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Tag: Muhammadu Buhari

  • Only Buhari can address corruption, insecurity-former MILAD

    Only Buhari can address corruption, insecurity-former MILAD

    Former Military Administrator of Ogun and Rivers States, Group Captain Sam Ewang (retd), has said former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, possess the requisite qualities to pull the country out of the present insecurity and corruption.

    Speaking at the inauguration of Buhari Friends Organisation Network, Ewang warned that the country would be worse off if President Goodluck Jonathan is re-elected for another term in 2015, as according to him, “he (Jonathan) does not have the capacity to lead the country for another four years.”

    He said: “I have been talking to my friends in the PDP and they are listening. It is true that one of us from the South-South is occupying the position of President today. But it is not about brother, but about the capacity to lead.

    “We did not know him before giving him the mantle of leadership. He would have been there for six years by 2015. He has done his best. You cannot give what you don’t have. We know Buhari and what he can do. I can assure you that Buhari is the only person who has what it takes to stop the corruption and insecurity in this country.”

    The former military governor lamented that Nigerians are yet to know the quality of the person of the retired Army General, while pledging his total support to the Buhari’s presidential aspiration in 2015.”

    Also speaking at the occasion, former Deputy Governor of Bauchi State, Alhaji Garba Gadi, said that Buhari remains the only man standing in terms of providing good leadership in the country.

     

    While naming two groups of Nigerians that do not want Buhari to be president, who include those who have stolen the nation’s wealth and are afraid of being probed by Buhari, Gadi assured that the All Progressive Congress (APC) will form the national government in 2015.

    National Coordinator of the Buhari Friends Organisation Network, Athanasius Okon said that the organisation was formed based on the resolve to set a template for leadership recruitment across the country with emphasis on selection based on merit, capacity to perform, will power to enforce laws and the provision of essential services and security for the citizens.

  • That bombing of Buhari’s convoy

    SIR: The recent attack on the convoy of General Muhammadu Buhari, former Head of State and a national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), by a suicide bomber in Kaduna is a wakeup call to all politicians that the time has come to close ranks and stop playing politics with the issue of terrorism.  The incident, which was part of a coordinated attack involving two explosions about two hours apart, bore the trademarks of the dreaded terror group, Boko Haram.  Although Buhari and popular Islamic cleric, Sheik Dahiru Bauchi, who was also purportedly targeted, survived the two separate explosions, scores of persons lost their lives.

    Even without a statement from Boko Haram claiming responsibility for the acts of terror in Kaduna, what is fairly obvious is that such heinous crimes are typical of the handiwork of the group.  It should also be fairly obvious to any discerning observer that creating distrust and disunity among Nigerians is a strategy that Boko Haram has been pursuing since it began its campaign of terror.  Thankfully, the strategy continues to fail.

    It is telling that, after a recent Boko Haram bomb attack in Abuja, Buhari himself said: “My heart breaks every time I take to this platform to offer condolences in this tormenting season of seemingly endless violence.  I understand that it is difficult for the government to prevent every terrorist attack, but we can always do more to protect our defenceless citizens by boosting our intelligence and counterterrorism capabilities.”

    According to the former Head of State, “Our security and stability cannot be conditioned on any ideology or partisan agenda.  Every Nigerian reserves the right to his own security, to his own freedom and dignity, and no amount of terrorist blackmail can make us surrender these.  May God unite our hearts as we confront this evil.”  These words of sympathy from Buhari underscore the need for Nigerians of all political ideology or partisan agenda to stand united in the fight against terror.

    As Nigerians of all faiths and regions join General Buhari in thanking the Almighty God for sparing his life against the machinations of terrorists, the point must be reiterated that the attack on him (the former Head of State) is a pointer that no Nigerian is safe from terrorism.  As such, the last thing the country’s political class should do is continue to politick with the issue of terrorism.  It is a pastime that will not bring any good to the polity.

