USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: ||NaijaObserver|| MOHAMMUDU BUHARI IS NOT A SAINT
Dear All,
Here is my take on Buhari who is being promoted by some of us into sainthood.
The story is told of the tortoise when he thought aloud of his intentions to buy a very beautiful horse. His son was overjoyed and in his exuberance graphically described how he would ride the horse over rivers and mountains and around everywhere. The tortoise, alarmed that his son might ride his horse to death, beat the son so badly that he died. Incidentally, he never had the resources to buy a horse and he never bought one! The moral in that for us is that we should not maim or kill one another YET, until Buhari passes the primary and becomes a bona fide candidate for president.
Our public forum affords us the unique opportunity to expose the good and evil deeds of office seekers past and present. We sure need the information to guide us at taking sensible decisions but we should not descend to the level of barking dogs to scare away mild-mannered sheep. If we must be aggressive, and there is no justification for that because truth is unchanging, let us wait for a good reason like the nomination of Buhari before we begin drawing our weapons for a futile war.
There are those who do not value their freedom and many do abuse it, but for a wise guy like Buhari to come along and tell me to remain a prisoner in my home every last Saturday of the month because of his failure to think out a civilized way of getting people to keep their environment clean is an affront. Keeping my environment clean is an everyday affair. Collective punishment is internationally viewed as a crime and not an act of a disciplined leader. One does not have to be extra-legal to change society. No one will believe that Oshodi can be detoxicated, demolished, and decongested, but Fashola has done it. You go and drive carelessly in Fashola's Lagos but make sure you have N25000 and your pajamas and tooth-brush for use when you get to the Mental Hospital at Aro where his watchdogs will send you. There we have a micro example of how change is engineered in a crazy society like ours. Make reasonable laws and enforce them without fear or favor.
When I go to my bank anywhere in Nigeria there are orderly queus at the ATM, the security entrance, and at the counters. Because of my few scanty grey hair almost always people beg, really beg me to come to the head of the queu in deference to my age. They are no more in a hurry! The change has come slowly but it has come. Change will come if the rules are clear and if it is known that default has a high price tag, Nigerians will change if even reluctantly.
Buhari has been absolved by some as not being part of any coup. A disciplined high ranking officer, when called upon to be the top beneficiary of a coup had many options:
1.Decline because the means to the throne was wrong
2.Accept and round up those rebels immediately to send the right signals to other coupists that elected governments no matter how horrible they are, represent the people they betray and can only be removed by the people.
3.Since the act had been done, invoke the constitution by reinstating those dethroned and replacing those that had been killed by those recognized in the constitution as successors to them.
A man of character who is disciplined will somehow find a way to prove that there are ways of doing things and a coup is not one of them.
The supporters of St. Buhari have not responded to charges that he was patently selective in his fingering of corrupt politicians and that Ajasin, Ige, Onobanjo, Ambrose Alli, and others from the south were the main victims of his crusade. It could be a mere coincidence but his many supporters still have to marshal the facts and explain this away because he doesn't seem to be a fair-minded person or a democrat by these account.
His tour of political parties to pick the presidential ticket, like Atiku, makes him a political prostitute. Integrity should show in small things. And if one should judge by his easy acceptance of power from mutinous upstarts he does not in my opinion qualify to lead this country that he once betrayed.
Tinubu's fortune is riding high in the South West right now. It is my hope that he will not let that get to his head because if he squanders it and partners with this Saint, the Yorubas will prove to him that they are elephants that do not forget. The South West will wait and welcome Buhari to his Waterloo.
Amiel Fagbulu
From: Adebayo Adejuwon <adeadejuwon@yahoo.com> To: NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com Cc: omoodua@yahoogroups.com; naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2010 7:34:43 AM Subject: Re: ||NaijaObserver|| MOHAMMUDU BUHARI: THE TOWER OF TERROR AND BIGOTRY
Ans: In the realm of ignorance disguised as knowledge encapsulated in unchartted literary misadventure with no value addition to the current sociol political reality of the polity of Nigerian state.
And the essayist can be excused. But why must people who should know elevate such a pieve to a place of relevance it never set out achieve and,which, in form, content and dialetical merit, it would not have attained.
So, the fault lies at the doorstep of those who ought to sift seriousness from unseriousness but, for reason I am yet to fully comprehend, suddenly became merchant of literal garbage.
Can we move to seriopus issue please?
