THE NIGERIAN NATION AGAINST GENERAL BUHARI
By Wole SOYINKA
This intervention has been provoked, not so much by the ambitions of General Buhari to return to power at the head of
a democratic Nigeria, as by declarations of support from directions that leave one totally dumbfounded. It would appear
that some, myself among them, had been overcomplacent about the magnitude of an ambition that seemed as
preposterous as the late effort of General Ibrahim Babangida to aspire yet again to the honour of presiding over a society
that truly seeks a democratic future. What one had dismissed was a rash of illusions, brought about by other political
improbabilities that surround us, however, is being given an air of plausibility by individuals and groupings to which
one had earlier attributed a sense of relevance of historic actualities. Recently, I published an article in the media,
invoking the possible recourse to psychiatric explanation for some of the incongruities in conduct within national
leadership. Now, to tell the truth, I have begun to seriously address the issue of which section of society requires the
services of a psychiatrist. The contest for a seizure of rationality is now so polarized that I am quite reconciled to the fact
it could be those of us on this side, not the opposing school of thought that ought to declare ourselves candidates for a
lunatic asylum. So be it. While that decision hangs in the balance however, the forum is open. Let both sides continue to
address our cases to the electorate, but also prepare to submit ourselves for psychiatric examination.
The time being so close to electoral decision, we can understand the haste of some to resort to shortcuts. In the process
however, we should not commit the error of opening the political space to any alternative whose curative touch to
national afflictions have proven more deadly than the disease. In order to reduce the clutter in our options towards the
forthcoming elections, we urge a beginning from what we do know, what we have undergone, what millions can verify,
what can be sustained by evidence accessible even to the school pupil, the street hawker or a just-come visitor from
outer space. Leaving Buhari aside for now, I propose a commencing exercise that should guide us along the path of
elimination as we examine the existing register of would-be president. That initial exercise can be summed up in the
following speculation: “If it were possible for Olusegun Obasanjo, the actual incumbent, to stand again for election,
would you vote for him?”
If the answer is “yes”, then of course all discussion is at an end. If the answer is ‘No’ however, then it follows that
a choice of a successor made by Obasanjo should be assessed as hovering between extremely dangerous and an outright
kiss of death. The degree of acceptability of such a candidate should also be inversely proportionate to the passion with
which he or she is promoted by the would-be ‘godfather’. We do not lack for open evidence about Obasanjo’s passion in
this respect. From Lagos to the USA, he has taken great pains to assure the nation and the world that the anointed NPN
presidential flag bearer is guaranteed, in his judgment, to carry out his policies. Such an endorsement/anointment is
more than sufficient, in my view, for public acceptance or rejection. Yar’Adua’s candidature amounts to a terminal kiss
from a moribund regime. Nothing against the person of this – I am informed - personable governor, but let him
understand that in addition to the direct source of his emergence, the PDP, on whose platform he stands, represents the
most harrowing of this nation’s nightmares over and beyond even the horrors of the Abacha regime. If he wishes to be
considered on his own merit, now is time for him, as well as others similarly enmeshed, to exercise the moral courage
that goes with his repudiation of that party, a dissociation from its past, and a pledge to reverse its menacing future. We
shall find him an alternative platform on which to stand, and then have him present his credentials along those of other
candidates engaged in forging a credible opposition alliance. Until then, let us bury this particular proposition and
move on to a far graver, looming danger, personified in the history of General Buhari.
The grounds on which General Buhari is being promoted as the alternative choice are not only shaky, but pitifully
naive. History matters. Records are not kept simply to assist the weakness of memory, but to operate as guides to the
future. Of course, we know that human beings change. What the claims of personality change or transformation impose
on us is a rigorous inspection of the evidence, not wishful speculation or behind-the-scenes assurances. Public offence,
crimes against a polity, must be answered in the public space, not in caucuses of bargaining. In Buhari, we have been
offered no evidence of the sheerest prospect of change. On the contrary, all evident suggests that this is one individual
who remains convinced that this is one ex-ruler that the nation cannot call to order.
Buhari – need one remind anyone - was one of the generals who treated a Commission of Enquiry, the Oputa Panel , with
unconcealed disdain. Like Babangida and Abdusalami, he refused to put in appearance even though complaints that
were tabled against him involved a career of gross abuses of power and blatant assault on the fundamental human
rights of the Nigerian citizenry.