    • Sufuyan Ojeifo,

    Abuja

  • Thank God for Buhari’s life

    Thank God for Buhari’s life

    I wonder what the likes of Lai Ashadele, an avid reader of this column and one of its fiercest critics has to say on the failed attempt on the life of former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari last week in Kaduna.

    And after the failed twin bomb attacks, one of which was targeted at prominent Islamic preacher Sheik Dahiru Bauchi by the terror group Boko Haram, it would be interesting to know what Ashadele and the rest who support the Goodluck Jonathan administration have got to say on the fight against terror in Nigeria.

    To these people and others like them in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the opposition is behind Boko Haram and they are quick to refer to statements made by some prominent politicians in the north in the run up to the 2011 presidential election to the effect that they would make the country ungovernable for President Goodluck Jonathan if he contested in that election.

    This belief has tainted their view of the fight against terror such that every criticism of Federal Government’s failure to drive the terrorists out of our country and secure the lives and properties of every Nigerian especially those living in Boko Haram’s theatre of operation is seen as unpatriotic and unfriendly of the Jonathan administration.

    To them, every critic of the administration is a hater of President Jonathan irrespective of whether what he/she is saying is true or not.  So when the opposition says this war against terror cannot be won the way Jonathan is handling the matter they are quickly shouted down and their views dismissed as scaremongering.

    Some key opposition figures have even been accused of financing the terrorists. But now that Boko Haram has gone after General Buhari, I wonder whether the rabidly pro-Jonathan supporters within and outside the PDP like Ashadele still believe that the opposition has a hand in what the terrorists are doing.

    The Kaduna attack on Buhari offers the Federal Government an opportunity to rethink its strategy in the war against terror and embark on an all inclusive campaign against Boko Haram, bringing all hands on deck and harnessing all resources available to Nigeria in this regard.

    It is about time that both the government and the opposition sat together to fashion out a common front against Boko Haram and all other forms of terror in the country. The time for finger pointing is over. We are confronted with a problem that could consume all of us if care is not taken.

    The other day, a bomb exploded at Apapa near a gas tanker but it was quickly dismissed as a mere explosion, even though Boko Haram claimed responsibility.  When the United States embassy in Nigeria issued a travel advisory to its citizens recently warning of a likely terrorist attack on a popular hotel in Lagos, the Americans were accused of crying wolfs. In the south east, scores of northerners suspected to be Boko Haram operatives were recently arrested.

    What all these point at is that Boko Haram now has the capacity to strike anywhere in Nigeria, and the earlier we see the problem as our problem and not that of the north alone the easier it will be for us to win the war on terror.

    I say thank God for Buhari’s life. If the terrorists had succeeded in killing the retired General and the Islamic Cleric, only God knows where Nigeria would be by now. And as President Jonathan rightly pointed out while receiving Sallah homage from Muslim leaders in FCT, none of us would be sitting pretty in our homes today if those sons of the devil had killed General Muhammadu Buhari and Sheik Dahiru Bauchi.

    The war that that South-south loud mouth Asari Dokubo had promised to unleash on Nigeria if Jonathan is not returned to office next year would have landed on his doorsteps by now even before he has the opportunity to cork his AK-47 rifle. The fire that he promised on the rest of us non-Ijaw Nigerians if Jonathan is rejected in 2015 would have been burning in his homestead now before he could even change from his loin cloth to a trouser.

    In the north Buhari is god, forget what any other person says to the contrary and his supporters, call them Almajiris if you like, worship him and are ready to die for him.  To them, he is the only person that can end their miseries, take them out of poverty, end corruption in Nigeria and make the country great and achieve her potentials. They want all those who have contributed to Nigeria’s ruin jailed, and Buhari, they believe is the only one who can do that. Every mistake of Jonathan, especially government’s failure in the war against Boko Haram makes Buhari popular before them and the retired General is seen as the Messiah to come. And the message is gaining popularity in the south as well. You can imagine this man being killed in that bomb blast. By now Nigeria will be on fire no doubt.

