Several weeks ago when Professor Wole Soyinka took a swipe at General Buhari as a presidential candidate, there was an avalanche of angry northern responses condemning the Nobel laureate's attack on their favoured candidate. Most of the responses however did little to address the salient issues raised by the Professor in his critique. Even when they did their responses were puerile and insulting to the intelligence of Nigerians.

A case in point is Mohammed Haruna's absurd rationalization of Buhari's double standard in confining Shagari to house arrest while jailing other political detainees including the erstwhile Vice president who exercised no power in the ill-fated 2nd republic. Mallam Haruna would have us believe that Shagari's house arrest was actually worse than being jailed in Nigeria's notoriously inhospitable gulag, on the grounds that Shagari was in solitary confinement. Apparently solitary confinement (if at all that was the objective) is not possible in prison, only in the comfort of a furnished flat.

Other pro-Buhari agitators vainly tried to box us into a false dilemma. Since the Nobel Laureate condemned the presidential candidature of both Buhari and Yar'Adua, who were Nigerians supposed to vote for ? This is a dim-witted question in nation of 140 million people with more than 40 political parties and over 20 presidential candidates.

In his critique, Professor Soyinka amply documented Buhari's numerous human right abuses for which the arrogant, unrepentant General never expressed any remorse nor apologies even when offered the opportunity at the Oputa panel. Yet his sycophants would have Nigerians entrust him with executive presidential powers. What's the guarantee that he won't turn out to be another tyrant like Obasanjo - notorious for his appalling abuse of presidential powers ?

The General's selling point appears to be the hype about his supposed moral integrity, which will supposedly translate to eradication of corruption. A trip down memory lane however tells us different. Under the late dark-goggled General, Buhari presided over PTF (petroleum trust fund), which was later revealed to be a cesspool of corruption. If the supposedly incorruptible Daura general couldn't stop corruption in PTF, then he obviously can't be trusted to eradicate corruption from Nigeria. Let's not forget that Obasanjo, Nigeria's present failure, made similar anti-corruption noises at the inception of his maladministration in 1999.

The infamous 53 suitcase saga during Buhari's 20 month military misrule also raises questions about his commitment to the eradication of corruption. A northern Emir was accosted by Custom agents at Lagos international airport with 53 suitcases of currency in direct violation of the prevailing laws. Buhari redeployed the principled customs officer – our current embattled vice president – who apprehended the Emir, while allowing the sacred cow Emir to go scot free. Ironically in several circles today, that principled customs officer - vice president Atiku Abubakar - is portrayed as corrupt while Buhari is hailed as incorruptible.

Contrast Buhari's kid's glove, pat-on-the-back for the 53-suitcase Emir, with Fela's unjust imprisonment ostensibly for failing to declare his own hard earned foreign currency. The truth of the matter is that the vindictive Buhari never forgave the late Afrobeat maestro for his popular hit tune Army Arrangement, in which Fela sang about the 2.8 billion Naira that reportedly disappeared from our nation's oil accounts while Buhari was petroleum minister. In the song, Fela captured the public cynicism of government denial of the scandal…not surprising, given the poor credibility of most Nigerian governments… Dem set up enquiry, Dem say money no lose O!

To any discerning mind, Buhari's discriminatory enforcement of the law enforcement a.k.a. "selective justice" vis-à-vis Shagari / Ekwueme detention, and Fela / 54 case Emir currency violations clearly indicate that the general is no different from Nigeria's present tormentor, Obasanjo who is using EFCC to witch-hunt and persecute his political adversaries.

It is common knowledge that one of Nigeria's major problems is our economic malaise and underdevelopment. General Buhari's actions as military head of state suggest that he is bereft of some of the basic economic principles required for running a nation's economy. Faced with the scarcity of "essenco" (essential commodities) during his regime, our Daura General came up with the brilliant brainwave of sending armed soldiers to forcibly break into shops and compel traders to sell goods below their purchase price. Even today as the 2007 presidential campaign heats up, Buhari - like several other presidential candidates – is yet to enunciate sound economic policies to transform Nigeria.

Then there is the issue of Buhari's pseudo-religious demagoguery, which has sometimes been mistaken for religious fanaticism. At the height of Nigeria's Sharia crisis when there was a real danger of Nigeria being torn apart along religious lines, the General added fuel to the raging Sharia fire that was threatening to consume the nation by supporting the promulgation of discriminatory religious laws in our multi-religious country contrary to our secular constitution. Buhari failed to rise above sectional ethno-religious interests as was expected of a former head of state and presumed statesman.

If the General really believed in Sharia law, why didn't he promulgate it as military head of state ? One is therefore forced to conclude that the general was simply playing to the northern gallery – hypocritical religious demagoguery for cheap popularity among the northern masses, hence his undeserved saintly reputation. Or perhaps he was a coward who lacked the guts to prosecute the Sharia Jihad while he was in power. The General later compounded matters by publicly instructing Muslims to only vote for Muslims. His sycophants and propagandists have unconvincingly tried to deny or "explain" his statement, but the arrogant general never bothered.

Perhaps because of his self-serving judicial battle against Obasanjo's infamous 419 re-election in 2003, Buhari has been misleadingly promoted in some quarters as a "champion of democracy". In the run-up to the 2003 gubernatorial election in Kano state, Ibrahim "Little" Amin won the ANPP nomination fair and square, and was publicly declared as such. Saint Buhari, the democrat was instrumental to scheming out Mallam Amin and imposing the current Kano state governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau. It just goes to show that if Buhari had been Obasanjo's shoes in 2003, he would have rigged the election just as like OBJ.

Nigerians should be wary of recycling leaders who have failed us before. Obasanjo's disastrous presidency in the face of enormous oil revenues is more than enough lesson. As has been painstakingly elucidated above, Buhari presidency would be no different from Obasanjo's current ruinous misrule.

Nafata Bamaguje
Gargajiya quarters
Daura, Katsina state