Prominent against these charges was an act that amounted to nothing less than judicial murder, the execution of a
citizen under a retroactive decree. Does Decree 20 ring a bell? If not, then, perhaps the names of three youths - Lawal
Ojuolape (30), Bernard Ogedengbe (29) and Bartholomew Owoh (26) do. To put it quite plainly, one of those three –
Ogedengbe - was executed for a crime that did not carry a capital forfeit at the time it was committed. This was an
unconscionable crime, carried out in defiance of the pleas and protests of nearly every sector of the Nigerian and
international community – religious, civil rights, political, trade unions etc. Buhari and his sidekick and his partner-in-
crime, Tunde Idiagbon persisted in this inhuman act for one reason and one reason only: to place Nigerians on notice
that they were now under an iron, inflexible rule, under governance by fear.
The execution of that youthful innocent – for so he was, since the punishment did not exist at the time of commission -
was nothing short of premeditated murder, for which the perpetrators should normally stand trial upon their loss of
immunity. Are we truly expected to forget this violation of our entitlement to security as provided under existing laws?
And even if our sensibilities have become blunted by succeeding seasons of cruelty and brutality, if power itself had so
coarsened the sensibilities also of rulers and corrupted their judgment, what should one rightly expect after they have
been rescued from the snare of power” At the very least, a revaluation, leading hopefully to remorse, and its expression
to a wronged society. At the very least, such a revaluation should engender reticence, silence. In the case of Buhari, it
was the opposite. Since leaving office he has declared in the most categorical terms that he had no regrets over this
murder and would do so again.
Human life is inviolate. The right to life is the uniquely fundamental right on which all other rights are based. The
crime that General Buhari committed against the entire nation went further however, inconceivable as it might first
appear. That crime is one of the most profound negations of civic being. Not content with hammering down the
freedom of expression in general terms, Buhari specifically forbade all public discussion of a return to civilian,
democratic rule. Let us constantly applaud our media – those battle scarred professionals did not completely knuckle
down. They resorted to cartoons and oblique, elliptical references to sustain the people’s campaign for a time-table to
democratic rule. Overt agitation for a democratic time table however remained rigorously suppressed – military
dictatorship, and a specifically incorporated in Buhari and Idiagbon was here to stay. To deprive a people of volition in
their own political direction is to turn a nation into a colony of slaves. Buhari enslaved the nation. He gloated and
gloried in a master-slave relation to the millions of its inhabitants. It is astonishing to find that the same former slaves,
now free of their chains, should clamour to be ruled by one who not only turned their nation into a slave plantation, but
forbade them any discussion of their condition.
So Tai Solarin is already forgotten? Tai who stood at street corners, fearlessly distributing leaflets that took up the
gauntlet where the media had dropped it. Tai who was incarcerated by that regime and denied even the medication for
his asthmatic condition? Tai did not ask to be sent for treatment overseas; all he asked was his traditional medicine that
had proved so effective after years of struggle with asthma!
Nor must we omit the manner of Buhari coming to power and the pattern of his ‘corrective’ rule. Shagari’s NPN had
already run out of steam and was near universally detested – except of course by the handful that still benefited from
that regime of profligacy and rabid fascism. Responsibility for the national condition lay squarely at the door of the
ruling party, obviously, but against whom was Buhari’s coup staged? Judging by the conduct of that regime, it was not
against Shagari’s government but against the opposition. The head of government, on whom primary responsibility lay,
was Shehu Shagari. Yet that individual was kept in cozy house detention in Ikoyi while his powerless deputy, Alex
Ekwueme, was locked up in Kiri-kiri prisons. Such was the Buhari notion of equitable apportionment of guilt and/or
responsibility.
And then the cascade of escapes of the wanted, and culpable politicians. Manhunts across the length and breadth of the
nation, roadblocks everywhere and borders tight as steel zip locks. Lo and behold, the chairman of the party, Chief
Akinloye, strolled out coolly across the border. Richard Akinj i de, Legal Protector of the ruling party, slipped out with
equal ease. The Rice Minister, Umaru Dikko, who declared that Nigerians were yet to eat from dustbins - escaped
through the same airtight dragnet. The clumsy attempt to crate him home was punishment for his ingratitude, since he
went berserk when, after waiting in vain, he concluded that the coup had not been staged, after all, for the immediate
consolidation of the party of extreme right-wing vultures, but for the military hyenas.
