Source: scannews


Buhari and the Lion of Bourdillon

By Femi Aribisala

ONE month ago, the APC had whipped its supporters into frenzy in believing it is bound to win an election it really has no chance of winning. In truth, if the election had been conducted then for chairman of the EFCC, Muhammadu Buhari would have been declared winner by a landslide. However, with postponement of the election, a lot of water has passed under the bridge. Even Buhari’s self-styled credential as Mr. Integrity has unraveled.

Buhari’s entire campaign posture for the 2015 presidential election stands on two shaky grounds. He fashions himself as Mr. Integrity; the implacable enemy of corruption in Nigeria. He is the one who reportedly is going to ensure that corruption is a thing of the past in Nigeria. He is also the one who is going to destroy the Boko Haram in the twinkling of an eye; even though a number of months ago, he was negotiating for amnesty and golden handshakes for the insurgents, and they nominated him as their preferred middleman in any truce negotiation with Nigeria.

Buhari’s disappearance

Things have not gone too well for the Buhari campaign since the postponement of the election. He did not help things by disappearing off the political radar for virtually two weeks. By the time he re-surfaced, Boko Haram was toast. We no longer needed Buhari’s vain promissory notes to deal with the insurgency. One after another, town after town were recovered from the Boko Haram. In many respects, they have been routed as the Nigerian army came into its own after having received its new consignment of weapons.
As a result, we are no longer hearing anything from Buhari about whipping Boko Haram. All he had left was his anti-corruption mantra. But that one also came to grief with the airing of AIT’s tripartite documentary entitled: “The Lion of Bourdillon.” This alleged that Bola Tinubu, the self-styled national leader of the APC, is steeped in corruption. It claims Tinubu is the biggest landlord in Lagos, and maintains he has acquired so much property through very sharp practices.
While the veracity of these allegations is yet to be ascertained beyond reasonable doubt, the documentary has brought to the fore the flies in the anti-corruption ointment of Buhari. The truth is that corruption in Nigeria is not the exclusive preserve of the PDP. It is also the chronic ailment of the APC. Neither is corruption only the malaise of the Federal Government; it is equally the malaise of state governments, including those ruled by the APC. Indeed, Murtala Nyako of the APC was impeached and removed as governor of Adamawa State partly because it was alleged that he had corruptly enriched himself with government funds.

The question then is this: Does Buhari’s so-called zero-tolerance for corruption extend to his APC colleagues? Will Buhari, in the unlikely event that he becomes president, go after APC thieves as well as PDP thieves? Or will he turn a blind eye to APC thieves and molly-cuddle them? Suddenly, the anti-corruption searchlight turned on to Buhari and his friends, and just as suddenly, we discovered what some of us have always known: that Buhari, the Emperor of Anti-Corruption, has no clothes.
Buhari’s response to the issue of corruption in APC ranks reeked with sheer hypocrisy and double-standards. Like charity, Buhari’s anti-corruption must begin at home in the APC if it is to be credible. However, Buhari is not inclined to prosecute his friends. Instead, he came up with a pronouncement that virtually rubbished his anti-corruption posture. He said: “Whoever that is indicted of corruption between 1999 to the time of swearing-in, would be pardoned. I am going to draw a line, anybody who involved himself in corruption after I assume office, will face the music.”

Insurance for corrupt supporters

This means as long as you steal money between 1999 and 2011, you have nothing to fear under a Buhari presidency. This is, of course, an insurance policy for his corrupt supporters, assuring them that they would have nothing to fear by giving him their vote. Buhari did not come out in strident support of Bola Tinubu. He did not come out to tell the world that, contrary to the AIT documentary, the Bola Tinubu he knows is a man of unimpeachable integrity. Instead, he told the world that if there are thieves among his friends, they can rest assured that he would pardon their thievery.
When President Jonathan pardoned the former governor of Bayelsa, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, a man who had been convicted of corruption and was a refugee from justice from Britain, Nigerians were incensed. This was rightly seen as the president condoning corruption. One would have thought this kind of thing would not occur with a man who talks anti-corruption day and night. However, in the case of Buhari, he would not only pardon one corrupt associate, he would pardon them all.
When asked how he was going to get funds to revitalise the economy, Buhari stated that he was going to get all corrupt past leaders and officials cough out their stolen money. This was nothing but a nonsensical policy. It is bizarre and odd for Buhari to think he can run Nigeria, revamp the educational system for example, by recovering stolen money. Where will he get this money from? Who will give it to him? Would such recovered money not amount to a storm in the teacup?
But now that he has dumped this anti-corruption charade in favour of a blanket pardon for the corrupt, it is clear that political reality is beginning to erode Buhari’s highfalutin campaign grandstanding. It is equally significant that Buhari’s new stance on corruption comes coincidentally after AIT documentary on “The Lion of Bourdillon,” where one of his most important allies was accused of corruption. Clearly, it is high time Buhari stopped deluding Nigerians that he is genuinely anti-corruption and that he can eradicate corruption in Nigeria by sending corrupt politicians to jail.
Buhari was Nigeria’s head-of-state for a period of 18 months in the 1980s. At the time, he ran so rough-shod over the Nigerian judicial system that the Nigerian Bar Association proscribed Nigerian lawyers from appearing in any of Buhari’s kangaroo courts. Buhari sent both corrupt and non-corrupt politicians to jail, sometimes for up to 300 years. Nevertheless, corruption was not eradicated. It continued unabated because it was not addressed structurally. Even the practice under Obasanjo of shooting armed robbers by firing squad in Bar Beach failed to stop armed robbery. All it did was to brutalise the Nigerian public.