    That he survived unhurt was an act of God and as some would like to say, God indeed is a Nigerian. But then we shouldn’t stretch our luck too far, or rather Jonathan should not stretch his good luck too far.

    Sparing the life of Buhari I believe was God’s way of showing His love for this country and those in charge of our affairs should appreciate this. Stoking trouble all over the place, especially in opposition controlled states, just to win control ahead of the 2015 presidential election might be to Jonathan’s advantage now, but ultimately will be of no benefit to Nigeria. It could spell doom not only for our democracy but also for our existence as a nation. The Federal Government is flexing its muscles in Osun State now, threatening to use its might to take the state from the opposition in the August 9 gubernatorial election, just like it did on June 21 in Ekiti. If it succeeds, that could just be the beginning of the end for our democracy and our country. Nigeria in the pocket of one man! That would be worse than our experience under Abacha, and Jonathan, it does appear is set for this. Who will or can stop him? I don’t know.

    But does he need to do all these to win another term in office? I don’t think so. All he needs to do I think to return in 2015 is defeat Boko Haram, fix the power problem, fix our roads, hospitals, fire the Oil minister and put her and former Aviation minister on trial to prove his credentials in the fight against corruption, #bring back our (Chibok) girls, tell First Lady Patience to stay more at home and act more like a statesman and less as a politician. If he tries these I think Nigerians could be persuaded to give him another chance.

    More important however, is to ensure peace and security; the attacks on Buhari and Bauchi have shown that nobody is safe in the country. Boko Haram could strike at anybody, any time, anywhere.

  • Buhari: Jonathan praises the Lord!

    President Goodluck Jonathan praises the Lord — and his abiding good luck — that the assassination attempt on Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, former military head of state and All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, did not succeed.

    He also praised Allah — and also his abiding good luck — that the second bomb attack on Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, the Islamic cleric targeted during the second bomb attack in Kaduna, did not also die.

    But what of Bauchi’s luckless followers and innocent Nigerians that perished in the dastardly attack?  Well, Presido would thank God for small mercies — it could have been worse, obviously!

    And what would the Commander-in-Chief have said on the Zaria bloodbath?

    There, according to news reports, Nigerian Shi’ite leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaki, lost no fewer  than three sons (two allegedly shot dead in cold blood in army detention) and another receiving treatment for gunshot wounds, besides nine others reportedly killed — not by the notorious Boko Haram, but by Nigerian Army troops on patrol?  That, thank Allah, the tally was not more than that?

    And, from the doomed Zakzaki sons, some frightful déjà vu: do you not recall that Boko Haram morphed from the ragtag militants on Okada to the fearsome terror machine of today, after rogue policemen killed, in cold blood and in police detention, its leader, Mohammed Yusuf, after soldiers had handed him over to the police?

    It is annoyingly predictable.  Each time Nigerians under his charge are mown down by malevolent forces either in terror cells or criminals in Nigerian security forces uniform, this president wrings his hands like a child lost on a vast island; and laments to his heart’s content.

    In other words, the commander-in-chief, whom God has given the rare privilege to chiefly command the security forces, to secure luckless Nigerians, has condemned himself to condemning felons his armada of forces should have checkmated before wreaking any havoc, just like another helpless observer, as millions of Nigerians indeed are, in this giant and bloody play of fatal incompetence.

    Jonathan thanks God Buhari and Bauchi didn’t fall to the assassins’ bombs. He serenaded Nigerians with what they already knew: that Nigerians would have been on fire if the pair — or even one of them — had fallen.  Seriously?  Is that what a president and commander-in-chief is made of?

    But as Presido gives thanks to God — and indeed, He is always worthy of thanks — would Allah also be thanking him for grand failure to utilise the resources, with which He has blessed our country in the armed forces, but which the C-in-C has always fallen short to put to use, to protect our people?

    But perhaps we should abandon the republican constitution and embrace a theocracy!  That way, the Jonathan presidential chambers — sorry, theocratic conclave — would have little to do with the armed forces and their gruff temper.