From: "employlawone@aol.com" <employlawone@aol.com> To: NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tue, December 14, 2010 5:17:16 AM Subject: Re: ||NaijaObserver|| MOHAMMUDU BUHARI: THE TOWER OF TERROR AND BIGOTRY
Dear Sir,
Without delving into the demerits of this piece, I ask one simple question where does the writer locate the pursuit of Umaru Dikko to England and his being crated by the Buhari regime? Or is Umaru Dikko a Yoruba person?
With Regards
Olu Ojedokun
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
From: afis <odidere2001@yahoo.com>
Sender: NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2010 05:08:25 -0800 (PST)
To: <naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com>; <talknigeria@yahoogroups.com>; <naijaobserver@yahoogroups.com>; Odua<omoodua@yahoogroups.com>; <odidere2001@yahoo.com>
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Subject: ||NaijaObserver|| MOHAMMUDU BUHARI: THE TOWER OF TERROR AND BIGOTRY
Nigeria has always been a basket case. Things that are abnormal and aberrations takes place in Nigeria everyday; they are commonplace and they assume normality and are acceptable as part of our life. Having illiterate soldiers rail road the whole nation of well educated people was at one time acceptable in the mentality of Nigerians. At the sight of a demented soldier on national television Nigerians rush out to celebrate and welcome the new 'messiah' to Dodan Barrack. The people easily lap up the new soldier of fortune's promises and good intentions and will be glad that the thieves in babariga and tall caps (a la Shagari's) have been arrested and their political parties "dissolved." People will take to the streets to listen to all the new promises of what the new "fedra gonment" will do. They will lap up all the "summarily dismissed," "hearby dissolved," "summarily expelled," and nonsense like "this gonment will not tallrate any indisplin" from the very mouth of lowlifes who are the very epitome of indiscipline! Mohammudu Buhari was one of such undisciplined soldiers that forcefully terminated democratically constituted and elected governments.
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The twin towers of terror, Mohammudu Buhari and his co-traveler Tunde Idiagbon, plotted and terminated the second republic. The second republic was never a worthy venture considering the excesses and corruption of the epicureans in Alhaji Shehu Shagari and Adisa (the self-processed and heavily deluded AMA, Always Mentally Alert) Akiloye's National Party of Nigeria (NPN), but only the people have the right to terminate it through the ballot box. But Buhari has no regard for the ballot box or democratic process that engenders and enthrones democratic regimes. Like any soldier of fortune with a huge personal agenda, Buhari overthrew the government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. He accused the civilian administration of corruption and bad governance; he called them names and came to the conclusion that they will be "summarily disciplined." On December 31, 1983, Mohammudu Buhari rolled back the hands of the nation's development and stymied the progress of Nigeria. He decided to clean up the mess left behind by the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and restore order. But rather than dealing with the crooks, philanders, epicureans, grabbers and looters in the NPN and hold them accountable, he chose to punish only a section of the political landscape; he focused on the political opposition that controlled less than 30% of the funds at the time. Buhari arrested, detained and tried all the governors of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) while the erstwhile leaders of the NPN were left untouched and a mere handful of them kept under house arrest.
Buhari's was a selective approach to governance and justice. Not a single Hausa/Fulani man or woman was arrested, interrogated, detained, brought to trial or sent to jail during his dictatorship despite the legions of Southern non-Muslim 'infidels' he detained without trial, sentenced for flimsy reasons, or murdered by retroactive law. It was only Umaru Dikko he went after - for whatever personal reasons - among the dozens of NPN chieftains, but he kept the likes of Professor Ambrose Ali, Chief Olabisi Onabanjo, Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin and Chief Bola Ige in prison. He tried them and retried them until they were found guilty. His goal was to find them guilty and it was at all cost. For him it was better to find the 'infidels' guilty rather than trouble the 'elect.' Buhari incarcerated the UPN governors who brought development to their people and their states and rewarded NPN governors who could not account for the revenue allocations they got and the loans they borrowed with house arrests and freedom to move around! It was Buhari's Northern Agenda, an agenda soaked in his belief in a pious North and determination to deal ruthlessly with the 'infidels,' from the Christian South and its inferior Muslim population who were not Muslim enough..
