Aruviere Martin Egharhevwa: The Buhari I Know In 1975, when a group of Colonels of the Nigerian Army namely, Col. Muhammadu Buhari, Col Abdullahi Mohammed (then Director DMI), Col Joseph Nanven Garba, Col Shehu Musa YarAdua & Col Ibrahim Taiwo conspired to overthrow General Yakubu Gowon after which they transfered power to General Murtala Muhammed as Head of State. Then again in 1983, barely months after President Shehu Shagari was re-elected as President of Nigeria for a second term, General Buhari, then GOC, 3rd Armoured Division, struck with his military boys again. Barely two years in his military government, the boys with whom he struck out President Shagari in 1983, struck him out. Since then, he kept quiet. He knew what the boys would do to him if he opened his mouth. In 1984, General Buhari, in a campaign to brutally repress the press, promulgated Decree No.4. On July 4, 1984, the Guardian Newspaper and two of its journalists Tunde Thompson, then Senior Diplomatic Correspondent and Nduka Irabor, who was Assistant News Editor, became the first victims of this very obnoxious decree. The two journalists were eventually jailed for one year without an option of fine! Guardian Newspapers was fined Fifty Thousand Naira (N50,000.00) What was their crime? They had published in The Guardian of April 1 & 8, 1984 stories with the headlines “Eight Military Chiefs Tipped as Ambassadors” and “Haruna to Replace Hannaniya” General Buhari (rtd) did not stop there in his drive to crush free speech and free press. He began to allocate import license for the importation of newsprint to Newspaper organizations. Media houses that were critical of his government were denied import license while some other newspaper houses had their newsprint seized and shared by the Federal Government owned newspaper houses. Today, this same despot and dictator enjoys the beauty of free speech and even has the effrontery to call for a revolution in a democracy which he once fought hard to kill. On October 17, 1986, Dele Giwa, editor-in-chief of Newswatch Magazine was summoned to the offices of the Ismaila Gwarzo led State Security (SSS) in Lagos where Colonel A.K. Togun accused him of planning a social revolution and of smuggling arms into the country. On October 19, 1986, two days later, Dele Giwa was killed by a parcel bomb which was delivered to his front door. General Buhari (rtd) went hungry for a long time. He went so hungry that he jumped up to Abacha when Abacha dangled a survival carrot. He agreed to serve under a despot & dictator General Sani Abacha in whose watch Shehu Musa Yar Adua was murdered and in whose watch, one of Nigerias most legendary politician, businessman and businessman MKO Abiola was thrown into jail. He died in that jail. Now Sani Abacha instructed General Buhari to make sure that 20% of PTF proceeds should be channelled to the military. Buhari did not ask questions. General Buhari served as PTF boss under the worst leader that the Black Africa has ever produced. It took the Almighty God to take that leader down. In that time, General Buhari kept quiet. He could not even dare talk about a revolution. He knew he had to survive. The same way he tossed others like Fela Anikulapo Kuti and the many others who his press decree hunted and hounded. While Buhari pretending to be busy at work at PTF, Kudirat Abiola, Pa Rewane, Alex Ibru and many others were gunned down in cold blood, Buhari kept quiet. Now that we are working hard and across the clock to re-build a democracy which would have been far more matured by now if General Buhari and his leeches had not truncated the democratically elected government of President Shehu Shagari, this former dictator-general wants to foment trouble and set us back. We will not allow him again!
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 07:06:48 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015