Oluwole Babalola wrote: This is attending to some of the epistle of fallacies of my good friend, Kunle Bello Kunle Bello WHO IS THIS BUHARI?  1. Buhari was governor of Borno state under Obasanjo regime and later minister of petroleum Yet 2.8 billion naira oil money went missing. That was also the genesis of Petroleum subsidy scam in Nigeria. .  2. Buhari birthed and supervised the establishment of the existing refineries in NIGERIA. That is a big lie. This is attributed to Obasanjo, the then Head of State.  3. He was head of state between 1983-1985 (a period of 20 months). Under the Buhari/Idiagbon regime, once you ended up at 15 Awolowo Road, you may never be heard of again. Decree Number 2 of 1984 empowered Tunde Idiagbon to arrest and detain anybody indefinitely without trial and without legal reprieve. After Buhari was overthrown, Mohammadu Gambo opened the prison doors of 15 Awolowo Road on public television, revealing people in various stages of undress and malnutrition that had been kept in the dungeons without trial by Buhari’s hound-dogs. As self-imposed Head of State, Buhari had no regard for human rights. Immediately he seized power, he announced that he would “tamper with” the press. Soon, the infamous Decree Number 4 was promulgated which made even the publication of the truth a punishable offence. Under this cover, Buhari jailed innocent journalists, including Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabo. He abolished civil liberties, promulgated retroactive decrees enabling him to kill Nigerians through jungle justice, proscribed civil society organizations and professional groups and exercised “absolute” power. This same Buhari would now have us believe that he has gone through some metamorphosis and has become a democrat. I am sure you will forgive me if people like me don’t believe him. Buhari is not, has never been, and will never be, a democrat. Only in Nigeria would a man with his track record, who came to power through a military coup that illegally overthrew a democratic government, now be acclaimed as a democrat. It is on record that Buhari’s military regime is the only one in Nigeria’s history that failed to promulgate a programme for return to civilian rule. There is a fundamental reason behind this. Buhari is a bad politician. He is an unbending former military dictator and not a democratic consensus-builder. Like his new ally, Bola Tinubu, Buhari is a regional, sectional politician. Such politicians are practically impossible to package and market nationally in the ethnically-delicate Nigeria of today. Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Nasir El’Rufai, one of those Northerners who deserve to be serious contenders for the presidency of Nigeria, observed that Buhari remains “perpetually unelectable” as a result of his “insensitivity to Nigeria’s diversity and his parochial focus.” This is an elegant way of saying that politically, Buhari has an uncanny tendency to put his foot in his mouth. He talks before thinking of the political implications of his words. He shoots from the hip. The strength of Obasanjo, which enabled him to capture the presidency on two different occasions, was that he was perceived as a broadminded politician, not overly partial to his people in the South-West. As a matter of fact, in his first election, his people did not want him. The strength of Goodluck Jonathan, which propelled him to win the presidency, was that he was able to string together a coalition that stretched both north and south of the Niger. The weakness of Buhari is that he is totally unacceptable to people outside his region. Buhari is a Northern regional champion. As head of state in the 1980s, his government was unapologetically Northern. No attempt was made to balance the ticket at the top. It was the only regime in Nigeria’s history headed by two Northerners. When he seized power, Buhari put Shagari, the Northern head of state he overthrew, under house arrest. But then he jailed Alex Ekwueme, the Southern vice-president. You may well ask what makes Shagari less culpable for the misdeeds of the Second Republic than his number-two man. The simple fact was that Buhari was Fulani as was Shagari; but Ekwueme was Igbo.  There was no religious crisis while he was head of state .  4. He reduced inflation from 23% to 4% by fiscal discipline and home grown economic team (not achieved under any other era). Be clearer and present facts  5. J.J. Rawlings of Ghana took over 2 years before him and killed all the corrupt leaders, while Buhari only sentenced the corrupt leaders in Nigeria to prison Very laughable! Buhari kept Shagari under house arrest and jailed the deputy, Ekwueme in a Prison. Very JUST by you people’s standards. So, why did his regime seize Awolowo’s passport, ransacked his house and place him under house arrest? Because Awo was corrupt? Ajasin, Jakande, Bola Ige, Onabanjo were also corrupt shey? .  6. Under his watch as PTF chairman, what he did in road construction in that short period hasn’t been matched by 12 years of the PDP. Hospitals and universities around the country never witnessed as much benefits as they got from the PTF from any government after or before his time. Kindly highlight the roads PTF under Buhari constructed and the regions of construction. Also tell us of the role of the consortium of consultants who actually ran and bled the PTF on behalf of Sani Abacha.  Every attempt to rubbish him through probes in time past ended up vindicating him! The man who was asked by OBJ to take over PTF before it was scrapped with the aim of indicting Buhari ended up being prosecuted for misappropriating $100 million of PTF funds! So, why didn’t he attend nor honour the Oputa panel’s invitation?
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:01:47 +0000
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