The repeated imprisonment, trials and tribulations heaped on the UPN governors hastened the untimely demise of Chief Olabisi Onabanjo and Professor Ambrose Alli. Buhari lacked the conscience to care; he was least interested in the fairness of his action. All the ministers of the National Party of Nigeria and their party chieftains such as the former president Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Suleman Takuma, Adamu Ciroma, Yahaya Dikko and many others were left untouched; they were too pious and of a special Northern breed to be touched. Buhari settled for scapegoats and 'infidels' from the South to justify that he was cleaning the nation of corruption when in fact he wore a garment of greed and excesses. He showed very little respect for the law of the land. He even went a step further to backdate laws in order to ensure that three suspected drug pushers, Bartholomew Owoh, Bernard Ogedengbe and Lawal Ojuolape were found guilty by retroactive law, but then that was a drug trade that prominent Northern Nigerian businessmen were well noted for. In doing this, he insulted the civil society and drew the anger and criticism of the Nigerian media, labour unions, the Nigerian Bar Association, the National Association of Resident Doctors, and many other unions and organizations. Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti and his brother, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti suffered greatly from the inhuman actions and detentions of Buhari and his band of plunders. The three drug suspects were found guilty and murdered by retroactive law. Decree No. 20 of 1984 was not only inhuman and illegal in its composition, it was draconian and a law made by fools, because suddenly action that we acceptable and normal when taken were strangely turned into criminal actions. The Public Officers (Protection Against False Accusation) Decree 4 of 1984 was Buhari's gift to the Nigerian Press and its first victims were The Guardian's Tunde Thompson and Nduka Iraboh.
Buhari did not even consider the ministers of Alhaji Shehu Shagari who broke every law, plundered the nation's resources and spent money like it was going out of fashion for any punishment. He did not come to punish the 'saints,' because the saints are too pious. His war against indiscipline (WAI) was conceived in deceit. Only the unholy will be punished for acts of indiscipline. The pious have the right to 'take,' to 'use,' and to 'remove' whatever they want, and their taking, using and removing what they want is holy and righteous before Allah. As far as Buhari was concerned only the people in the South were undisciplined since the North was and still is pure and pious. Only numskulls will hold such silly and stupid believes, but Buhari was far from convinced about the superiority of his Hausa/Fulani race and the purity of Islam. For Buhari, he was right and pure and we (the people in the South) are dead. He considered himself sent by Allah to either purify them or exterminate them all.
The Emir of Gwandu was too pious and as such was at liberty to bring in his 53 suitcases. While the people importing contrabands were predominantly from the North, only the few from the South were arrested and prosecuted. Alhaji Jokolo, the current Emir of Gwandu and son of the then Emir recently said his father only brought back 12 suitcases and not 53. Jokolo, a former colonel in the Nigeria Army said it was General Buhari who instructed him to go to the airport to receive his father, the then Emir. Mustapha Jokolo acknowledged that several suitcases were taken straight from the aircraft to the State House. He said those were for the Chief of Protocol, Dahiru Waziri. They were all in the government of Mohammudu Buhari but Buhari did not put them on trial for bringing contraband goods into the country or for disobeying the law by not taking their luggage through the normal process of inspection. Even Buhari's brother was on that same entourage of the Emir of Gwandu, but all of them are neck and shoulder above the law, and the war against indiscipline does not affect them; they are above such petty laws that were made for commoners and Southerners.
General Buhari has very little education, like the rest of his khaki-wearing comrades who ruled Nigeria by force and by decrees. He attended primary school in Daura and later the Katsina Model School before attending military training at home and overseas. We can safely say that this is another cretin case with very little ability for creative, analytical and constructive thinking. Even his actions as military dictator were causes of concern for the academia, and they worry why any rational person will take those actions or follow the steps Buhari followed. A few months or a year in any military college or cadet program can never prepare any soldier for governance. Soldiers are trained to follow rules and to obey orders; never to run government, lead civilians or be seen in the civil society wearing uniform around. No military training prepare or pretend to prepare a soldier to run a local government or a state. Buhari was poorly educated and has a low intelligence quotient (IQ) to manage the affairs of the people of Katsina State and as such lack what it takes to manage the affairs of Nigeria. He forcefully imposed himself on the Nigerian people and made a terrible work of it; he caused confusion, did the economy no good and dehumanized the civil society. If he failed when he was a dictator, I do not see him succeeding in a democratic, give-and-take environment.
Buhari accepted the Abacha contraption and was one of the first few who embraced Abacha quite early and saw nothing wrong in the annulment of MKO Abiola's freely given mandate. Buhari was therefore rewarded with the chairmanship of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) by his friend, General Sani Abacha. The PTF had annual budgets that were far more than what most states of the federation received from the federal purse.
