Buhari har Mahdi (II)

Although Buhari, the symbol of opposition in Nigerian politics, towers above all the other eminent personalities in the race, this is his most bruising quest for the presidential ticket, due in part to antagonism by the trio of Obasanjo, IBB and TY Danjuma. In reality, the APC has no alternative to a willing and able […]

Although Buhari, the symbol of opposition in Nigerian politics, towers above all the other eminent personalities in the race, this is his most bruising quest for the presidential ticket, due in part to antagonism by the trio of Obasanjo, IBB and TY Danjuma. In reality, the APC has no alternative to a willing and able Buhari who may go ahead to win the election this time. This is not simply because the PDP has serially failed to fulfil its promises but also because Dr Jonathan was overrated.
Take the issue of security. By continuing to blame the opposition for the insecurity in the country, this government abdicates its responsibility for the maintenance of law and order. In the past, the President had severally said he was eating with Boko Haram operatives, that the terrorists were ghosts, that they would be defeated in June (2012), that he would stop treating them with kid gloves, that the security architecture of the country had been overhauled and repositioned to annihilate the sect members, etc. Unfortunately, the more the President grandstands, the more vicious and audacious Boko Haram terrorists have become in grabbing Nigerian territory and killing, maiming, kidnapping and destroying property. Though our country burns, the President prefers to meet with PDP apparatchik than his military commanders. From a localised trouble in Bornu, Boko Haram menace has spread across the North. When Nigerian school girls in Chibok were kidnapped, it took the President 18 days to believe. Surprisingly, it’s just now that the President realises that he needs to borrow $1b to properly supply the army. Now, he’s facing serious opposition to the renewal of emergency in turbulent Adamawa, Bornu and Yobe for the simple reason that the measure had been ineffective in the last 18 months. As usual, his God father Edwin Clark is leading other sycophants who continue to ask that “full emergency” be clamped on the three states and their governors replaced with “military administrators”.
Meanwhile, we’re not doing badly at all on Global Terrorism Index (GTI) as the London-based Institute of Economics and Peace has rated us as the fourth most terrorised country. According to the Institute, we rank just below Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, having recorded 303 incidents of terrorism which caused 1,826 fatalities and 457 injuries in 2013. It is very likely that next year’s statistics which will consider the 2014 figures will fetch us the number one position on the GTI.
Contrary to Jideofor Adibe’s thesis, wanton corruption is at the heart of all this. Corruption is fuelled by the activities of dishonest and self serving leaders who have supplanted national interest with their own personal choices. It is corruption that has made us lose territory to Boko Haram. It is corruption that made us to stuff $9.6m in suitcases (for whatever purpose) and haul it to South Africa inside Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor’s private plane. Pastor Oritsejafor now says that the scandal is a set up; I suggest that in the days ahead they should also set up the Sultan in order to balance the equation. It is corruption that has stymied the completion of the so called East-West Road, eight years after the award of the contract and notwithstanding the fact that the state has expended nearly $700m on it. Corruption has also hindered the conclusion of the construction of the Abuja-Lokoja road. This country has also lost billions of Naira in revenue because waivers have arbitrarily been given to cronies and some other charlatans.
Buhari’s establishment of a “Supreme Military Council (SMC) of 19, with 12 of these coming from the North, and 11 of them being Muslims” and his choice of “Tunde Idiagbon, a fellow northerner and Muslim, as his deputy” doesn’t prove he is a religious bigot. Just because you had 12 SMC members from the North and 11 Muslims doesn’t prove bigotry. For a dictatorship, 7/12 and 8/11 wasn’t a bad Christian/Muslim balance at all. Can you compare the 2:1 ratio in favour of Christians among the delegates in the just concluded national conference called by a “democratically elected government”?
It is instructive that Adibe cited the book “Another Hope Betrayed” by his kinsman, Arthur Nzeribe, as the genesis of the ascription of the toga of “religious fanatic” on Buhari. Looking back now, you could see that this despicable character was in cahoots with the Buhari successors from the beginning to the disastrous end, when he scuttled the transition through a satanic midnight court order. Does Nzeribe have the credibility to objectively assess Buhari? I dare say that the credibility of Adibe’s thesis on Buhari rests on the credibility of the chairman of Association for Better Nigeria (ABN).
Wake up, Adibe; this government is even more ferociously “fighting every social force in the country” than Buhari did. ASUU was on strike for nearly one year, there is still worker unease in the health sector, 33 members of Islamic Movement of Nigeria were killed in cold blood in Zaria by Nigerian soldiers (Adibe wouldn’t know, or understand), students are slaughtered in their dormitories and others kidnapped as the North East descends into anarchy. Muslims and northerners particularly feel persecuted by this administration. Much as Buhari’s appointments were deemed skewed against Southerners or Christians; no one was hurt on the basis of religion or ethnicity.