    Rather, he would deal more with prayer warriors, hustling God to do for them what He had already given them power to do, and spewing forth a lot of thanksgiving to warm their way into the divine heart of the Almighty!

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Nasarawa lawmakers denied protection

    Nasarawa lawmakers denied protection

    Nasarawa lawmakers’ request for military escort from Abuja to Lafia has been rejected.

    The Assembly members want to go to the state capital to mandate the Chief Judge, Justice Suleiman Dikko, to inaugurate a seven-man panel to probe the Governor Umar Tanko Al-Makura.

    The lawmakers said they were afraid of a likely mob action, following last Friday’s anti-impeachment protest.

    The military said it was not its responsibility to escort the lawmakers to Lafia since their mandate was derived from the people.

    Also yesterday, former Head of State Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and opposition governors shelved their solidarity rally for Al-Makura.

    The lawmakers were shocked that the military refused to give them soldiers.

    The Assembly members, who were still holed up in various hotels in Abuja, were contemplating holding a session in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    A highly-placed source said: “All efforts by the Assembly members to persuade the military to deploy soldiers in Lafia to assist the impeachment process have failed.

    “Yet they are being haunted by the consequences of their action since the impeachment plot is also unpopular at home.

    “Although the sponsors of the impeachment have been mounting pressure on them to go to Lafia to hold a brief session, some of the lawmakers claimed that they might be mobbed by the people.

    “Some of them complained that they have been getting threats from their constituents not to return to Lafia to continue with the impeachment process.

    Responding to a question, the source added: “The Presidency is not in support of the impeachment proceedings based on security reports that Al-Makura had tried to foster good executive-legislature relationship.

    “There were also reports citing extraneous demands as the reasons behind the lawmakers’ moves.

    “Above all, the relationship between President Goodluck Jonathan and Al-Makura has been very robust.

    “The President was also shocked that the lawmakers disrespected his office by passing impeachment motion on a day he went to commission a megabuck farm.”

    Gen. Buhari and the others shelved their rally, which was billed to hold today, at the instance of the governor, who did not want the security situation aggravated.

    Another source said: “The governor does not want any rally or visit that could be hijacked the people of the state who are angry with the lawmakers.

    “He also said he does not want to be seen as either deploying intimidation against the lawmakers or celebrating people’s revolt.

    “Instead, he said he would prefer to dialogue with the lawmakers.

    Al-Makura is said to be sending emissaries to the lawmakers.

    In spite of the olive branch from the governor, it was learnt that the lawmakers are planning to hold a session in Abuja to compel the Chief Judge to inaugurate a panel against Al-Makura.”

  • Jonathan has declared war on Nigeria, says Buhari

    Jonathan has declared war on Nigeria, says Buhari

    Allegations wild, totally unsustainable, says President

    Former Head of State Gen. Muhammadu Buhari yesterday said the nation’s democracy is endangered by the gale of impeachments in the country.

    He   warned President Goodluck Jonathan against  recourse to “induced impeachments” of opposition governors.

    He asked Jonathan to apply the brakes because decapitation of the opposition will not help the nation’s fragile democracy.

    Gen. Buhari in a statement issued yesterday, said “the dangerous clouds are beginning to gather and the vultures are circling”

    He added: “Whether or not President Goodluck Jonathan is behind the gale of impeachments or the utilisation of the desperate tactics to suffocate the opposition and turn Nigeria into a one-party state, what cannot be denied is that they are happening under his watch, and he cannot pretend not to know, since that will be akin to hiding behind one finger.

    “In my capacity as a former Head of State, rather than a politician, I have spoken to President Jonathan in private over these issues but indications are that the strategy has not yielded positive fruits.”

    Gen. Buhari, who said his warning transcended being an opposition leader, raised the alarm over what he described as “palpable uncertainty” dotting the nation’s political landscape.

    He added: “I cannot, just because I am an opposition politician, fail to do what is expected of me as a former Head of State to help rescue our nation in times of great trouble and palpable uncertainty.

