Don’t Mind Them: It is all about Buhari, not Nigeria! – By Eddie Onuzuruike

I resisted reading the article, ‘It is about Nigeria: not Buhari,’ serialized in many newspapers, until the edition of Saturday, September 7, 2013, in The Sun Newspaper. The Sun is not my favorite read but for the scintillating monthly literary reviews anchored by my former student, Henry Akubuiro.

After reading it, I was full of disgust and furious with anger. Why? Most people take Nigeria for an Anything Goes Country where people use all antics to rewrite our history; they think that because of the hunger that ravages the masses, that we have all turned to amnesiacs. Great Awo saw it ahead when he said, ‘it is easy to tell a story, but it is not an easy matter to write history.’ Buhari is on a voyage to rewrite history and paint himself in the brightest of colours.

          The Buhari I know is not a democrat and cannot move Nigeria forward. Many examples abound.

His regime in the annals of military juntas in Nigeria, was the darkest period for democracy and democrats, where people were recklessly clamped into detention, our democracy was assaulted as Governors Mbakwe, Jakande, Uncle Bola Ige, Jim Nwobodo and others were detained- only because they were democrats. Oracular sage, Awo was not spared as his residence was ransacked and rummaged like that of a criminal.

A coup plotter who toppled our return to democracy in December 31, 1983, intemperately chastised his countrymen with whips as if they were slaves. He enacted decree 2, which enabled his tempestuous regime to detain Nigerians for 3 months without trial. Critics were silenced, strikes and lockouts were banned. Imprisoned were those who dared to speak like Fela who went to jail on trumped up charges. No doubt, he sponsored the greatest dehumanization of Nigerian citizens- the crating of Umaru Dikko is yet to be rivaled in the espionage world. Decree 4 of 1984, suppressed freedom and gagged the press, Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor went to jail for writing the truth in their newspapers. Rep Nduka Irabor is still alive to testify.

          In 2000, the Obasanjo brand of the South African Truth And Reconciliation Commission- The Human Rights Violation Investigation Commission (HRVIC), alias Oputa Panel, started sitting on October, 23^rd 2000. This gave Nigerians a chance to clean up, tell the people the much they knew and did, apologize where possible so that Nigeria can move on. But Buhari instead of coming out clean, disdained the public hearing, even on special invitation and rather went to court than apologize to Nigerians, whom he is now ravenous for their votes.

In 2011, Buhari, a serial presidential contestant in a Lagos campaign, cried publicly and stated that it was his last time as he wouldn’t try anymore, it did not take long before he recanted his statement and now masquerading again as a hopeful. Is such a man worthy of our trust? In one of his statements being a bad loser, he was alleged to say that he will make the country ungovernable. Have we not seen the result? Buhari, while featuring on a programme of Liberty Radio, a Kaduna-based radio station, aggressively complained about “special treatment” given to Niger Delta militants by the federal government while the Boko Haram members were being killed and their houses destroyed by government.

He has come out as a patron; with this do we doubt his endorsement any more? He may not be a member of Boko Haram but we know as a former Minister and commander in Chief, Supreme Headquarters, his words are weighty and may have given the philosophical mentorship to the Harams. Even though Buhari is hugely unpopular but some of his adherents may unconsciously take his words seriously and unleash mayhem that is now common place in the north with Christians and Southerners as victims.

Buhari’s conclusion in the said article is more ludicrous. Hear him: ‘If some politicians find it more convenient to drag public discussions towards the weaknesses of Nigeria, in order to hide their incompetence and divert attention from their theft of public funds, it is the responsibility of the press to steer the debate to policies and programmes, notwithstanding the divisionary self-destruct antics of the PDP.’

Now Buhari invokes the press to duty? He has shamelessly recognized the press because he is depressed. If his aids and spin doctors knew him well enough they would not have added this last paragraph.

It was only his tenure in the history of this country that a law was made and it took retrospective and retrogressive effect. It was a sentence worst than any other and could only be matched in Hitler’s Nazi Era. This capital punishment imposed on drug smuggling in Nigeria was worse than any other in the world as at that time. It was worse compared to Mexico, worse in Columbia, worse in America and Italy, the drug use capitals of the world.

The constitution of Buhari’s SMC in 1884 was an example of dichotomy of the highest level ever practiced in any secular state in the world. Only five members out of 14 were Southerners and few of them Christians. It was such action that gave the verve to people like late Sheik Gunmi who proudly said that Muslims will never vote for Christians in elections.

I can go on and on because it resonates into a rhyme

Eddie Onuzuruike