THE NIGERIAN NATION AGAINST GENERAL BUHARI
By Wole SOYINKA
This intervention has been provoked, not so much by the
ambitions of General Buhari to return to power at the head of a
democratic Nigeria, as by declarations of support from directions
that leave one totally dumbfounded. It would appear that some,
myself among them, had been overcomplacent about the
magnitude of an ambition that seemed as preposterous as the
late effort of General Ibrahim Babangida to aspire yet again to
the honour of presiding over a society that truly seeks a
democratic future. What one had dismissed was a rash of
illusions, brought about by other political improbabilities that
surround us, however, is being given an air of plausibility by
individuals and groupings to which one had earlier attributed a
sense of relevance of historic actualities. Recently, I published
an article in the media, invoking the possible recourse to
psychiatric explanation for some of the incongruities in conduct
within national leadership. Now, to tell the truth, I have begun to
seriously address the issue of which section of society requires
the services of a psychiatrist. The contest for a seizure of
rationality is now so polarized that I am quite reconciled to the
fact it could be those of us on this side, not the opposing
school of thought that ought to declare ourselves candidates for
a lunatic asylum. So be it. While that decision hangs in the
balance however, the forum is open. Let both sides continue to
address our cases to the electorate, but also prepare to submit
ourselves for psychiatric examination.
The time being so close to electoral decision, we can
understand the haste of some to resort to shortcuts. In the
process however, we should not commit the error of opening the
political space to any alternative whose curative touch to
national afflictions have proven more deadly than the disease. In
order to reduce the clutter in our options towards the
forthcoming elections, we urge a beginning from what we do
know, what we have undergone, what millions can verify, what
can be sustained by evidence accessible even to the school
pupil, the street hawker or a just-come visitor from outer space.
Leaving Buhari aside for now, I propose a commencing exercise
that should guide us along the path of elimination as we
examine the existing register of would-be president. That initial
exercise can be summed up in the following speculation: “If it
were possible for Olusegun Obasanjo, the actual incumbent, to
stand again for election, would you vote for him?”
If the answer is “yes”, then of course all discussion is at an end.
If the answer is ‘No’ however, then it follows that a choice of a
successor made by Obasanjo should be assessed as hovering
between extremely dangerous and an outright kiss of death. The
degree of acceptability of such a candidate should also be
inversely proportionate to the passion with which he or she is
promoted by the would-be ‘godfather’. We do not lack for open
evidence about Obasanjo’s passion in this respect. From Lagos
to the USA, he has taken great pains to assure the nation and
the world that the anointed NPN presidential flag bearer is
guaranteed, in his judgment, to carry out his policies. Such an
endorsement/anointment is more than sufficient, in my view, for
public acceptance or rejection. Yar’Adua’s candidature amounts
to a terminal kiss from a moribund regime. Nothing against the
person of this – I am informed - personable governor, but let
him understand that in addition to the direct source of his
emergence, the PDP, on whose platform he stands, represents
the most harrowing of this nation’s nightmares over and beyond
even the horrors of the Abacha regime. If he wishes to be
considered on his own merit, now is time for him, as well as
others similarly enmeshed, to exercise the moral courage that
goes with his repudiation of that party, a dissociation from its
past, and a pledge to reverse its menacing future. We shall find
him an alternative platform on which to stand, and then have
him present his credentials along those of other candidates
engaged in forging a credible opposition alliance. Until then, let
us bury this particular proposition and move on to a far graver,
looming danger, personified in the history of General Buhari.
The grounds on which General Buhari is being promoted as the
alternative choice are not only shaky, but pitifully naive. History
matters. Records are not kept simply to assist the weakness of
memory, but to operate as guides to the future. Of course, we
know that human beings change. What the claims of personality
change or transformation impose on us is a rigorous inspection
of the evidence, not wishful speculation or behind-the-scenes
assurances. Public offence, crimes against a polity, must be
answered in the public space, not in caucuses of bargaining. In
Buhari, we have been offered no evidence of the sheerest
prospect of change. On the contrary, all evident suggests that
this is one individual who remains convinced that this is one
ex-ruler that the nation cannot call to order.
Buhari – need one remind anyone - was one of the generals
who treated a Commission of Enquiry, the Oputa Panel, with
unconcealed disdain. Like Babangida and Abdusalami, he
refused to put in appearance even though complaints that were
tabled against him involved a career of gross abuses of power
and blatant assault on the fundamental human rights of the
Nigerian citizenry.
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? If not,
then, perhaps the names of three youths - Lawal Ojuolape (30),
Bernard Ogedengbe (29) and Bartholomew Owoh (26) do. To put
it quite plainly, one of those three – Ogedengbe - was executed
for a crime that did not carry a capital forfeit at the time it was
committed. This 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, trade unions etc. Buhari and his sidekick and his
partner-in-crime, Tunde Idiagbon persisted in this inhuman act
for one reason and one reason only: to place Nigerians on
notice that they were now under an iron, inflexible rule, under
governance by fear.
The execution of that youthful innocent – for so he was, since
the punishment did not exist at the time of commission - was
nothing short of premeditated murder, for which the perpetrators
should normally stand trial upon their loss of immunity. Are we
truly expected to forget this violation of our entitlement to
security as provided under existing laws? And even if our
sensibilities have become blunted by succeeding seasons of
cruelty and brutality, if power itself had so coarsened the
sensibilities also of rulers and corrupted their judgment, what
should one rightly expect after they have been rescued from the
snare of power” At the very least, a revaluation, leading hopefully
to remorse, and its expression to a wronged society. At the very
least, such a revaluation should engender reticence, silence. In
the case of Buhari, it was the opposite. Since leaving office he
has declared in the most categorical terms that he had no
regrets over this murder and would do so again.
