd)- a person whose philosophical and emotional fundamentals are suspect. It is deplorable that this man and his faithful live under the illusion and phantasmagoria that a man who shot his way to power on December 31st, 1983, will bounce back in 2015 –about 32 years after his coup-to be an elected President of Nigeria. This cannot happen ; nobody can drag Nigeria back by 30 years, more so, since the man, Buhari, has no record of having gone back to the university to imbibe any new knowledge.Unlike many retired military men who have been civilianized and democratically domesticated, Buhari is still parading the mindset of a military general. It is not possible to civilianize a person whose only knowledge is that of a garrison commander who understands only the command-“shoot am”.. He cannot be domesticated to imbibe democratic ethos and norms. For me, the issue is not Buhari’s age, but rather his hostile disposition.
(11)BuharI as Chairman of PTF: The Presidential Trust Fund(PTF) was set up by General Abacha to salvage s the decaying infrastructure of utilities all over the country. On March 21st 1995 when the Board of PTF was formally inaugurated in Abuja, Major-General Buhari was named the Executive Chairman. The activities of PTF straddles the entire gamut of utilities such as education, water supplies, marine transport, health, roads, pharmaceuticals and the like. Although the PTF was heavily funded to salvage the utilities on a nation-wide basis, Buhari restricted his activities to the North of Nigeria , thus validating the fact that he is, indeed, a religious/ethnic irredentist. While one can detect heavy capital intensive projects built by PTF in the Muslim North, in the South East, there are no traces of any surviving vestiges of projects which can attest that there was such a project as PTF in Nigeria. He was so clannish that he deployed the humongous PTF budget to developing the infrastructure in the North while turning a blind eye to the utilities in the South of Nigeria, A person with such deplorable and depraved fundamentals is not my idea of the Messiah Nigerians are looking for. Above all, there is empirical evidence that the major contractor to PTF was his brother in-law who enjoyed a lion share of the PTF contractst. Professor Chimere Ikoku( now late) who was the Chairman of South-East zone of PTF described Buhari as very corrupt and despotic.He accused Buhari of using self-help to hijack the PTF which he ran like a self proprietary business.Please read the back page of ThisDay newspaper of 11th August, 1999.
(12) He is vindictive and opinionated: He is extremely vindictive, insensitive, and unforgiving. In an interview which he granted his goons in the Daily Sun newspaper of December 24th(?) 2012 or so, he betrayed the animalistic part of him in the way he answered the questions put to him. In answer to some of the questions, Buhari said that “I have not forgiven Obasanjo,” even though he said he had forgiven General Babangida (retd). The only reason is that while Obasanjo is a Christian( an unbeliever/infidel), Babangida is a Muslim . Perhaps, Obasanjo’s sin is that he sacked Buhari as Chairman of PTF. On the three young men he executed on the basis of a retroactive law, Buhari said he did not have any apologies to anybody for executing the trio. On the long prison sentences imposed on the politicians he detained in 1983, he said that he did not give a damn about that. Recall that some of these politicians were jailed for 100 years and above. How can a person with such a seared conscience be given the levers of power in such a sophisticated state as Nigeria? In spite of its several challenges, Nigeria has turned a page and the like of Buhari can no longer fit into the template of the Head of State of Nigeria. When time is due for the emergence of a Northern President, there are so many upwardly mobile and rugged politicians in the North who will be acceptable to majority of Nigerians, not Buhari. If Buhari is the one who has the Midas touch to transform Nigeria to a modern Paradise, most of us will prefer to continue in our wobbly , fledgling and ever nascent democracy. He is not the Messiah we are waiting for and he will never be.
(13) Buhari is morally flawed: He is a corrupting influence on the youths in the area of civility and moderation in the quest for power. He belongs to the group who once said that they would make Nigeria ungovernable, should President Jonathan win the 2011 election. That statement is the genesis of the ongoing Boko Haram brouhaha ravaging the nation. Again it was Buhari who once told a Muslim group that “in 2015, the dogs and baboons will be soaked in blood”, if he fails to win the election. Furthermore, he has incessantly made incendiary comments and on one occasion he said that the insecurity problem was not peculiar to the North alone, adding that there was no difference between the Boko Haram sect in the North and the militants in the South/ South. He made this subversive /seditious statement when he spoke on the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) London. It is pathetic and deplorable that Buhari is comparing the Boko Haram with the militants in the South/ South political region. This is a case of comparing incomparables in a desperate bid to hoodwink the unwary. Buhari once said that any attack on the Boko Haram is an attack on the North.
(14 )Buhari refused to appear before the Justice Oputa Commission on Human Rights to make cetain clarifications in the search to expand the ftontiers of Human Rights in Nigeria
(15) He has severally refused to participate in the ongoing Presidential Debate, even though he is desperate to be President yet he did not hesitate to travel to London to address the so-called Chatam House Summit.Who needs an outlaw as President?
(16)Both the APC and Alhaji Buhari rejected the National Conference.The APC which he is the leader did not send any delegate to the National Conference.In fact, the Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, who also doubles as the National Chairman of APC governors treated the National Conference officials with contempt and derison when they arrived IMO State for a interactive session with Imo and Abia states.He did not even assign a venue for the interactive session.Okorocha told them that Imo State was not part of the National Conference.However, it was Governor T.A.Orji of Abia State who swiftly moved in to provide a venue for the summit which was eventually moved to ABIA State..
(17)Over N 7 billion b was spent in holding the National Conference and the Igbo nation gained a lot in the final decisions.Prominent in the reccommendations is the plan to create a 6th state for the South East.President Jonathan has pledged to actualize the creation of a 6th state for South East when he returns to power on May,29th,2015.No reasonable Imo person will waste or fluff this rare opportunity of having a 6th state. A vote for President Jonathan is a vote for the 6th state in the South East while a vote for Buhari ia a vote against the great reccommendations of the National Conference including the creation of a 6th state,No genuine Igbo person will vote against the 6th state for the South East.However, there are some Caliphate and quasi -Igbo politicians in Igbo land who may choose to vote against Jonathan on the grounds of their secret loyalty to the Sultanate.It does not matter to such group that the responsible and right thinking members of The North have since given a whole-hearted endorsement for the creation of the 6th state in the South East as well as donesticating the recommendations of the National Conference.
All in all, If the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo could be prosecuted for implication in subversive activities, I do not know why Buhari should be an outlaw and a menacing bull in a China shop. In conclusion, Buhari is a throwback to the era of politics of atavism, one of the surviving vestiges of the Hobbessian world where life was short, nasty, and brutish. A situation where President Jonathan who hails from the cash cow- South/ South zone- cannot be allowed to serve out his second tenure is unacceptable and the Igbo elements who are against President Jonathan’s second tenure are Fifth Columnists in Igbo nation; they are Caliphate politicians who owe their loyalty to the emirs and not to Igbo nation. I appeal to all right thinking members of our country to ignore the like of Governor Amaechi who has become the present –day Judas Iscariot in the South/South. He is on the path of perdition and sooner than later, he will be shocked at the way the Caliphate will pay him back in counterfeit currency. The Northern Mafia eliminated Isaac Boro and Ken Sarowiwa after they had made use of their services, thus treating them like a disposable syringe; ceteris paribus, the same fate awaits Governor Amaechi in the fullness of time.
JOHN MGBE
johnmgbe@yahoo.com