Jonathan’s effective approach

Surely, the more reasonable and effective method is to remove the avenues for corruption. This is what Goodluck Jonathan has been doing. He has sanitized the payroll system by removing some 50,000 ghost-workers, saving the country a whopping N200 billion in the first instance. He has removed the fertilizer middlemen; saving Nigeria hundreds of billions of naira. He has sanitized the electoral register. Over three million ghost voters have been removed; one million in Zamfara State alone. He is going after corruption in the oil sector with the Petroleum Industry Bill.
In the vainglorious case of Buhari, it did not help matters that he fought corruption with corruption. He interfered blatantly in the judicial process. The judge who sent Fela to jail later went to apologise to him in hospital afterwards that he did it under government duress. Nevertheless, some members of the Nigerian public, baying for the blood of corrupt politicians, hanker back to the high-handed days of the Buhari era, when the human rights of innocent Nigerians were violated on the altar of anti-corruption, and some Nigerians were even judicially murdered under heinous retroactive decrees.
What Buhari is not telling them is that he has no power to do this under today’s democratic dispensation. Buhari goes on the stomp and says: “When we come into power, anyone who steals Nigerian money will end up in Kirikiri Maximum Prisons. We are going to make sure that Nigeria’s wealth belongs only to Nigerians.” But the truth of the matter is that, in a democracy, the president does not have the judicial power to send anybody to Kirikiri. If the EFCC does not prosecute, the president cannot become the chairman of the EFCC. If the judges do not convict, Buhari cannot transform himself into a judge.

Deceived electorate

All those who have been deceived into believing that Buhari will just become president and begin to lock up corrupt politicians left, right and centre are dreaming. In the unlikely event that Buhari becomes president, he will neither have the power to do so, nor the inclination to do so. The reason is simple: many of the thieves are his friends and allies in the APC. Buhari talks change, but he is running around with the old breed of politicians. You can always tell a lot about a man by the composition and character of his friends.
Buhari fashions himself as Mr. Integrity, nevertheless, he was not averse to serve under Sani Abacha, one of the most corrupt heads-of-state in the history of Nigeria. Even more significant, Buhari insisted that Abacha was not corrupt at all. On the 10th anniversary of Abacha’s death, Buhari told incredulous Nigerians that all the allegations of looting the treasury leveled against Abacha were “baseless.” He said: “ten years after Abacha, those allegations remain unproven because of lack of facts.”
Buhari held 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 of such monies to the Nigerian government. We can see therefore that, from the point of view of Buhari, only the PDP has the copyright on corruption. Every allegation of corruption leveled against his friends and financiers must surely be “baseless.”
It is this kind of double standard that prompted Buhari to jail Vice-president Ekwueme while only putting President Shagari under house arrest. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti poked fun at this in one of his songs. He said: “Driver commit accident Buhari lock conductor.” Given the many corrupt drivers that abound in Buhari’s APC’s, we can anticipate that he will only be interested in locking up conductors in the unlikely event that he ever becomes president.

Too long man...dnt u thin we need a summary?

adenuga33:
Too long man...dnt u thin we need a summary?

Bro, read. It's not too long. Besides, since we won't live long enough to know ALL we ought, let's learn from others. It's faster.

BTW, address the salient issues raised my the author!

....

What a marvelous article, APC should fear people called Femi, Femi Fanikayode or Femi Aribisala.

Good work bro. I wonder how the old fool is intending to fight corruption when he has the most corrupted people in his campaign team. It's obvious that this not the change that we need now. They can try another time maybe by 2019.

Coming from the same failed preacher whose predictions and postulations have never come to pass, I shyt on this.