    “History will not be kind to me if I sit back while things turn bad, just so that no one will accuse me of partisanship.

    “Yes, I am a politician. Yes, I am in the opposition. Yes, there is the tendency for my statement to be misconstrued as that of a politician rather than a statesman. But I owe it as a matter of duty and honour, and in the interest of our nation, to speak out on the dangerous trajectory that our nation is heading.

    “I can say, in all sincerity, that I have seen it all, as an ordinary citizen, a military officer, a state governor, a Minister, a Head of State, a man who has occupied many sensitive posts and a politician. I have been a close participant and witness to Nigeria’s political history since independence in 1960.

    “Our country has gone through several rough patches, but never before have I seen a Nigerian President declare war on his own country as we are seeing now.

    “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 utilise the commonwealth 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.”

    Gen. Buhari said the way and manner the people of Nasarawa State defied military tanks to protest against the plot to impeach Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura signposted ominous clouds for democracy.

    He added: “The dangerous clouds are beginning to gather and the vultures are circling, and these have manifested in Nasarawa where the ordinary people have defied guns and tanks to protest the plan to impeach Governor Umar Tanko Al-Makura in a repeat of the bitter medicine forced down the throat of Governor Murtala Nyako.

    “The people’s protest in Nasarawa is a sign of what to come if the Federal authorities continue to target opposition state governors for impeachment.

    “In the long run, the impeachment weapon will be blunted. Positions will become more hardened on both sides and Nigeria and Nigerians will become the victims of arrested governance and possible anarchy.”

    Gen. Buhari reminded Jonathan that no democracy can survive without a virile opposition.

    He said: “I, along with many other patriotic Nigerians, fought for the unity and survival of this country. Hundreds of patriotic souls perished in the battle to keep Nigeria one. The blood of many of our compatriots helped to ensure the birth of the democracy we are practising today.

    “Let no one, whether the leader or the led, the high or the low, a member of the ruling or the opposition do anything to torpedo the system.

    “Let no one, whether on the altar of personal ambition or pretension to higher patriotic tendencies, do anything that can detonate the keg of gunpowder on which the nation is sitting.

    “It is time for all concerned to spare a thought for the ordinary citizens who have yet to see their hopes, dreams, and aspirations come to reality within the general context of nationhood.”

  • Fix education to stop insurgency, APC tells Jonathan

    Fix education to stop insurgency, APC tells Jonathan

    Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) spoke yesterday at the second Progressive Governance Lecture Series in Kano on the need to use education to end insurgency.

    They identified lack of an effective education policy as the cause of poverty, insecurity and political unrest in the country.

    Party leaders at the event included APC National Leader, General Muhammadu Bbuhari; former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar; former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir El-Rufai; former Kwara State governor, Senator Bukola Saraki; Senator Abdullahi Adamu, Senator Aisha Alhasan, Senate Minority Leader George Akume, Senator Mohammed Bingo, Senator Ibrahim Kabiru Gaya, Governors Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), Aliyu Wammako (Sokoto), Senator Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara),  Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara), Ibrahim Gaidam (Yobe), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), former House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Masari.

    Gen. Buhari, a former Head of State, urged the Federal Government to provide free and qualitative education for Nigerians.

    He said such a step would reduce insecurity in the land, adding that the nation’s security challenges might worsen, if the Federal Government fails to fix the Education sector.

    Buhari said: “Until the falling standard of education in Nigeria is fixed to engage out-of-school children, the incessant attacks on innocent Nigerians, particularly in the Northeast, may get worse.”

    The former Head of State called for increased budget to education to raise its standard in line with global best practices.

    He said: “When we came to government in the 1980s, we called for education review, led by Prof. Babs Fafunwa, to review all the recommendations on education and identify critical points for immediate implementation. We must draw a clear-cut road map on our education to achieve the desired success.”

