By Femi Aribisala
If anybody would like to be a serial loser of the
presidential election in Nigeria, here is a list of
what he needs to do; according to the blueprint
of Muhammadu Buhari.
If one were to decode the guiding principle of
Muhammadu Buhari’s presidential ambitions, it
would be this: “If at first you don’t succeed,
don’t give up until you have failed three more
times on the trot.” Nigerians don’t want
Muhammadu Buhari to be our president. We
have said this repeatedly since 1999. But Buhari
simply refuses to take “No” for an answer. When
is he finally going to get the message that an
overwhelming majority of Nigerians don’t want
him?
Buhari is the last of yesterday’s men who insist
that a country of 170 million people must
continue to rely on the leadership of the same
old and failed generation. Nigerians have
already put paid to the presumptions of
Olusegun Obasanjo; who wanted a fourth term;
Ibrahim Babangida; who stepped aside and
wanted to step back in; and Atiku Abubakar,
who runs a marathon for the presidency. Buhari
is the last of these recalcitrant dinosaurs. The
one good thing about the coming presidential
election is that it is likely to provide Nigerians
with a final definitive opportunity to send him
permanently into retirement.
Buhari’s repeated failure to secure a national
mandate provides a textbook case of how not to
run for the presidency in a plural country like
Nigeria. This is a compendium of some of the
reasons why the Nigerian presidency will
forever elude men like Buhari, inspire of all the
song and dance that attends their candidacies. If
anybody would like to be a serial loser of the
presidential election in Nigeria, here is a list of
what he needs to do; according to the blueprint
of Muhammadu Buhari.
Be an enemy of democracy
Claim you are anti-corruption but steal the
presidency of the entire country through an
illegal and fraudulent military coup. Claim you
are a democrat after you overthrew a
democratically elected government in 1983 and
made yourself Head of State without the consent
of the people of Nigeria. As military Head of
State, refuse to entertain any plan for a return to
civilian rule. Tell Nigerians that anyone who
discusses a return to civil rule would be
arrested.
Overthrow a government, but be more against
the opposition than the government in power.
Establish manhunts for key politicians in the
length and breadth of the country. Nevertheless,
allow key elements of the ruling NPN to escape
out of the country, including party chairman,
Richard Akinloye; legal counsel, Richard
Akinjide; and Minister of Transport, Umaru
Dikko. Allow the Secretary-General of the party,
Uba Ahmed, to escape abroad, even after he had
mistakenly returned to the country and was
arrested and jailed.
Violate human rights
Promulgate the infamous Decree 2 that makes
even the reporting of the truth a punishable
offence. Use it to imprison Tunde Thompson and
Nduka Irabo, two journalists from the South, for
reporting stories that were factually true. Then
tell Nigerian journalists: “It does not matter
whether the story reported was true or not, if my
regime does not like it, the writer would go to
jail.”
Try Nigerian civilians in military tribunals as
opposed to regular courts of law in violation of
internationally acceptable legal norms. Create a
secret police, the National Security Organization
(NSO) for the first time in Nigeria’s history
under infamous Lawal Rafindadi to harass and
imprison without trial Nigerian citizens in clear
violation of their human rights.
Publicly murder three Nigerians; Lawal
Ojuolape (30), Bernard Ogedengbe (29) and
Bartholomew Owoh (26): two from the South-
West and one from the South East, under the
dubious Decree 20 for drug-related offences.
Ignore the fact that, at the time they committed
their crimes, their offences were not punishable
by the death sentences.
Nevertheless, maliciously backdate the death-
sentence with illegal retroactive decrees that
violate every international norm of due process
and human rights just in order to kill these
three hapless young men. In spite of widespread
international condemnation for this, refuse to
show any remorse or contrition or to apologise
for this judicial murder till date.
When asked to appear before the Justice Oputa
“Truth and Reconciliation Panel” in order to
answer for a litany of abuses of power and
violation of human rights while in power as
Nigeria’s military Head of State, refuse to
appear showing your contempt for Nigerians.
Discriminate against the South
Balance a Northern Fulani Head of State with
another Northern Fulani deputy. Conduct a
coup d’état, ostensibly to overthrow a corrupt
Nigerian government. However, be so ethnically
chauvinistic that you put Dr. Alex Ekwueme, the
vice-president who took none of the decisions
under lock-and-key in jail in Kirikiri because he
is Igbo and Christian. At the same time, put
Alhaji Shehu Shagari, the president who was the
person in charge under house arrest in a palatial
mansion in Ikoyi, Lagos because he happens to
be the same as you: Fulani and Muslim.
Make Northern politicians sacred cows and
untouchable. Fail to arrest and prosecute none
of the prominent Hausa/Fulani politicians who
were the principal actors in the government you
overthrew; including Adamu Ciroma, Suleiman
Takuma, Aliu Gusau, Lawal Kaita, Barkin Zuwo,
Shehu Kangiwa and Awwal Ibrahim.