This was the same man who infamously, authoritatively and boldly in his vanguard column declared that Buhari would be betrayed by Tinubu and the rest of the APC and therefore would not win the APC primaries. Buhari won the primaries and has been souring ever since, and since that gaffe I stopped taking him seriously.

Therefore I hereby shyt on this thread and declare it failed

Expository piece. Change chanters should read this carefully. Change can't be brought through this questionable alliance. Until worthy changers hit the stage, let's sail on with what we've got.

dein77:


Bro, read. It's not too long. Besides, since we won't live long enough to know ALL we ought, let's learn from others. It's faster.

BTW, address the salient issues raised my the author!

story for the gods

CounsellorWise:
Expository piece. Change chanters should read this carefully. Change can't be brought through this questionable alliance. Until worthy changers hit the stage, let's sail on with what we've got.

For your mind! At this stage, the majority are willing to take their chances and try something different. And if that doesn't work then we keep changing our leaders till we get it right if we must. Ethnic blackmail won't stop this moving train.

GEJ has been tried and tested and has proved to be a disaster.

WisdomFlakes:
Coming from the same failed preacher whose predictions and postulations have never come to pass, I shyt on this.

This was the same man who infamously, authoritatively and boldly in his vanguard column declared that Buhari would be betrayed by Tinubu and the rest of the APC and therefore would not win the APC primaries. Buhari won the primaries and has been souring ever since, and since that gaffe I stopped taking him seriously.

Therefore I hereby shyt on this thread and declare it failed

Remove the wisdom from your name and PLEASE, remind me your early morning PILL's name again. I want to get it for you free of charge till election is done.

CounsellorWise:
Expository piece. Change chanters should read this carefully. Change can't be brought through this questionable alliance. Until worthy changers hit the stage, let's sail on with what we've got.

They will never read. And if they ever do, they are more ready and willing to give a denial rather than try to understand the contents of the article.

There's no change anywhere with these broom folks. Some of us have refused to be deceived!

pacifique:


Remove the wisdom from your name and PLEASE, remind me your early morning PILL's name again. I want to get it for you free of charge till election is done.

U took the words outta my mouth. I was about to bemoan the his view on this matter.

tittop4:
Good work bro. I wonder how the old fool is intending to fight corruption when he has the most corrupted people in his campaign team. It's obvious that this not the change that we need now. They can try another time maybe by 2019.

Any averagely smart person knows that Buhari CANNOT tackle kwaruption like he's making the gullible folks to believe. Not when he's surrounded by thieving politics hyenas.

dein77:



U took the words outta my mouth. I was about to bemoan the foolishness attached to his moniker.

Lol. Na frustration go kill you. NewsFlash: I didn't ask for your validation coz I don't need it. My WisdomFlakes are obviously giving you migraines

WisdomFlakes:


Lol. Na frustration go kill you. NewsFlash: I didn't ask for your validation coz I don't need it. My WisdomFlakes are obviously giving you migraines

Haba! E don reach like that? I'm not a do or die supporter. Whoever wins, Nigeria moves on...

WisdomFlakes:


For your mind! At this stage, the majority are willing to take their chances and try something different. And if that doesn't work then we keep changing our leaders till we get it right if we must. Ethnic blackmail won't stop this moving train.

GEJ has been tried and tested and has proved to be a disaster.

Majority could be deceived too. Your conclusion that the change chanters make up the majority is exaggerated. What hinted ethnicity? You? Maybe. Buhari is too sectional and vengeful for a leader of a diverse nation as ours. That's aside the group he's seated comfortably with. Change will come, not in this shape, not in this form, not from this group.

A very nice article, he hit the nail on the head. one should think objectively before voting. to me apc had change in them, they refuse to give us change but instead gave us a man who suspended our constitution, a man who couldn't multiply his 150 cows in four years, a man who has 1 million in his accout but his daughter attends a school of about $20000. A man who wants to fight corruption but he's been sponsored by most corrupt man in Lagos, Rivers, kwara. people say APC are majoruty just wait till march 28.

My God run my life, the way GEJ run Nigeria--- Amen

i dare Apc e-warrior to say amen to this prayer,
May God run your life the way tinubu runs all the Apc states.

WisdomFlakes:


Lol. Na frustration go kill you. NewsFlash: I didn't ask for your validation coz I don't need it. My WisdomFlakes are obviously giving you migraines

Be wise, if truly that is your name. Or, learn to apply it daily.

WisdomFlakes:
Coming from the same failed preacher whose predictions and postulations have never come to pass, I shyt on this.

This was the same man who infamously, authoritatively and boldly in his vanguard column declared that Buhari would be betrayed by Tinubu and the rest of the APC and therefore would not win the APC primaries. Buhari won the primaries and has been souring ever since, and since that gaffe I stopped taking him seriously.