The Fund began in 1996 with an initial capital of almost 60 billion naira. It was a duplication of social services and it became the bottomless pit that allowed the Northern Oligarchy to loot the national treasury once again. It was like the return of the Nigerian National Supply Company (NNSC) and contracts were flowing and doing so in abundance, but available only to the Oligarchy who will then turn around to sell the contract papers to a Southerner at huge profit.
It all became a joke in Lagos about how some people procured the paper and made billions and some bought the paper and do all the work for little or nothing!
Buhari's PTF built roads at federal, state and local government levels at a time when the Federal Ministry of Work lacked the funds to repair roads. PTF also procured drugs at a time when the Federal Ministry of Heath did not have the budget to provide drugs for federal hospitals. It was said that the PTF had 115.6 billion naira available to it as at December 31, 1997, funds that were never audited or properly accounted for. Like Abacha and the rest of his government, the PTF was set up to provide an opportunity to loot without any need for accountability; and corruption and indiscipline were never fought at that level. A wise former head of state would have seen that PTF was an alternative government and he would have rejected the offer to be part of it, but not Mr. Buhari. PTF brought untold opportunities and allowed him to practically rebuild Katsina, Kaduna and the rest of the north while a few projects were thrown at the Southern States.
More roads were built in each of Funtua, Gusau, Kaduna, and Sokoto than in Lagos or Oyo State. Over 70% of the Fund's allocation went into modernizing the roads in the North. For example, roads in Malali Government Reservation Area (GRA) in Kaduna were as good as you can wish for before PTF was set up, but these roads were dualized with PTF's money all the way to Durbar Hotel and beyond. Buhari's idea of Nigeria is one in which the north is superior and it must always take the lion share of everything.
Unfortunately Muhammudu Buhari is the presidential candidate of Bola Tinubu, the self-professed leader of the Yoruba people. It is very obvious they have so much in common - brash, uncreative, unimaginative and false superior air. Contractors such as Chagori and Chagori (C&C) and Afri-Projects Consortium were some of the major beneficiaries of the PTF contracts. The PTF even carried out projects in Military barracks despite the fact that those projects have been provided for in the Ministry of Defence's budget. The Armed Forces PTF was allocated 20% of the PTF funds and with it came more funds to loot and no accountability. In the final analysis it was confirmed that Buhari wasted 135 billion naira of the PTF's 146 billion and all this financial abuse during the time Abacha was waging war against indiscipline and corruption (WAIC).
The joke is on Abacha, Buhari and their ilk, and I am laughing out loud, really loud.
Human rights violations brought the civil society in confrontation with the twin towers of terror. Buhari and Idiagbon were ruthless and they disregarded every right, every dignity and ignored every court injunction as they inflicted untold pains on human rights organizations, newspapers, labour unions, and the community of editors, journalists, writers, reporters, and opinion leaders. The twin towers were right and we were all wrong and as such detained - kept away for as long as their lordships wanted. It has often been speculated that the reason why Buhari terminated a democratic government was to give him the opportunity to remove the documents relating to the missing Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) missing $2.8 billion.
For reasons relating to the missing $2.8 billion, Buhari detained, intimidated, jailed and abused people at will. His detention camps were flung open by his successor and the whole world was shocked beyond believe that a human being will go to any extent to dehumanize other human beings for no reason at all. The unfortunate traveler and the other tower in the Buhari dictatorship, Tunde Idiagbon was no doubt the honest and decent of the two men. Idiagbon was a disciplined soldier who got into a ride with a crooked driver behind the wheels.
There is no doubt in my mind that General Mohammudu Buhari failed in every area of assessment. He lacks the temperament to tolerate democratic culture, he is poorly educated and lack the creative, analytical and strategic thinking required leading a nation like Nigeria. It is true Buhari had gunned his way into power in Nigeria before, essentially an accident of history that should never have happened. He may be qualified to lead the Caliphate but even then the days of the Caliphate have receded into the footnotes of history. Buhari was a soldier who disobeyed his commander in chief and forcefully removed an elected government from office. Besides lacking the moral authority and shared values required of a democratic leader, Buhari's antecedent as minister in the petroleum ministry where funds disappeared and later as chairman of the Petroleum Trust Funds where cases of widespread corruption and sectionalism were rampant necessarily made it imperative to disqualify this former tower of terror.
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