Why
We Are Scared of Buhari
By Babayola Muhammadu Toungo workaids@alpha.linkserve.com
General Muhammadu Buhari
(Rtd) is a man who easily evokes very strong passions
in people across the board. Different people hold
extreme emotions either in support or against the
Daura born General since 1985 when his administration
was toppled, in an act of betrayal, by his then colleague
and Chief of Army Staff, Major General Ibrahim Babangida
(as he then was). That was when IBB, in order to justify
his take-over, opened cells and other detention centres
to the welcoming camera lens of journalists, hitherto
tethered by the then administration’s Decree 4. His
erstwhile colleague with the active, even gleeful,
support of the media, then demonised General Buhari.
In all, Buhari’s government
lasted only twenty months. Within this period his
government set up Public Property Recovery Tribunals
to try politicians. Those found guilty by the Tribunals
were jailed. Those found not wanting were sent home
free like Muhammadu Goni of Borno State. Fundamentally,
Buhari made the fight against indiscipline and corruption
the fulcrum of his administration. As to Journalists,
speculative journalism, which abounds today, was discouraged.
Two reporters of The Guardian Newspapers fell victims
of Decree 4 (Public Officers Protection Decree) and
were subsequently jailed. Their paper was spared.
It was at least a better fate than what happened to
The Newbreed under General Obasanjo when he was Head
of State or the Concord stable under IBB when thousands
of workers were sent home as a result of closure.
Many people were not
happy with his uncompromising style of governance
that recognised no sacred cows. Therefore many people
were just waiting for an opportunity to get back at
the General for what they perceived as his high handedness
in dealing with their recklessness. General Buhari
has never been known to talk to the press spuriously.
He has never courted them; as a matter of fact, he
goes out of his way to avoid them. Now he has joined
politics. Now they have their chance to rubbish the
great man’s name and image. But if the truth must
be told, we are just scared to look at the General
and contrast his serenity with our chaotic existence;
in his image we see our collective failures. His integrity
and uprightness stand in total contrast to our avarice.
His sense of altruism cannot stand side by side with
our selfishness. The General has always been an advocate
of the “ought” to. We are scared of the General because
he represents what we ought to be but choose not to
be.
His recent registration
with the opposition All Peoples Party (APP) has given
us the ammunition to shoot down the man’s unassailable
integrity, or so we think. The fireworks have started.
Now we are reminded of his human rights records during
his watching brief in Dodan Barracks. We are told
he is a religious bigot and a stooge of the “Northern
Oligarchy” (this last methinks is a contradiction
of sorts if you remember he is accused by the same
gang of being strong headed and arrogant). By and
large the accusations are vague and spurious.
On assumption of office,
the General rounded up all political actors of the
second republic and locked them up with the presumption
of guilt until proved otherwise. The Nigerian press
prepared the grounds for the take-over and our minds
as to the culpability of all politicians in the collective
looting of the country’s treasury; the flagrant display
of wealth in the midst of excruciating poverty. Buhari
and his then Supreme Military Council (SMC) heeded
these calls and treated all politicians as criminals.
Today history is repeating itself as Obasanjo has
under detention since 1999 of Bamaiyi and others,
who are also adjudged guilty before trial. The press
that are condemning Buhari are silent on this one.
But our fear is more reflected in how we are responding
to the man’s entry into party politics. The first
to fire the salvo was the Vice President, Atiku Abubakar,
who said Buhari is no ‘democrat’. He was replied in
Kano by the ‘man’ on the street with stones, sticks
and water sachets. We expected Atiku to tell us Obasanjo’s
democratic credentials. Then the chorus singers took
over. Iro Dan Musa, Lawal Kaita and sundry others
came out smoking all guns, firing from the hip against
Buhari for daring to contest against Messiah Obasanjo.
Then hired hands like Tunji Bello of ThisDay, whose
antecedents we all know as an unrepentant Egba (not
even Yoruba) irredentist from his days at the Concord
Newspaper, took the trail of those blasting General
Buhari. Nobody as yet has come up with anything against
his track record in public service.
General Buhari is the
only Nigerian, dead or alive that was at one time
or the other a military governor, a Minister of Petroleum
Resources and Chairman NNPC, a Head of State and finally
Executive Chairman of the omnibus PTF. Yet he manages
to remain unscathed by the corruption bug that is
now ravaging the land in proportions yet unheard of.
Nobody as yet has questioned his integrity, honesty
or uprightness. Innuendos and half-truths are all
that we are daily fed about the General. When he was
called to appear before the Oputa show and he refused
to turn up, a lot was made out of it, yet nobody bothered
to find out from him why he refused to appear. Twenty
two years ago, a certain General Olusegun Obasanjo
(rtd), an ex-Head of State thumbed his nose at The
Irikefe Tribunal of Inquiry into the missing N2.8billion
from the coffers of the NNPC, nobody made an issue
out of it because of a section in the 1979 that gave
him immunity from prosecution for ‘atrocities’ committed
while in office. A clause in the Evidence Act also
excused him personally from making an appearance so
long as counsel can ably represent him. I believe
this may not be Buhari’s excuse for not appearing
before Oputa – but as you can see he must be roped
in no matter how.
But way back some people
have raised the issue of Obasanjo’s role in the ‘judicial
murder’ of Col Abdu Waya in 1976; the Panel was also
silent on the petition by Beko Ransom Kuti on the
murder of their mother and the destruction of the
Kalakuta Republic; so also on the detention centre
on one obscure Island off Lagos in 1977; all these
when Obasanjo was the Head of State. Obasanjo, who
appeared in a choreographed performance and failed
woefully, was not mentioned but Buhari must be dragged
to the bottom of the cesspool to join the rest of
them. He must therefore apologise to the families
of convicted drug pushers; duly convicted by a tribunal
properly constituted under the then existing laws
of the land and whose judgement was confirmed by a
Supreme Military Council. But come to think of it,
I believe going by this logic, all past Presidents/Heads
of State should also apologise to the various families
of coup plotters, armed robbers and such other persons
that lost those near and dear to them. But what beats
my imagination is the repetitive tendency of Mohammed
Haruna in attacking Buhari. What is Haruna afraid
of? Anyway, I am too small a fry to join issues with
Haruna, whom I thought was a statesman of the Press,
but I will simply advice him to really, really search
his conscience to see if he has anything to cause
him jitters in the event Buhari becomes President.
The more his protestations
that IBB is not his patron, the more he comes across
as an ‘IBB boy’. Anyway, I know IBB bought some New
Nigerian property, built with public money, demolished
same, and built another one for the ‘high class’.
I don’t know when he bought it and I am certainly
not insinuating he bought them during Haruna’s tenure
as Managing Director. If Haruna had truly sheathed
his sword with the ‘Buhari boys’, as he called them,
I see no reason why he should take on Iyawa in a piece
that lacks coherence. You begin to wonder whose case
was he making. In the end he appeared to have vindicated
both Tilde and Iyawa.
He can at least advice
his friend Jokolo to behave royally by keeping mute.
As to Emir Jokolo, all I can say is that royalty can
do without his royal gaffes, which tend to denigrate
the Gwandu stool than serve his personal interests
and the interests of his masters. We are scared of
the man because he is himself and doesn’t suffer fools;
we are scared of him because he will put a stop to
the drift the country is going through; there won’t
be anymore unearned cash flying around like confetti
or as if money is soon going out of fashion. There
certainly will be sanity and sense of purpose. Given
the opportunity again to rule this country, I know
governance will regain its lost lustre and Nigerians
will find their lost sense of belonging.
