Opinion

Muhammadu Buhari,facts you must not take to the grave

It is an enforceable directive that we should not speak ill of the dead. Permit me dear reader to violate the standing order of seeing nothing, saying nothing and hearing nothing of the death, let alone creating a forum to connect and converse on their short falls. Permit me to differ.

May l be excused on the altar of balanced reportage to essay out the very narratives of ex.-President Muhammadu Buhari both as a military and a civilian man.

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The other side of ex- President Muhammadu Buhari in the light of being a military man – coded : “The crime of Buhari.” Public offence, crimes against a polity must be answered dead or alive in the public space as against the caucus of bargaining.

He was one individual who remained convinced that the Nigerian nation couldn’t be called to order as a military man. Buhari was one of the generals who treated a Commission of Enquiry, the late Justice Chukwudifu Oputa’s panel with unconcealed disdain. Like IBB and Abdusalami, he refused to put up appearance even though complaints that were tabled Against him involved a career of gross abuses of power and the blatant assault on the fundamental human rights of the Nigeria citizenry. IBB and Abdusalami, take note.

Prominent against these charges was an act that amounted to nothing less than judicial murder, the execution of a citizen under a retroactive decree. Does Decree 20 ring a bell in the attentive zone of your mind? If not, then, perhaps the names of three youths – Lawal Ojulape ( 30), Bernard Ogedengbe ( 29) and Bartholomew Owoh ( 26) do. Need l remind us plainly that one of those three, Ogedengbe, was executed for a crime that never carried forfeit at the time it was committed. That was an unconscionable crime carried out in defiance of the pleas and protests of nearly every sector of the Nigerian and international community, religious, civil rights, political and trade unions etc. by Buhari.

Buhari and his sidekick and his partner -in -crime Tunde ldiaghon persisted in this inhuman act for one reason only – the act of placing us on notice that they were then under an iron, inflexible rule, under governance by fear. The execution of that useful innocent was nothing short of premeditated murder , for which the perpetrators should have stood trial upon their loss of immunity Most of all, our sensibilities became blunted by succeeding seasons of cruelty and brutality. Yet there was no remorse as an expression to a wronged society. A revaluation should have engendered reticence, silence. We rather met opposite in that of Buhari. Human live is inviolable. Yet another crime of Buhari.

Enter the crime of most profound negation of civic being. He Sledgehammered the freedom of expression in general terms. He forbade all public discussions of a return to civilian, democratic rule. He was a Pharoah.
Here, l cannot fail to applaud and salute the gentlemen of the press, the battle scarred professionals who refused to be completely knuckle down. With the resort to cartoons and oblique, elliptical references that sustained people’s campaign for a time table to democratic rule. Buhari enslaved the nation. He dealt with the late Tai Solarin who stood at street corners and distributed leaflets that took up the gauntlet where the media had dropped it. Buhari detained him and denied him even medication for his asthmatic condition

What of Buhari’s coming to power and his pattern of corrective rule? In 1983 the NPN under the watch of Alhaji Aliyu Usman Shehu Shagari ran out of the steam of governance and his became a regime of profligacy and rabid fascism. Responsibility laid on Shagari. Yet after Buhari’s coup, he kept Shagari in a cosy house detention in lkoyi Lagos while his powerless deputy Alex Ekwueme was locked up in Kiri- Kiri prison. Imagine his sense of equitable apportionment of guilt and responsibility. Buhari hated the lgbo with passion, even at the hour of his death in London. What of the cascade of escapes of the wanted and culpable politicians of 1983 coup, led by Buhari? Manhunts came into effect across the length and breadth with roadblocks everywhere and borders tight as steel zip locks. Yet, lo and behold, many of the wanted strolled out coolly across the borders with equal easy and reappeared in safety overseas. He was of selectlve negligence.

Guilty by association? Shall l remind this nation of Buhari’s deliberate humiliating treatment of the Emir of Kano and the Oni of lfe over their visit to the state of lsrael? They went on their private steam and business. But because Buhari regime was pursuing some antagonistic foreign policy towards lsrael, which the traditional rulers were not part of, yet on their return he subjected the duo to a treatment that could only be described as a head masterly treatment of errant pupils. A free citizen of Nigeria does not require the permission of the president to visit any country. It never occurred to Buhari to that effect.

Most Nigerians loved and pointed to Buharis agenda of discipline as the shinning jewel in his sharp iron crown. I obtained mixed – feelings. To inculcate discipline, a leader must lead by example, obeying laws set down as guides to public probity. Example speaks better and louder than declarations and rulers cannot exempt from the disciplinary structures imposed on overall polity, especially on any issue that seeks to establish a policy for public well – being. The story of closed to fifty suitcases for the exercise of a changeover of the national currency in 1983 not the recent one with the Nigerian borders air, sea and land shut and with Buhari fingered remained a jigsaw puzzle even now he has bowed out of the stream of mortals. With the routes shut, nothing was supposed to move in or out, not even cattle egrets. Yet a prominent cattle was allowed through that needless eye of a needle.

Not only did Buhari dispatch his aide -de- camp, Jokolo later to become an emir – to facilitate the entry of those suitcases, he ordered the redeployment of the very custom officer who stood firmly against the entry of the contravening baggage. Bihari, the ‘Mai Gaskia,” indeed. Translated, “a man of truth?”. Can you see the wood for the tree? Blessed are those whose iniquities are seemingly covered, for they shall walk on air. That officer the then incumbent Vice – president latter became a rival candidate to Buhari. Though with a contradictory reputation as at that time. Locate and mark it as one of the foibles or human nature.
Truth that must be told shall not forgive it’s silence. But wherever the truth lies, it never rebounded to the credibility of Buhari the dictator, whose words were laws but whose allegiances were clearly negotiable.