    Gen. Buhari, who regretted that no solution was sight to rescue the abducted Chibok schoolgirls, called for concerted efforts to return them to their parents.

     

  • Buhari urges Nigerians to rise against sect

    Buhari urges Nigerians to rise against sect

    A former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday said Boko Haram will fail in its war mission.

    He urged Nigerians to rise against the sect and prevent terrible acts from diverting their attention.

    He, however, asked President Goodluck Jonathan to redefine the country’s security strategy – in line with the insurgency challenges facing it.

    He also recommended a drastic improvement in intelligence gathering to address the problems at hand.

    But he insisted that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has no link with Boko Haram insurgency.

    He said although the APC might engage in tight political competition against the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it shall not play politics with security, which is vital to national survival

    Gen. Buhari, who made his position known in a statement, called for “immediate and long-term strategies for mass employment” to dissuade the youth from joining sects.

    The statement was against the backdrop of the killing of 75 in last Monday’s bomb blast in Nyanya, near Abuja and the abduction of 234 students of the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State.

    He said Nigeria needs peace and not bomb as being promoted by Boko Haram and other merchants of death.

    He said: “We may have our differences, but the vast majority of Nigerians stand united against the appalling violence committed in Nyanya and other places.

    “We seek an improved fate for our children and hope to leave them a better life. We want to work and live in dignity and respect.

    “We want a life of peace and harmony with our neighbors, regardless of religion, ethnicity or background. We seek prosperity not poverty. We seek brotherly understanding not strife. We seek peace, not bombs.

    “These acts have no place in Nigeria. Those who commit them have no place in our country. The perpetrators may look like human beings. They may have limbs and faces like the rest of us but they are not like us. In killing innocent people, they have become inhuman. They live outside the scope of humanity. Their mother is carnage and their father is cruelty.

    “They have declared war against the people of Nigeria. They have shown that they do not want to liberate the people. They want to kill them. Yet, with all the energy of their evil and ignorant hatred, they shall fail. The good people of Nigeria shall triumph.

    Such a wicked mission shall not succeed.”

    The ex-Head of State pleaded with Nigerians not to allow insurgents to cause disunity nationwide.

    He said: “We have gone too far in our journey to nationhood and endured too much to allow these terrible acts to divert us.

    “Not only have these agents of death killed innocent people, they also abducted over 100 young women from their school. Why abduct school girls? Whatever they plan, they should be ready to face the wrath of Nigerian people. They should release these young girls unharmed. Anything else would be an abominable crime.

    “We all must take close heed at this moment and recognise the severity of what is upon us. A small minority seeks to bring the nation to its knees through terror.

    “Thus, we must stand tall and united. We can ill afford to allow their crimes to go unpunished.

    On Nyanya blast, Gen. Buhari said: “Those who committed this act have declared war on all that is decent and good.

    “They have declared war not against the state or even the government. They have declared war on Nigeria and all Nigerians because this murder took men and women, old and young, Christian and Muslim alike. In trying to scare, frighten and divide us, the evildoers committed injury to their own cause. For they have shown us that we all suffer inhumanity in the same way.

    “No matter our religion or place of birth, we all bleed and are wounded the same way by injustice. Decency runs through the teachings of each religion and ethnic group that comprise the people of Nigeria.

    The former Head of State had a word for the Goodluck Jonathan administration: it should redefine its security strategy.

    Drawing from his experience, he specifically recommended improvement in intelligence gathering.

    His words: “I call on the government to improve and redefine its strategy in the light of this expanding menace. Clearly, its intelligence gathering needs to be improved so that it can break terrorist plots before they hatch.

    “Moreover, it needs to enact greater social and economic reform in the blighted areas of the nation to win the hearts and minds of the people. Give the youth a viable alternative and they will not be duped by the lure of extremist dogma. A major initiative with immediate and long-term strategies for mass employment should be introduced right away.

    “Nigeria must and will overcome this scourge but it cannot do so merely by wishful thinking. We need wise and decisive strategy.”

