Article written by former Minister Femi Fani Kayode. Read and tell us what you think...
Major General Muhammadu Buhari has emerged as the APC flagbearer for the 2015 Presidential election and President Goodluck Jonathan has emerged for the PDP. The battle for the soul and future of our nation now begins.
Never before have I seen a Nigerian President
deploy federal institutions in the service of partisanship as we are
witnessing now. Never before have I seen a Nigerian President utilize
the common wealth to subvert the system and punish the opposition, all
in the name of politics. Our nation has suffered serious consequences in
the past for egregious acts that are not even close to what we are
seeing now. It is time to pull the brakes''.
One
may have been prepared to accept the general's words as being those of a
genuinely concerned and committed patriot who simply wanted our
President and his Government to do a better job and who was worried
about the unfolding situation in our country if he had not consistently
exposed his true colors and his obvious soft spot for Boko Haram.
Permit
me to share just one example of the expression of that soft spot in
this contribution. On 3rd June 2013, Thisday Newspaper led their
newspaper with the following headline: ''The military offensive against
Boko Haram is anti-north- General Muhammadu Buhari''.
The
headline was followed by these words: ''Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, has
criticised the declaration of state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and
Yobe States and the subsequent military offensive against the Boko Haram
Islamic sect. Buhari, who featured on the “Guest of the Week,” a Hausa
programme of the Kaduna-based Liberty Radio, yesterday said the federal
government’s action was a gross injustice against the north. According
to him, unlike the special treatment the federal government gave to the
Niger Delta militants, the Boko Haram members were being killed and
their houses demolished. He said he was not in support of the
declaration of state of emergency in the three north-eastern states
because President Goodluck Jonathan had failed from the outset in
addressing the security situation in the country''.
The
implications of these shameful and indefensible comments, coming from a
former Head of State, are obvious and self-evident. If the truth be
told Buhari's peculiar affinity with the terrorists and his fawning
about their safety and welfare is as unbearable as it is nauseating.
Yet
that same General Buhari who said these unacceptable things one year
ago is now busy pontificating about his concerns for our nation. Many
would argue that that is pretty rich coming from him given his past
comments about a ruthless group of terrorists who, more than any other,
merit the award for the greatest ''troublers of our nation''. Given this
I regard Buhari's comments to the Nation Newspaper on the 22 July 2014
as nothing but self-serving and belated clap trap and balderdash.
Yet
this clap trap and balderdash is worthy of a little attention. Of
particular interest to me were the following words: ''never before have I
seen a Nigerian President declare war on his own country as we are
seeing now''. Really? Correct me if I am wrong but I thought that the
war that President Goodluck Jonathan had declared was against terrorism
and Boko Haram and not against the Nigerian people.
Does
General Buhari find it difficult to make a distinction between the
jihadists and the Nigerian people? Does he see them as being one and the
same? Does he actually equate members of Jama'at ahl as-sunnah
li-d-da'wa wa-l-jihad with the Nigerian people? Does he regard the
military offensive against Boko Haram as being an offensive against OUR
people? Does he honestly believe that anytime that a Boko Haram
terrorist is killed by our Armed Forces and security agencies or that
his house is blown up that it is an attack on the Nigerian people or an
assault on the north? Are those people that Boko Haram slaughtering,
terrorising, abducting, pillaging, robbing and raping on a daily basis
all over our country not the real Nigerians?
Does
he honestly believe that Boko Haram is representative of the thinking
of our people or even the majority of the people in the muslim north?
Has this man not lost touch with reality? Does he really belong to the
21st century or is he nothing more than an old relic from the distant
past who secretly craves for a return to the norms, ways and values of
6th century Saudi Arabia? Is such a man really fit to be President of
our country?
Is
he still insisting on having another muslim as his running mate in
order to establish his strange dream of a muslim/muslim President and
Vice President for our country or has he shelved that idea due to
political pressure from President Olusegun Obasanjo, public resentment
and bitter outrage?
Has
he beat a tactical retreat from the muslim/muslim adventure and finally
opted for Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Professor Yemi Osibajo,
Governor Kayode Fayemi or some other yoruba christian to be his running
mate as my sources are suggesting?
I
must confess that all three of these individuals are profoundly good
men and are eminently qualified for the job but does this latest
concession come from the heart or is it just a ruse and an attempt to
appease the christian community? Is it an attempt to lure them in and
make them drop their guard? Does Buhari have any respect for Christians?