On the theme of double, triple and multiple standards in the enforcement of the law, and indeed of the decrees passed by the Buhari regime at that time, Shall we recall the notorious case of Triple Alhaji Alhaji Alhaji, then Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance. He was caught with his paints literally down in distance Australia. That was not the crime however, and private conduct should always remain to the private censure. There was no decree against any civil servants proving just as hormone driven as anyone else, especially outside the country’s borders.

Alhaji Alhaji Alhaji in the foreign escapade of Australia had no business being in possession of the large amount of foreign currency of which he was robbed by his overnight companion. The media screamed for even application of law based on a clear decree against the keeping of foreign accounts. When the news stormed Public domain, Buhari turned suddenly deaf, as if he had wax on both ears and became hard of hearing. By contrast, Fela Anikulapo Ransom Kuti languished in goal for years, sentenced under that very draconia decree. His crime? He was in possession of foreign exchange that he had legitimately received for the immediate upkeep of his band as they set off for an international engagement. A vicious sentence was slapped down on Fela by a judge who later became remorse stricken at least after Buhari’s overthrow that he went to the king of Afro – beat and apologized.

Lesser known was the traumatic experience of the director of an international communication agency, an affiliate of UNESCO, Akin Fatoyinbo. He suffered the same fate with Fela in complete ignorance of the new currency decree. He was thrown in goal in especially brutal condition, an experience from which he never fully recovered. It took several months of high – level intervention before that innocent man was eventually freed. These were not exceptional but mere sample cases from among hundreds of others, victims of Buhari decree that was selectively applied, a decree that routinely penalized innocents and ruined the careers an businesses of many.

What else? What does one choose to include or leave out? What precisely was Ebenezer Babatope’s crime that he should have spent the entire tenure of General Buhari in detention? Add that of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu of Southeast extraction of Biafra in quest of self determination. He had no milk of human kindness. When God hovered on the face of the earth and distributed the grains of love and affection, he was absent. Ebenezer Babatope was in detention when his father died. Upon the litany of plea that he should be released to attend his father’s funeral, even under guide and guard, Buhari pointedly and pointlessly remained insensitive. Same with Mazi Nnamdi Kanu that buried both parents the same day. Buhari was a wicked man. No prevarications.

So little to demand by a man who was never accused of, nor tried for any crime, much less found guilty. Such a load of vindictiveness that had smothered all traces of basic human compassion deserved no further comment in a nation that values its customs and traditions.

Yet Aisha did say at the verge of Buhari giving up. his spirit he pleaded for Nigerian’s forgiveness. Yep, confession is good for the soul and forgiveness purifies the heart. But, come off it. Which Aisha, that of Buhari or Halilu? Allegedly, a renowned Journalist Kpereogi of USA based but of Nigeria extraction posited that Aisha and Buhari had parted ways for some time now through official divorce and that Aisha had reverted to her maiden name – Halilu and now puts up in Dubai. In the light of the above, could Buhari had confided such remorsefulness on her? Time will tell.

If it were to be true, I doubt whether those he mercilessly death with could forgive him in the very moment for he went beyond the permissible limits in cutting pounds of flesh with pulsating blood. He was addressed as “Mai Gaskia”. Yet he got Tunde Thompson and Nduka lrabor, then renowned Journalists of GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER incarcerated, both of whom faithful to their journalistic calling, published nothing but the truth. True to his words, immediately on grabbing power, he swore to tamper with the freedom of the press and he did.

More messages!!! Buhari was a bigot, a mysterious man and of sublime chameleon in many ways. He was a military leader and a civilian bureaucrat. A czar of corruption and due process. He showcased an aura of both cheering and chastening. He generated money only through printing and borrowing mainly from China and gave us a debt of over N30 trillion in Ways and Means and several billions of dollars. Our finance under his watch was in chaos and crafted the nation’s morale at the nadir. During his electioneering campaigns in Ogun and lmo States, he asked the electorate to vote for him but vote their conscience on the governorship and others – selfishness defined.

He never wanted to vault President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to Aso Villa as his successor. It was behind former senate President Ahmed Lawal he put his weight
as a successor. That was why he ran an election period economy with currency and fuel scarcity as to undermine APC candidature. He messed up and choreographed his voter’s card as a mark of party loyalty and brandished it during voting. A misconduct
His war against discipline in retrospect was discipline without imagination or conscience.

For full eight years during his tenure, the bandits swaggered in the bushes and high ways, fattened and nurtured the monsters in their souls. He saved the bandits and they blossomed on the blood and treasure of the society. His decrees two and four hammered Nigerians out of their comfort zones. We hailed the end of democracy, by implication. An irony. He came with an air of pious devotion but never delivered. We thank him for nothing, again and again. He was a charisma of suggestion without performance. But an extravagance of apparent austerity.

He did less for man than cattle. He craftily was the Head of herders without herding. He was a testament to the futility of the crowd as a picture of wisdom. What a paradox of realism, even in death, his foes have nothing but admiration, bordering on curious affection.

Talking about his other side,he will go down in history of Nigeria as a leader who served both in military uniform and civilian mufti, greeted with contradictory judgments. We shall also recall his giant strides in some infrastructure, particularly the rail sector. Was his nickname “Mai Gaskiya,” a lesson in leadership??? The choice is yours. He died at 82. Fare thee well.

Written by Iyke Ibeh,Owerri.

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