Human life is inviolate. The right to life is the uniquely
fundamental right on which all other rights are based. The crime
that General Buhari committed against the entire nation went
further however, inconceivable as it might first appear. That
crime is one of the most profound negations of civic being. Not
content with hammering down the freedom of expression in
general terms, Buhari specifically forbade all public discussion
of a return to civilian, democratic rule. Let us constantly applaud
our media – those battle scarred professionals did not
completely knuckle down. They resorted to cartoons and
oblique, elliptical references to sustain the people’s campaign
for a time-table to democratic rule. Overt agitation for a
democratic time table however remained rigorously suppressed
– military dictatorship, and a specifically incorporated in Buhari
and Idiagbon was here to stay. To deprive a people of volition in
their own political direction is to turn a nation into a colony of
slaves. Buhari enslaved the nation. He gloated and gloried in a
master-slave relation to the millions of its inhabitants. It is
astonishing to find that the same former slaves, now free of
their chains, should clamour to be ruled by one who not only
turned their nation into a slave plantation, but forbade them any
discussion of their condition.
So Tai Solarin is already forgotten? Tai who stood at street
corners, fearlessly distributing leaflets that took up the gauntlet
where the media had dropped it. Tai who was incarcerated by
that regime and denied even the medication for his asthmatic
condition? Tai did not ask to be sent for treatment overseas; all
he asked was his traditional medicine that had proved so
effective after years of struggle with asthma!
Nor must we omit the manner of Buhari coming to power and the
pattern of his ‘corrective’ rule. Shagari’s NPN had already run
out of steam and was near universally detested – except of
course by the handful that still benefited from that regime of
profligacy and rabid fascism. Responsibility for the national
condition lay squarely at the door of the ruling party, obviously,
but against whom was Buhari’s coup staged? Judging by the
conduct of that regime, it was not against Shagari’s government
but against the opposition. The head of government, on whom
primary responsibility lay, was Shehu Shagari. Yet that
individual was kept in cozy house detention in Ikoyi while his
powerless deputy, Alex Ekwueme, was locked up in Kiri-kiri
prisons. Such was the Buhari notion of equitable apportionment
of guilt and/or responsibility.
And then the cascade of escapes of the wanted, and culpable
politicians. Manhunts across the length and breadth of the
nation, roadblocks everywhere and borders tight as steel zip
locks. Lo and behold, the chairman of the party, Chief Akinloye,
strolled out coolly across the border. Richard Akinjide, Legal
Protector of the ruling party, slipped out with equal ease. The
Rice Minister, Umaru Dikko, who declared that Nigerians were
yet to eat from dustbins - escaped through the same airtight
dragnet. The clumsy attempt to crate him home was punishment
for his ingratitude, since he went berserk when, after waiting in
vain, he concluded that the coup had not been staged, after all,
for the immediate consolidation of the party of extreme right-
wing vultures, but for the military hyenas.
The case of the overbearing Secretary-General of the party, Uba
Ahmed, was even more noxious. Uba Ahmed was out of the
country at the time. Despite the closure of the Nigerian airspace,
he compelled the pilot of his plane to demand special landing
permission, since his passenger load included the almighty Uba
Ahmed. Of course, he had not known of the change in his status
since he was airborne. The delighted airport commandant,
realizing that he had a much valued fish swimming willingly into
a waiting net, approved the request. Uba Ahmed disembarked
into the arms of a military guard and was promptly clamped in
detention. Incredibly, he vanished a few days after and
reappeared in safety overseas. Those whose memories have
become calcified should explore the media coverage of that
saga. Buhari was asked to explain the vanished act of this much
prized quarry and his response was one of the most arrogant
levity. Coming from one who had shot his way into power on the
slogan of ‘dis’pline’, it was nothing short of impudent.
Shall we revisit the tragicomic series of trials that landed several
politicians several lifetimes in prison? Recall, if you please, the
‘judicial’ processes undergone by the septuagenarian Chief
Adekunle Ajasin. He was arraigned and tried before Buhari’s
punitive tribunal but acquitted. Dissatisfied, Buhari ordered his
re-trial. Again, the Tribunal could not find this man guilty of a
single crime, so once again he was returned for trial, only to be
acquitted of all charges of corruption or abuse of office. Was
Chief Ajasin thereby released? No! He was ordered detained
indefinitely, simply for the crime of winning an election and
refusing to knuckle under Shagari’s reign of terror.
The conduct of the Buhari regime after his coup was not merely
one of double, triple, multiple standards but a cynical travesty of
justice. Audu Ogbeh, currently chairman of the Action Congress
was one of the few figures of rectitude within the NPN. Just as
he has done in recent times with the PDP, he played the role of
an internal critic and reformer, warning, dissenting, and setting
an example of probity within his ministry. For that crime he
spent months in unjust incarceration. Guilty by association?
Well, if that was the motivating yardstick of the administration of
the Buhari justice, then it was most selectively applied. The
utmost severity of the Buhari-Idiagbon justice was especially
reserved either for the opposition in general, or for those within
the ruling party who had showed the sheerest sense of
responsibility and patriotism.

This man wont stop dolling out his piece in porn asinorum; i had to read it twice to get what he was saying.
NB: AUDU OGBEH is the current chairman of AC in this article. This goes to tell u this was written by the grey-haired prof many years ago.
sai Buhari!

Barcanista egift cramjones obiagelli berem demdem koboko69 and all the APC trolls on nairaland come let us dissect this pieace so as to know who buhari realy is.