Every attempt to heal a sick country is an affront to
those who benefit from its sickness.” Bernard
Malamud, in THE FIXER.
Generally, you can assess the quality of a man,
especially a politician by observing those who rise up
against him. General Buhari (rtd) is a shinning
example of such a person. Expectedly, his
declaration for the Presidency, more than that of any
other possible opponent of President Jonathan, had
thrown a lot of people into a manic frenzy. Some of
them are my co-columnists in the Lagos/Ibadan axis
– as papers like PUNCH, THISDAY, GUARDIAN and
VANGUARD are called.
For the purpose of this series of articles, I want to
single out the Professors writing for PUNCH and
VANGUARD, who, are usually erudite, futuristic, well-
informed and reasonably objective; but who have
joined the illogical, and the ill-informed in the pack
attack on Buhari.
When an Area Boy finds himself confronting several
adversaries, at once, he steels himself for battle by
announcing to his opponents, “Ee ti po to [you are
too few for me]”. So, to Professors Abidde, Adelakun,
Akinnaso, Olukotun, of the PUNCH, and our own Femi
Aribisala, I declare “you are too few” for this battle.
Comparing Buhari with Jonathan is like comparing
solid “Iroko” with rotten wood. For starters, every
carver knows that nobody can make a masterpiece
out of rotten wood. And Jonathan’s government is
rotten from the head down. So anybody canvassing
for a continuation of this government should be
regarded as an accessory to the grand larceny going
on now in the name of governance.
For the readers, I said they are too few because,
when reading their articles, one can notice that they
are virtually writing out of the same set of notes –
packed full with their opinions, half truths, some
falsehood and some venom. The bile belongs to Femi
Aribisala, the VANGUARD columnist, who, like Doyin
Okupe, must be operating with a dictionary compiled
by the devil – when writing about Buhari, Tinubu and
APC. Let me assure Femi that we also have a
dictionary at UniJankara, full of hotter words. So
nobody should be under the impression that he owns
a monopoly of such words.
First, the readers of this defence of Buhari might
want to observe that all those mentioned above,
pretending to reflect “the views of Nigerians” are
Southerners, Christians, mostly Yoruba, employed
and well-paid, well- or over-educated, and they
probably have not stepped into Kano, Sokoto, Bauchi,
Nassarawa or Kogi States in the last five years – if at
all. Buhari who they all love to “hate” or “hate to
love”, however is a Muslim, Northerner, Fulani, and
has spent most of his time in the north since
retirement.
The ethnic and religious prejudices, obvious to me,
might be a mere coincidence to them but, there is no
denying the fact that none of that group can sustain
the illusion that they speak for the average
Northerner, ill-educated, unemployed, lacking all the
basic amenities and clinging to life made more
tenuous by Boko Haram insurgency which had
escalated during Jonathan’s tenure of office. None
can because none knows where the shoe pinches;
they write in the comfort of their offices and homes,
proclaiming how millions, who they have not met will
vote in the North especially. This is rotten
scholarship. In fact, nobody among them knows how
most Northerners will vote.
Among their often-repeated fallacies, based on
prejudice, is the charge that Nigerians will not vote
for Buhari because he is a “religious fanatic”. Even if
true, two observations will dispel this rumour
peddled as truth. One, no Muslim in the entire
country had ever mentioned to me that he considers
Buhari a fanatic and none will vote against him for
that reason. The hang-up about Buhari’s perceived
fanaticism belongs to some Christians. Second, one
person’s fanatic is another person’s staunch believer
in his faith. So, “fanaticism” might actually work in his
favour.
Speaking strictly for myself, a Muslim fanatic is
preferable to a wishy-washy Christian. Everybody
knows where the first stands on issues affecting
morality; nobody can trust the second. At any rate,
my own reading of the two Holy Books – Bible and
Quran – has convinced me that there is very little the
Bible abhors which the Quran supports; and vice
versa. Our “Christian” columnists are only raising
false alarm.
Having disposed of that, at least for now, let me turn,
briefly, to the issues of Jonathan’s performance and
corruption. Kindly let me quote verbatim what
Adelakun and Aribisala wrote in defence of Jonathan
and to run down Buhari’s bid for the Presidency.
First Adelakun, in PUNCH, October 23, 2014. “Even
though many Nigerians are probably weary of
Jonathan’s government by now, they are still practical
enough to understand that another four years of
Jonathan’s government will not kill them. It might
bring Nigeria to her knees but at the same time, it is
a pain that can be endured.” [italics mine]. Despite
the use of “probably”, when the word to use is
“certainly”, nobody reading that sentence can fail to
shed tears for Nigeria. When the brightest and the
best expect us to re-elect a President who will not
alleviate their suffering, but deepen them till 2019,
then all is lost.
Let me close this first part by drawing attention to
Aribisala’s statement, undoubtedly made proudly
about “his country”, not mine. “In Nigeria, nobody
gets elected as President on the platform that he is
going to be an anti-corruption crusader when he gets
into office.” Apparently, Femi approves of that
situation and will like it to continue – as long as
Jonathan gets re-elected. This is a Professor? I
thought professors are supposed to be engaged in
advancing positive original ideas, not in telling us to
continue to go to hell, as we are doing now…





www.vanguardngr.com/2014/11/comparing-buhari-jonathan-iroko-versus-rotten-wood-1/

Mogbe!... This one na hit banger

Rotten wood sef na package!!!!! Jonathan is a mere saw dust jare