"I always feel restrained and uncomfortable when speaking or writing about the political life of General Muhammadu Buhari because I need to edit myself very seriously to avoid divulging things that I had learnt out of privilege. The reason is that during the first presidential attempt of the general who is reputed for saying it the way it is, I was the director of media and publicity of the Buhari-Okadigbo Campaign Organization and was by that token, one of the top formulators of the campaign strategies. That 2003 attempt was definitely Buhari’s best outing and since then, his subsequent outings have continued to decline in their fortunes.

Frustration seems to have set in for the general with every subsequent disastrous outing, leading to his vow, in 2011, that he would never contest again. Because the Buhari I knew was a very honest man and I have nothing to make me assume that he has suddenly gone bad at this age, I believe that the tears he shed during the last campaigns were for Nigeria and not in the realization that his efforts were becoming Sisyphean. (Recall the myth of Sisyphus, the Greek god that was condemned to the impossible task of rolling a huge boulder of rock uphill; anytime he stopped to rest, the rock would roll down to the starting point).

In spite of his earlier vow of not contesting again, Buhari has once again jumped into the political fray. Knowing him as I do, I can almost wager my right arm that he was pushed into the race by the many political adventurers around him, as they had done severally in the past. One of the deficits of most honest people is that they trust a lot and always believe that those around them are always dealing honestly with them. Buhari is the best proof of that. If you are subordinate of Gen. Buhari and he assigns you a task, he never ever interferes and believes that all your acts are done in good faith and in the interest of the collective. That has been his political undoing and will be this time around. Buhari is obviously the most popular political figure in the North and will remain so for as long as he remains in politics. His supporters neither read nor heed those rants of opponents in the papers and the social media against him, for as far as they are concerned, Buhari is the political compass.

Younger and ambitious political figures in the North have routinely pretended to be loyal to Buhari and once the voters observe that, they extend the same political support they have for Mai Gaskiya (the truthful one) to them. It is next to political suicide for any politician in the so-called core-North to be seen to be openly anti-Buhari. At the end of the day, they use him to achieve their electoral aim and desideratum and dump Buhari as quickly as one dumps a hot piece of iron. It has happened before and it is going to happen this time. That is why they convinced him and dragged him out to make them prevail while seeing him fail. Unknowing, Buhari, the mere political mascot, tags along like a ram to the slaughter slab.

If you were at Abuja last week when Muhammadu Buhari declared his presidential intention at the Eagle Square, you would see the pattern that I have described. The so-called mammoth crowd that attended the rally only belonged to Buhari by proxy. Rather, they were ferried to Abuja in their busloads by the different gubernatorial and senatorial aspirants under the APC banner that wanted to be publicly identified with Buhari’s aspiration. It hardly matters later if Buhari does not even get the party’s ticket, which he is not likely going to get.

It bothers the many of us who really love Buhari and had identified with his aspirations when it looked most possible that he is yet unable to wean himself of political naivety. It is a huge tragedy – unless they have invoked juju on him – that Buhari does not see how much of fake supporters the people around him, like Mallam Nasir el-Rufai and his ilk, are and how they simply want to ride on his wings to political fame. Did it not happen in as far back as in 2003, when after winning their gubernatorial seats, the governors that had just won the previous week under the banner of the ANPP ganged up against him and his campaign organisation? At least el-Rufai had once declared that Buhari is unelectable and you wonder what he is doing around the man, if not to use him to feather his own political nest.

No matter the arguments that his followers have developed for him to justify his change of mind to contest after saying he would not and by so doing, pouring sand into the attribute for which he is best identified, being a man of his words, it is obvious that he has started his campaign on a very faulty note. In the first instance, it shows that unlike his old self, he has eaten the Nigerian politicians’ bug of speaking from the two sides of his mouth and is thus rendering himself incapable of being trusted. Before the campaigns have begun, it appears he is already being overwhelmed by stress – some even say senility – evidenced by his utterances that beggar belief.

Last week, while explaining how he raised the whopping N27.5 million to purchase the form for the expression of interest from his party, Buhari said that he had borrowed the money from the bank. In his exact words, “N27 million is a big sum, thankfully I have personal relationship with the manager of my bank in Kaduna and I told him that very soon the forms are coming, so, whether I am on red, or green or even black please honour it otherwise I may lose the nomination…” What would one make out of this clueless statement which is an obvious falsehood, as no manager (not even the managing director or chairman) of a bank on earth would grant such a loan in the cavalier circumstances that Buhari had described? Would it not have been better and normal for him to say that it was a donation from his political well-wishers?

I am aware that in 2003, we ran the campaign with huge donations from well-wishers from all across the country. Or does Buhari take Nigerians as those talakawas that flood his space and who did not know that he had paid some visits to some important and politically exposed people before his declaration? Why was it difficult to admit that his campaign is going to be bankrolled by some wealthy party Turks who would become beneficiaries of being close to him? Has he dropped his Mai Gaskiya attribute.
In all these, there are very senior APC members who do not seem impressed by the fact that some recycled politicians are presenting themselves to vie against the PDP behemoth led by a much younger and better mental alert person as President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP. It is increasingly becoming the view of many in the party and the polity that for APC to make a good showing in the forthcoming election, they must present young, agile and fresh hands and faces; Buhari does not fit that description – even those urging him on in order to use him know that much. One would have thought that after all this time in politics and at his age, Buhari would have groomed young successors to take over from him while he stands behind them to lend his support. No he has not done that, but opts rather to become the only cock crowing in the yard.

Furthermore, Buhari seems to have refused to see the subtle agitation against his political dictatorship by some people who had been with him from the very beginning. The likes of Buba Galadima and Mike Ahamba have quit while the likes of Sam Nda Isaiah have mounted a direct challenge by aspiring to the presidency – the same position that Buhari seems to regard as his birthright.
As one Nigerian proverb has it, “as the market dismisses, the vultures take over.” It is a pity that Buhari has failed, once again, to see the vultures settling down to feed on his political carcass." ~ By Uche Ezechukwu (Former media director of Buhari Campaign Organization)

This article is screaming front page, MODs do the needful. This is a great insight to the "Buhari lie" which most of us already know.

OP, as salient as the points raised in your post are, you would have lent credence and given it the much needed impetus by giving us a credible verifiable source of your info.

Well, its still GEJ till 2019.

Nice

Ok. Next!!!