I composed a long post as a contribution to this thread but chose not to post it.
Why?
I was analyzing why the naked facts of what a Buhari govt would be like as clearly indicated by his history and that of the ideology he belongs to were ferociously ignored by those who claimed they wanted change, people swindled by politicians who chose to whitewash something deadly, making it appealing.
Buhari is part of an ideology that has no vision for Nigeria as a corporate entity. This ideolgy is interested only in itself and in the use of others in fulfilling its goals.This ideology is dramatized in the use of violence as a primary means of negotiating with the nation. 'If what happened in 2011 [ when he lost in his bid for the Presidency] happens again in 2015' Buhari declared, 'the dog and the baboon shall be covered in blood'. Those who should understand the implication of language of bloodletting from politicians, even when metaphorically expressed, described his declaration as harmless, even in the face of the 2011 massacre of innocent people by his supporters in vengeance for his loss.
Buhari belongs to those whose verbal declarations and eloquent attitudes were central to igniting and sustaining the emergence of Boko Haram Islamic terrorism as the first and most consistent resistance to the GEJ govt on its swearing in in 2011, a terrorist movement fueled by the open support of people like Buhari.
1. Buhari:
" the war against Boko Haram is war against the North" ,
"Boko Haram members are being killed while Niger Delta militants were invited to Aso Rock",
" what we now have is political Boko Haram, which is a creation of the federal government",
utterances made at different points of a crisis in which, not only did he not support the fight agst the terrorists he fought verbally and attitudinally agst the govt's struggle agst the terrorists.
2. Murtala Nyako, then governor of Adamawa :
"the war against Boko Haram is genocide agst the North", declared in a letter he circulated to all Northern governors.
3. Bamanga Tukur, then chairman of the PDP, GEJ's own party:
" Boko Haram are freedom fighters"
4. Abubakar Atiku:
"those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable"
a threat made bcs the PDP did not grant his wish to zone the Presidency to the Muslim North in 2011, a position he had prepared himself for by getting himself chosen, after extensive lobbying, as the sole candidate for the North.
Atiku's stance provided the ideological foundation of the 2011 Boko Haram escalation, emerging on the heels of the entry of GEJ's govt and for its first two years the terrorist movement presenting itself as a Muslim army fighting on behalf of Muslims agst an infidel govt, bombing churches in the North and machine gunning escaping worshipers, bombing and killing at military bases, the armed organs of govt, but never attacking mosques and avoiding attacks on the general populace, making it clear its war was with the Christian headed govt and Christians in the North, a stance that got it support among members of the communities they operated in as well as with security operatives who passed on to them information about informants, whom they proceeded to kill,, enabling them dig in and difficult to dislodge until the 2013 state of emergency which GEJ carried out over the bitter resistance of people like Buhari and Nyako, greatly reducing Boko Haram's striking power in the heavily populated regions, pushing them to the outskirts of Borno until the fight was compromised by the betrayal by Kassim Shettima, governor of Borno state, who kept the remote Chibok school open agst the orders of the fed govt, enabling the story of the kidnap of the Chibok girls by Boko Haram, a disaster milked by the opposition to destroy, in Nigeria and abroad, the moral legitimacy of the GEJ govt.
We can reflect on why a candidate was allowed to flout a basic requirement for the Presidency, a secondary school leaving certificate, shamefully low as that is, and why an Okonkwo, an Olanrewaju, a Boma Jack, an Obasuyi, if bold and resourceful enough to aspire to office at that level, not only would never be in such a position as being assessed by only a secondary school leaving certificate in the first place, but they would never be given such latitude as flouting such a basic provision. We can ask ourselves the implications of this development for class configurations even among Nigeria's political elite and its implications for the caliber of candidates and interest groups who dominate the political process.
We can ask why a man who declared at the 2008 Abacha memorial in Kano that Abacha never stole even as the Swiss govt had returned some of the dictator's massive loot to Nigeria, and who declared at the same venue that past national leaders should not be probed, was roundly denounced for this by his political opponents through their mouthpiece Lai Muhammed, was in 2015 being whitewashed as an anti-corruption king by the same erstwhile opponents, with the same Lai Muhammad now his his town crier, yet this strategy of soldiers of fortune was embraced as 'change' by even those who should know better.
One can go on and on.
In an era in which the central government has become a sponsor of a Fulani terrorist group engaged in land grabbing massacres across the nation, some are still able to declare that we are not in an unprecedented situation in our history.
In trying to understand why I chose not to share my earlier post, I suspect its bcs of the bitterness that threatens to overwhelm me in observing this situation.
I want to nurture hope that we shall be salvaged from the cannibals whose bloody feeding is enabled by the determined naivete of those who refuse to see them for who they are.
We have been largely cured of the culture of celebrating successful coups bcs we see them as 'change'. Abacha cured us of that. Hopefully after Buhari leaves after what seems likely to be his second term, we shall be cured of the hunger for dubious messiahs and whitewashed characters.
thanks
toyin
On 1 January 2018 at 07:04, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@ccsu.edu> wrote:
....... dining with a very long spoon .
Professor Gloria Emeagwali
www.africahistory.net
www.gloriaemeagwali.com
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com > on behalf of Chambi Chachage <chachagechambi@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2017 10:29:08 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - No, Jonathan Wouldn't Have Been Better!GE i.e. you'd rather dine than swim? Re:
"Someone in the media has called it a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea....Well, at least one can dialogue with the devil, even dine with that creature with the proverbial long spoon. With the deep blue sea however, deceptively placid, even the best swimmers drown" - Wole Soyinka--
On Jan 1, 2018 4:57 AM, "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)" <emeagwali@ccsu.edu> wrote:
(Continuation)--
Gbagbo's friends and allies would say "we told you so" ........but the issue is complicated.
If I had to choose between Gbagbo, the genocidist and Ouattara, today, I would still pick Ouattara. Would I pick Buhari instead of Jonathan. Perhaps yes......
When I think of Jonathan' s opportunistic
handling of the kidnapped Chibok girls etc, ........but with a full recognition of Buhari's incompetence.
GE
From: Emeagwali, Gloria (History)
Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2017 8:34:39 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - No, Jonathan Wouldn't Have Been Better!Well the Nazis connote genocide,
death camps, gold filling extraction and a host of despicable actions.As I said in another list, if the Jews can make up with the Germans, then they could certainly come to an agreement with the Palestinians. But that is a stray point. The real issue here is about politician s and the lies they weave. Few can be trusted. You can only think in relative terms at the moment of voting.
Who would have thought that Alassane Ouattara would turn out to be such a lousy, avaricious,ungrateful President but he did. Gbagbo's friend
Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Professor of History
History Department
Central Connecticut State University
1615 Stanley Street
New Britain. CT 06050
www.africahistory.net
www.gloriaemeagwali.com
www.ccsu.edu/afstudy/archive.html
Chief Editor- "Africa Update"
www.vimeo.com/user5946750/videos
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora
8608322815 Phone
8608322804 Fax
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com > on behalf of Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi.opara@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2017 4:01:16 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - No, Jonathan Wouldn't Have Been Better!"No Nazi invocation, I plead." (Moderator)
Why not, if within context and helps to illuminate viewpoints?
CAO.
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