hmad Rasheed Makarfi
May 3, 2011, 01:01 PM
Speaking to the Hausa?service of the Voice of America, VOA, five?days after the 16TH April ?contoversial'Presidential election and a day after the end of the unfortunate post election riots, General Muhammad Buhari, the Presidential candidate of the CPC, alleged complicity of the INEC in an alleged massive computer-aided rigging of Presidential election in favor of the PDP. He also lamented that INEC Chairman,Professor Jega, ignored the complaints of his party agents. Buhari,again,reiterated that CPC supporters in the South East and the South South were disenfranchised. He also spoke through?Yinka Odumakin on the post election violence, where he cautioned his supporters against destruction of worship houses, describing the act as worse than the rigging perpetrated against his party. On its part, INEC said it would not join issues with Buhari.

The aim of this piece is to collate the opinions of different people in regard to the above statements from the highly respected General Buhari and I gathered the opinions from the online reactions from a refutable newspaper (LEADERSHIP 22th,April). Let me start from the opinion of one Agboola O, who wrote ? Buhari?prepared the ground for this violence with his allegations while the election was still underway and afterwards by challenging the results', while another person Liman A said ? The results of the presidential election are just what we expected to get from the PDP government. Let's start strategizing for the 2015 polls now by voting out these PDP governors'. But in the opinion of Ahmadu M. ?Buhari should be held responsible for the post-elections crisis. Even before the election results, the man started complaining of rigging, sending wrong signals to his supporters'

Patrick A., seems to have disagreed in a diplomatic manner and he wrote ?Buhari,it is your constitutional right to go to the courts to challenge the results of the elections, but bear in mind that the election is judged by majority of people, both in and outside Nigeria, to have been free and fair and that you never won a single state in the south of Nigeria, nor came near to winning one state. Buhari,you could have given Jonathan the benefit of the doubt. Congratulate him, give peace a chance, give this democratic process a breathing space, step back, take a long breath, give us a break and above all, don't be a bad?loser. The people of Nigeria have spoken and the judiciary should not be used to suppress the decision of Nigerians'.While, Usman S have different opinion that ? The hypocrisy of the ruling elite never ceases to amaze one. They promised free and fair elections, knowing it would be anything but that They have professionally rigged the elections and called it divine intervention. The problem with the North is that they have expected and tried to counteract PDP's hypocrisy, deceit and pretence.What remains for the North now is to bury the hatchet,engage in the massive development of the North to reduce the perceived dependence on other regions of the country,carry out systematic literacy campaigns,to empower the youth and reposition itself for future elections.Islam abhors the taking of life. Remember that democracy started in Islam and our religion teaches us that we should persevere and be law-abiding. Please stop the killing and let's take an intelligent approach to reclaiming and redeeming our image.'

The following contributors wrote on the violence,according to Mani K, ? This is nothing but arrogance,wickedness and insensitivity of the highest order.This statement says nothing about the hundreds of Nigerian lives (mostly Christians and southerners) lost and properties destroyed. There will be no Nigeria if Jonathan fails to prosecute those behind these heinous crimes against humanity.He must do the right thing by ensuring that perpetrators are arrested and prosecuted. They must not go unpunished'. ?Taking innocent life is not proper. But PDP has been rigging itself into power for the past 12 years. Christians and Muslims alike are all guilty of this bloodshed' is the opinion of Yusuf D. Then his name sake one Yusuf A, collaborated thus ? Let us be realistic for once please. Muslims died too. So let us stop these wrong accusations and leave Buhari and Bakare alone. They have been killing Muslims in Jos for some time now, people didn't complaint. Muslims are not animals for God's sake. They are humans too. To Muslim brothers and sisters, Islam does not preach violence. It is wrong to burn churches and kill Christians. What happened after the presidential election was politically motivated.' Bola C, was more concerned on the death of some NYSC members thus ?It is very disheartening that corpers were burnt alive in Bauchi.Nigerians don't get burnt alive in Ghana,UK or the US, but our youths get killed like chickens in what is supposed to be their own country.

According to Samira D ?Let the truth be told. It was not in the South South and South East geo-political zones that Buhari lost the election. He lost the election in some parts of the North.In the North we have a total of 20 states (19 plus FCT) but Buhari won in only 12 states, losing a whopping 8 states to Jonathan.Even in the 12 states where Buhari won,he only recorded a total of 10,128,418 votes,while Jonathan recorded an impressive total of 4,590,107 votes in the same states. Add this to the fact that it is nothidden that the SS,SE,and SW zones overwhelmingly rejected Buhari at the polls.How on earth will any sane-minded person expect Buhar to win the polls,with or without rigging?'Kennedy M, speaks similar to Samira ?Buhari rejected all the results from SE and SS which were acclaimed even before the elections as Jonathan's strongholds.In these two zones,Buhari did very little or no campaigning. It is a well known fact that Buhari has no appeal to voters in these zones.That notwithstanding, it is very instructive for Buhari to take a second look at the election results without the votes from the SS,SE.

One thing that is very clear from these reactions is the fact that the post election violence has done damage to the personality of incorruptible Buhari. But it is a fact that Buhari and CPC had no hand in the crisis as mirrored by Adamu Adamu ? While nobody would defend murder,arson, or related malicious hooliganism in today's Nigeria,just as one could defend the Weitie of the wild,wild west or the west's incendiary expression of its intolerance to Akin Omoboriowo's NPN's electoral victory in 1983. Lives and property went up flames,but no one,including those accusing Buhari toda,attempted to suggest that the crisis was caused by Chief Awolowo then.

Ahmad Rasheed Makarfi

C3,Tudun Wada, Makarfi,Kaduna State.

arasheedng2003@yahoo.com (http://mce_host/mc/compose?to=arasheedng2003@yahoo.com)

This Essay long pass WAEC essay..

And is this the reason you hate buhari

Yeah fine, if he did all these why hasn't him beign arrested, trial or jailed. Is the president clueless or scared of one man. Can a president with all powers be scared of a man. Ok i remember that is the same reason we want him out becos he is clueless and too weak to do anything. As long as buhari has not beign tried, you and your fellow saTANists can be sued by law for deformation of character so be very careful, once they get u, your employees would desert u becos they are scared of buhari. Tell them to give u a real job that will not put your life and that of ur family at risk. Brace urself change is now

For all those myopic minds the article was written by Rasheed Markafi in May 2011.we should think and reason before we come to write or antagonise any1.The problem with us Nigerians is we are bad students of History.

PDP always looking for reasons to cause VIOLENCE and then Blame it on Others.

Those who claim they are more Buhari than Buhari himself did the read the last paragraph of the author's article.They just believe once buhari's name is mentioned it is a ploy to antagonise him.But the fact remains the fact.