Does
he have any empathy with the christian community in northern Nigeria
for the immense suffering, degradation, humiliation,contempt, shame,
indignity, persecution and mass murder that they have been subjected to
in the north for the last 54 years and particularly in the last few
years?
Does
he regard christians as being human beings? Does he accept the fact
that Boko Haram are nothing but beasts? Does he recognise the fact that
no-one has the right to take the life of another human being in the name
of religion? Does he know that compulsion has no place in any civilised
religion and that each human being has the right to exercise his or her
free will to determine which religious faith he or she wishes to
espouse?
Does
Buhari understand the meaning of the words ''secular state'' or the
concept of the secularity of the state? Can he possibly accept the
virtues and comprehend the wisdom of such an equitable and reasonable
constitutional arrangement which guarantees the rights of all faiths and
which does not allow one faith to laud it over another anywhere in our
country?
Does
he recognise the fact that Nigeria is in actual fact a secular state in
which the rights and dignity of the members of every faith, including
the christian faith, are guaranteed by the constitution? Does he accept
the fact that in this day and age it is a heinous crime against humanity
and particularly the girl-child and that it is a complete violation of
the laws of our land for little girls of the age of 5, 6, 9 13 and even
up to 16 to be married off and subjected to rape in the name of religion
and marriage?
Does
the General support paedophiles, sexual predators, sociopaths, sadistic
perverts and the criminally-insane like the Boko Haram leader Abubakar
Shekau who are sexually attracted to innocent and defenceless little
girls and who believe that they can be ''sold in the market'' and
''forced into marriage and slavery?'' Does he honestly believe that Boko
Haram are human beings? Does this man that wants to be President of our
country not recognise a heartless and callous beast when he sees one?
Does
the wanton and relentless shedding of rivers of innocent blood,
including the blood of children, not move his heart? Does the open
abduction of almost 300 little girls, each of whom is young enough to be
his grandaughter, from the sanctity of their school dormitory in the
dead of the night not evoke pity in him and not stir him to rage?
Does
he have any compassion and does he feel no pain for the suffering of
the victims of Boko Haram? Does he know that Boko Haram has killed as
many muslims as they have christians in their insane attempt to
establish an islamic fundamentalist state in our country?
Is
his inability to make a distinction between Boko Haram and the Nigerian
people informed by the fact that he is a closet Haramite whose stated
desire is to ''spread sharia throughout the whole of the country'' as he
said in 2001? Does Buhari still believe that ''muslims should only vote
for muslims’’ or ‘’for those that will protect their interest'' as
he said in 2001?
Does
he still believe that ''christians should not worry when muslims chop
off their own arms and hands in the name of sharia because it is none of
their business'' as he said in 2001? Does he still believe that Boko
Haram members should be forgiven, granted amnesty, pampered, sent abroad
to learn and given monthly allowances ‘’like the Niger Delta
militants’’ as he suggested in 2013?
Does
he still believe that , if he is not elected as President in 2015,
''the dog and the baboon shall both be soaked in blood''?
The
questions are legion. Given his views about Boko Haram does General
Muhammadu Buhari have the moral right to condemn anyone, least of all
the President and the Federal Government, for the challenges that we are
facing in this country?
Never
before have I seen a former Nigerian Head of State openly express
sympathy and covertly support a murderous and bestial terrorist
organisation that has killed well over 30,000 innocent Nigerians in cold
blood, that has abducted and raped our little girls and that has slit
the throats and drained the blood of our young boys.
Never
before have I seen a former Nigerian Head of State openly defend a
bunch of cowardly, uncouth and barbaric jihadists that have bombed and
burnt alive the weak, the vulnerable and the elderly in our country and
that have slaughtered our soldiers, policemen and intelligence agents at
will and with such callousness and glee.
Never
before have I seen a former Nigerian Head of State openly canvass
restraint and mercy for a bunch of bloodthirsty, cold-blooded mass
murderers and criminals that have turned our country into a pariah
nation, that has made the north the home of the most callous, ruthless,
hateful, vile and evil terrorist organisation in the world and that has
transformed our nation into a horrendous haven for ruthless islamic
fundamentalists and bloodthirsty islamist militias.
If
the truth must be told the only thing that is worse than Boko Haram are
those in the Nigerian political class that secretly support and
covertly assist them. A Buhari Presidency would be a disaster for our
country, a danger to the Christian community and clear evidence of the
final victory and triumph of Boko Haram and the jihadists over the
Nigerian state. It would also represent the end of Nigeria as one
nation.
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