Therefore I hereby shyt on this thread and declare it failed

Typical APC supporter taking shelter under name calling after get ting nak by facts

WisdomFlakes:
Coming from the same failed preacher whose predictions and postulations have never come to pass, I shyt on this.

This was the same man who infamously, authoritatively and boldly in his vanguard column declared that Buhari would be betrayed by Tinubu and the rest of the APC and therefore would not win the APC primaries. Buhari won the primaries and has been souring ever since, and since that gaffe I stopped taking him seriously.

Therefore I hereby shyt on this thread and declare it failed

Don't deceive youself yaro. I don't think I will win this election. Am going back to Daura.

dein77:


They will never read. And if they ever do, they are more ready and willing to give a denial rather than try to understand the contents of the article.

There's no change anywhere with these broom folks. Some of us have refused to be deceived!

The truth is APC doesn't believe in Change. They're using me to grap power at all cost. That's why am heading back to daura come April. I taya for kwampan.

majority of the people supporting buhari are not doing so because they believe in his empty and deceitful rants rather they are doing it for their ethnic or tribal interest.

erunz:
A very nice article, he hit the nail on the head. one should think objectively before voting. to me apc had change in them, they refuse to give us change but instead gave us a man who suspended our constitution, a man who couldn't multiply his 150 cows in four years, a man who has 1 million in his accout but his daughter attends a school of about $20000. A man who wants to fight corruption but he's been sponsored by most corrupt man in Lagos, Rivers, kwara. people say APC are majoruty just wait till march 28.

My God run my life, the way GEJ run Nigeria--- Amen

i dare Apc e-warrior to say amen to this prayer,
May God run your life the way tinubu runs all the Apc states.

Thank you for your nice contribution. There's NO change coming from the APC.

Their overconfidence wi be deflated come next weekend.

kasiem:
majority of the people supporting buhari are not doing so because they believe in his empty and deceitful rants rather they are doing it for their ethnic or tribal interest.

Another twist.

paBuhari:

The truth is APC doesn't believe in Change. They're using me to grap power at all cost. That's why am heading back to daura come April. I taya for kwampan.

Most of us know. Even those who are denying this sacred truth knows it.

It's just a ploy to grab power and further change their overfed lives.

Nice piece

"I will pardon all those who steal money from 1999 to the tym we are sworn in"(I'm dreaming).........Buhari, 2015.



GEJ till Tinubu has a white teeth.

stebell:
"I will pardon all those who steal money from 1999 to the tym we are sworn in"(I'm dreaming).........Buhari, 2015.



GEJ till Tinubu has a white teeth.

That's all part of the change. That was a calculated statement intended to give safe haven for the tigers and hyenas of the APC.

I'm yet to receive any compelling reason from the broom camp how GMB will fight kwaruption!

For every 1 corrupt APC ledaers, there are at least 3 of its equivalent in PDP........ I challenge anyone to counter this.


Who is deceiving who ? The Aribasala fellow is a loose canon, who spews garbage to be noticed, he is a pseudo intellectual, and i doubt if he should be taken seriously, as worthy of response.

IF Angel Michael comes down from heaven to float a party today in Nigeria, he must be ready to have questionable characters in the party, and if not, he will need to import angels only from heaven. Nigerians with an eye to take an holistic view of the situation sees this, not some narrow minded dunce telling me bullocks.

emiye:
For every 1 corrupt APC ledaers, there are at least 3 of its equivalent in PDP........ I challenge anyone to counter this.


Who is deceiving who ? The Aribasala fellow is a loose canon, who spews garbage to be noticed, he is a pseudo intellectual, and i doubt if he should be taken seriously, as worthy of response.

IF Angel Michael comes down from heaven to float a party today in Nigeria, he must be ready to have questionable characters in the party, and if not, he will need to import angels only from heaven. Nigerians with an eye to take an holistic view of the situation sees this, not some narrow minded dunce telling me bullocks.

Are you minding them? They only want an opposition party that the PDP can intimidate and bully. Or, to them, GEJ must have his second term first before the country can have a worthy opposition. Who are they deceiving?

We need to move from a one-party state to one where elections can be free, fair and credible enough for Nigerians to freely change their underperforming leaders. It's obvious that APC has its fair share of controversial figures relative to the PDP but fact is a Buhari has contested in the past and men of integrity like him don't stand a chance without the Tinubus of this world backing them in our political space.

We need another party at the helm for a change, even if not a perfect one, to take our democratic process to the next level. If this opposition fails this time around with a contender such as Buhari, then without a doubt PDP will grow too powerful to relinquish power and we will in effect have a bonafide one-party state.

Another "PhD" dullard.
Long story.
How much is a Kongo of garri jare?