    Buhari reiterated that the APC has no link with Boko Haram insurgency.

    He said irrespective of APC’s political competition with the ruling PDP, the party would not play politics with national security. He said: “As for me and my party, we deplore and condemn these and all such attacks. Those who commit them must know that the nation stands four squares against them.

    “While we are engaged in tight political competition against the ruling party, we shall not play politics on this issue so vital to our national survival and wellbeing.

    “We pledge ourselves to the unity and safety of this nation and shall do nothing to undermine national security. We seek no political advantage from this calamity and wish the present administration success in fighting it.

    “We stand ready to help in any meaningful and productive way to fight this battle against evil. We extend our hand and earnest offer of cooperation in this regard. Nigeria and Nigerians have suffered enough.

    “Those who now lead the nation and those who would lead her must overlook political differences to find whatever ways we can cooperate to make this a safer, more secure nation for all.”

  • Buhari denies link with Boko Haram, may go to court

    Buhari denies link with Boko Haram, may go to court

    A former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has denied either sponsoring or backing Boko Haram as alleged by the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP).

    He said the PDP is playing politics with Boko Haram insurgency to cover up for the deluge of public perceptions against the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    But there were indications last night that Buhari might go to court to clear his name if the PDP does not withdraw its allegation.

    Buhari, who made the clarifications through his spokesman, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, likened the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh to Joseph Goebbels in the last days of Adolf Hitler’s regime.

    He said: “For clarity, Gen. Buhari has never supported or sponsored insurgency. He has no link with Boko Haram; he cannot do any of such things, he would never be involved in insurgency. They are just afraid of this man at the poll

    “In all his years, in the service of Nigeria, he has always shown total patriotism for the state. It is total arrant nonsense. It is a ploy by PDP to cover up the deluge of negative perceptions against the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan because the general elections are around the corner. Unlike 2011, they know they have a mountain to climb to convince Nigerians to vote for them.

    “PDP has found it convenient to play on the very thin line of religion and ethnicity to remain in power but Nigerians are wiser.

    “General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB) has proven his mettle as a patriotic Nigerian leader whose passion for the virility of the Nigerian Nation is untrammeled.

    “He is still the reference point in transparent, honest and compassionate leadership. This, obviously, contrasts the present leadership that constantly evinces larcenous disposition in its governance of the nation. Indeed, Nigerians are asking: where is the $20 Billion that NNPC has not remitted to the Federation account?”

    Responding to a question, Fashakin, who was a former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) added: “Gen. Buhari might go to court; he has had enough of this nonsense from PDP and the likes of Metuh.”

    A follow-up statement condemned the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh for showing desperation with fabricated lies to gain political advantage.

    The statement added: “Metuh is showing as much desperation as Joseph Goebbels in the last days of the Hitler regime.

    “It is sad that Mr. Metuh decided to deal in despicable fabrications with a view to gaining political advantage through iniquitous revisionism.

    “The former NSA, late Gen Andrew Azazi, was unequivocal in his assertion that the power play in the PDP was the raison d’etre of the Boko Haram insurgency. Apparently, the discomfort caused within the PDP hierarchy was the reason for his sack.

    “Furthermore, we knew of the confessional statement to the SSS by one of the PDP stalwarts that the contact with Boko Haram was with the imprimatur of the VP Namadi Sambo!

    “It is well understood that after the ruinous Jonathan regime had impoverished the teeming population of Nigerians through its deliberate policy of leadership-centred corruption, there will obviously be a desire to attempt to deflect the pressure put on it by Nigerians.”

    The statement asked the PDP and Jonathan administration to address exploitation of jobless youths instead of clinging to any excuse for not providing employment.

    It said: “An exploitative and iniquitous regime that specializes in exploiting poor Nigerian youth on the pretence of providing elusive job placements.”

    “This is a regime that has shown culpability in the needless deaths of vulnerable Nigerians through the callous lusting for greedy gains by the key honchos of the PDP party, as seen in the botched immigration job recruitment earlier in the month of March.