At the same time, jail Southern politicians,
including Bisi Onabanjo, Ambrose Alli, Lateef
Jakande, Jim Nwobodo, and others on trumped
up charges that could not be substantiated in
any court of law. Try octogenarian Michael
Ajasin of the South-West before a tribunal. When
he is discharged and acquitted; try him again.
When he is discharged and acquitted again, try
him a third time. When he is discharged and
acquitted yet again, keep him in indefinite
detention without just cause.
Maltreat Southern leaders
Send a team of soldiers to ransack the Park
Lane, Apapa residence of elder Southern
statesman, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Give no
reason whatsoever for this blatant violation of
the old man’s privacy. Seize his international
passport for no just cause. Later, try to pull the
wool over the eyes of the Yorubas by choosing a
man married to Awolowo’s grand-daughter as
your vice-presidential running-mate.
Lock Emeka Ojukwu, an Igbo man from the
South, in prison in Kirikiri with the politicians of
the Second Republic, in spite of the fact that he
committed no crime and held no public office in
the Second Republic. Moreover, after Ojukwu
returned to Nigeria after 13 years of exile, he
received a full pardon from the president of
Nigeria for his activities as leader of the
secessionist government of Biafra. Provide
Nigerians with no explanation whatsoever for
the exact offence that led to Ojukwu’s arrest and
incarceration.
Get booted out of office by your own clique in
the army. Have your colleague, Ibrahim
Babangida, give this testimony about you:
“regrettably it turned out that (he) was too rigid
and uncompromising in his attitudes to issues of
national significance. Efforts to make him
understand that a diverse polity like Nigeria
required recognition and appreciation of
differences in both cultural and individual
perceptions only served to aggravate the
attitudes.”
Corrupt practices
Prohibit the importation of naira into the
country during a much ballyhooed currency
exchange program. Then contravene your own
policy by having your ADC, Colonel Mustapha
Jokolo, allow his father, the Emir of Gwandu
from the North, to smuggle into the country
through Muritala Muhammed International
Airport 53 suitcases which the then Area
Administrator of the Lagos Airport Customs
Command, Atiku Abubakar, was not allowed to
search.
At the same time, sentence Afrobeat musician,
Fela Anikulapo Kuti, a Yoruba man from the
South-West, to 20 months in jail for being in
possession of foreign-exchange he had
legitimately procured for the upkeep of his band
on a foreign trip. Because Fela mocked you in
his songs for being unable to address the
problems of Nigeria, declare to Nigerians that:
“I decided to deal with this Fela problem once
and for all.” Face public embarrassment because
the judge who pronounced the sentence on Fela
later confessed that he was ordered to jail him.
Disregard for Nigeria’s secularity
As military Head of State, contravene the
country’s secularity by having Nigeria apply to
join the Organisation of Islamic States (OIC).
The application finally came through in 1986
and divided the country acrimoniously along
Muslim/Christian lines.
Tell Muslims not to vote for Christians. Reveal to
Nigerians that you are a religious bigot by
declaring in Kaduna in 2001 that: “I will
continue to show openly and inside me the total
commitment to the Sharia movement that is
sweeping all over Nigeria. God willing, we will
not stop the agitation for the total
implementation of the Sharia in the country.”
Say this, in spite of the fact that declaring some
states as sharia states is in clear violation of the
secularity of Nigeria’s federalism, as contained
in section 10 of the Constitution of Nigeria
Anti-corruption contradictions
Claim to be an anti-corruption crusader;
nevertheless, agree to serve under Sani Abacha,
one of the most corrupt Heads-of-State ever in
the history of Nigeria. On the 10th anniversary
of General Abacha’s demise, tell incredulous
Nigerians that Abacha did not steal anything
while he was Nigeria’s Head of State. Describe
all the allegations of looting the treasury leveled
against Abacha as “baseless.” Maintain that:
“ten years after Abacha, those allegations
remain unproven because of lack of facts.”
Hold this position in spite of the millions of
dollars of Abacha’s loot recovered from banks
around the world, and in spite of the fact that
the Abacha’s family signed a formal agreement
to return over $1 billion to the Nigerian
government.
As chairman of the juiciest portfolio of all under
Sanni Abacha’s government; the Petroleum
Trust Fund with a budget of 181 billion naira
between 1994 and 1999, fail woefully to curb
the rampant corruption in the organisation.
When in 2000, President Obasanjo set up an
Interim Management Committee to look into the
affairs of the PTF under the chairmanship of
Haroun Adamu, it was discovered that over 25
billion naira was stolen under your watch.
Claim to be an anti-corruption crusader, but
Group Captain Usman Jibrin, a board member of
PTF, resigned from the organization in protest
over the blatant irregularities in your
appointment of consultants.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
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