Buhari’s blatant sectarianism has not gone unnoticed. Ayo Oritsejafor, president of the PFN (Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria) was so incensed by Buhari’s defense of the Boko Haram insurgency that he asked that Buhari should be arrested. Oritsejafor said: “This can only mean that the retired General is a fanatic. He is, therefore, the prime leader of this religious and blood-thirsty sect called Boko Haram, a movement that is based on a warped interpretation of a strict adherence to force people of other religions into Islam. This is why I call for the arrest of Buhari now. Buhari is a big security risk to Nigeria’s corporate existence.” Truly progressive Northerners also sought to distance themselves from Buhari’s sectarianism. Jibril Mamman Vatsa, spokesman of the Arewa Youths Forum, said: “Buhari does not speak for all Northern leaders. His statements on Boko Haram exist as part of a continuum of Northern leaders’ responses to the problem, which have ranged from proposing dialogue to condemning the FG’s approach to, if some allegations are to be believed, actively supporting the movement. If the Boko Haram members are becoming more daring by the day, it is because of the support given to them by some highly placed persons.” Refurbished image However, now that Buhari is gunning again for the presidency and seeking votes from a national constituency, the need has now arisen for him to tamp down his pro Boko Haram rhetoric. Therefore, in an about turn, he is now pretending to be a big critic of the Boko Haram. He says: “These people, whose actions are not sanctioned by any religion and who subscribe to no known values, will not succeed. Our people are resilient and strong, and our nation is capable, based on our rich human and material resources, of successfully tackling these nihilists. We will together see the end of them and their reign of terror.” Buhari’s new stance should not be believed. A chameleon can only change its colour; it cannot change its shape. Buhari would now like us to see him as the Messiah who would bring the Boko Haram insurgency, which he said was a Southern ruse, under control. To do this successfully, Buhari needed to be refurbished as an enemy of the Boko Haram. Into this new playbook came the alleged attack on his life by the insurgents. APC supporters should forgive me for being totally cynical about this. The so-called attack on Buhari’s life benefits no one but Buhari himself because it fits into his new script of trying to distance himself from the Boko Haram. Buhari does not normally go around in a bullet-proof car. But quite conveniently, when he was attacked, he had borrowed one especially on that occasion. His car was not bombed but sprayed with bullets. Some people died from the attendant bomb blast, but not a single one of Buhari’s aides died. In any case, the Boko Haram never declared they were the ones after Buhari. APC blunder Rather than condemn Buhari’s attackers, the APC was more interested in using the incident to absolve itself of complicity in the spate of terrorist attacks in Nigeria. Lai Mohammed issued a statement saying: “If indeed the APC is behind Boko Haram and General Buhari is a sympathiser of the evil group, as the Federal Government wants the world to believe, could it be that the insurgents do not know their leaders or sympathisers, assuming they are behind the attacks? Whatever happens now, the satanic and repulsive theory of the PDP-led Federal Government that the opposition APC is using Boko Haram to truncate the administration of Jonathan is up in flames.” Lai Mohammed blundered with this statement. It easily leads to the conclusion that the whole point of the attack on Buhari was to launder the image of the APC and distance it from the Boko Haram. This was quickly recognized by the PDP. Olisa Metuh, the PDP national publicity secretary said: “We are shocked, disappointed and disgusted that the APC leaders chose to use the ugly development to embark on image laundering. Nigerians now ponder; they ask, was the attack a setup aimed at scoring some political points? Or could it be APC’s desperate strategy of trying to disentangle itself from the internationally acknowledged link with terrorists and possibly undermine the planned probe of their involvement by the United Kingdom?” (TO BE CONTINUED)
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 09:21:44 +0000
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