    “This is a regime that is now so desperate as to employ the services of an Olisa Metuh who, without scruples, evinces infernal asininity with his press statements.”

  • No surprise Nigeria stagnated for decades

    No surprise Nigeria stagnated for decades

    Much more than the mileage the Jonathan presidency hoped to achieve with the emblazoning photograph of past Nigerian rulers wearing their medals and displaying their centennial award certificates late last month, the picture actually tells a far more poignant and iconic story. There were seven of them: Abdulsalami Abubakar, Muhammadu Buhari, Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo, Shehu Shagari, Ibrahim Babangida and Ernest Shonekan. Smack in the middle was, of course, President Goodluck Jonathan himself. Given his predilection for sham celebrations, it is surprising he did not seize upon the same argument of the centenary to award himself a certificate of honour. In any case, Dr Jonathan was the only one in the pictures published on March 1 newspapers not brandishing a certificate. Others dutifully wore their medals and/or displayed their certificates, thereby indicating their concurrence with the queer and questionable philosophy behind the centenary as well as the disgraceful rational for picking the honourees.

    The photograph, though powerful and resonating, nevertheless tells the very depressing story of futile uniformity and lack of rigour. It tells the story of former rulers whose unquestioning perspective and fondness for the meretricious led them to embrace a project as wasteful as it is truly and totally mendacious. None of the seven questioned the ideological basis for the centenary, nor joined issues with the financially oblique accounting system that made the celebrations possible. None of them was politically conscious enough to appreciate the centenary’s distortionary effects on our history and identities. There was none of them with enough sagacity to disprove the base and conflicting logic that underlined the compilation of the list of honourees, thus indicating that the former rulers were insensitive to their own individual legacies and unable to disambiguate legacy as a word and concept.

    The group photograph of former rulers should illustrate the power and glory of Nigeria, of our best men and leaders, of the rich custodians of our politics, culture and essence. Instead, the group photograph illustrated something so surrealistic it is a miracle the country has not collapsed under the weight of their collective obscurantism. They had no idea what our history says, of how we were humiliated and traumatised with a lasting injury by colonialism, of how Lugard’s foundational rule and years of self-misrule combined to misshape our values and enthrone a vicious form of mental and economic slavery. It was therefore okay by them to celebrate, and to carry out that sickening exercise in company with one another, the liar with the perjurer, the tyrant with the murderer, the inept with the experimentalist.

    The photograph inferentially tells the numbing story of how and why the country decayed so badly for decades, and by their admission, now needs revolutionary work to salvage, if indeed, as one of them said, it can still be salvaged. If they could not question Dr Jonathan’s frivolity and rebuff it, if they did not understand the history of the country they led for decades, and if they were unable to share its pains and sorrows, how indeed could they fashion brilliant and workable plans for its development and greatness? How could they make it the pride of the black race? To participate in Dr Jonathan’s revelry, they must have gone to extraordinary lengths to muffle their consciences, and to shut the tap of remorse which a clear mind and ample soul sometimes lead a decent man and patriot to demonstrate.

    The photograph of the eight men reminds us how our country was ruined. Gowon dishonoured his word and rendered it impotent; Shagari’s stolidity and indulgence clogged the national arteries until we choked; Buhari had little or no appreciation of the rights and freedoms of man, and how man is ennobled by these attributes; Babangida was the inappropriate watershed between the age of innocence and the age of vice, as he gave birth to the worst in us; and Shonekan was the bemused and amoral inheritor of a stolen legacy. Abubakar’s misguided and messianic reign produced the highly schizoid Obasanjo who had, and still has, no capacity for differentiating between truth and falsehood. And Obasanjo archetypically begat meddlesomeness in such a manner that the country’s ruin was complete under his predecessors.

    Yes, it was just one simple photograph published in newspapers. But, alas, it told a million sad stories, unknown to the former rulers who lined up quizzically for the photograph on February 28, and perhaps unfeeling.