The case of the overbearing Secretary-General of the party, Uba Ahmed, was even more noxious. Uba Ahmed was out of
the country at the time. Despite the closure of the Nigerian airspace, he compelled the pilot of his plane to demand
special landing permission, since his passenger load included the almighty Uba Ahmed. Of course, he had not known of
the change in his status since he was airborne. The delighted airport commandant, realizing that he had a much valued
fish swimming willingly into a waiting net, approved the request. Uba Ahmed disembarked into the arms of a military
guard and was promptly clamped in detention. Incredibly, he vanished a few days after and reappeared in safety
overseas. Those whose memories have become calcified should explore the media coverage of that saga. Buhari was
asked to explain the vanished act of this much prized quarry and his response was one of the most arrogant levity.
Coming from one who had shot his way into power on the slogan of ‘dis’pline’, it was nothing short of impudent.
Shall we revisit the tragicomic series of trials that landed several politicians several lifetimes in prison? Recall, if you
please, the ‘judicial’ processes undergone by the septuagenarian Chief Adekunle Ajasin. He was arraigned and tried
before Buhari’s punitive tribunal but acquitted. Dissatisfied, Buhari ordered his re-trial. Again, the Tribunal could not
find this man guilty of a single crime, so once again he was returned for trial, only to be acquitted of all charges of
corruption or abuse of office. Was Chief Ajasin thereby released? No! He was ordered detained indefinitely, simply for
the crime of winning an election and refusing to knuckle under Shagari’s reign of terror.
The conduct of the Buhari regime after his coup was not merely one of double, triple, multiple standards but a cynical
travesty of jus tice. Audu Ogbeh, currently chairman of the Action Congress was one of the few figures of rectitude within
the NPN. Just as he has done in recent times with the PDP, he played the role of an internal critic and reformer,
warning, dissenting, and setting an example of probity within his ministry. For that crime he spent months in unjust
incarceration. Guilty by association? Well, if that was the motivating yardstick of the administration of the Buhari
justice, then it was most selectively applied. The utmost severity of the Buhari-Idiagbon justice was especially reserved
either for the opposition in general, or for those within the ruling party who had showed the sheerest sense of
responsibility and patriotism.
Shall I remind this nation of Buhari’s deliberate humiliating treatment of the Emir of Kano and the Oni of Ife over their
visit to the state of Israel? I hold no brief for traditional rulers and their relationship with governments, but insist on
regarding them as entitled to all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of any Nigerian citizen. This royal duo went to
Israel on their private steam and private business. Simply because the Buhari regime was pursuing some antagonistic
foreign policy towards Israel, a policy of which these traditional rulers were not a part, they were subjected on their
return to a treatment that could only be described as a head masterly chastisement of errant pupils. Since when, may
one ask, did a free citizen of the Nigerian nation require the permission of a head of state to visit a foreign nation that
was willing to offer that tourist a visa.?
One is only too aware that some Nigerians love to point to Buhari’s agenda of discipline as the shining jewel in his
scrap-iron crown. To inculcate discipline however, one must lead by example, obeying laws set down as guides to public
probity. Example speaks louder than declarations, and rulers cannot exempt themselves from the disciplinary strictures
imposed on the overall polity, especially on any issue that seeks to establish a policy for public well-being. The story of
the thirty something suitcases – it would appear that they were even closer to fifty - found unavoidable mention in my
recent memoirs, YOU MUST SET FORTH AT DOWN, written long before Buhari became spoken of as a credible
candidate. For the exercise of a changeover of the national currency, the Nigerian borders – air, sea and land – had
been shut tight. Nothing was supposed to move in or out, not even cattle egrets.
Yet a prominent camel was allowed through that needle’s eye. Not only did Buhari dispatch his aide-de-camp, Jokolo –
later to become an emir - to facilitate the entry of those cases, he ordered the redeployment – as I later discovered - of
the Customs Officer who stood firmly against the entry of the contravening baggage. That officer, the incumbent Vice-
president is now a rival candidate to Buhari, but has somehow, in the meantime, earned a reputation that totally
contradicts his conduct at the time. Wherever the truth lies, it does not redound to the credibility of the dictator of that
time, General Buhari whose word was law, but whose allegiances were clearly negotiable.
Source : http://saharareporters.com/2007/01/14/crimes-buhari-wole-soyinka

2007

Demmocrats:
2007

trying to let u know how time flies and how change of time brings about old foes to become best of pals.
Also to let u know that Buhari disregard for court rulings are not mere incidence rather they were quite glaring before he was voted in because of hatred for a particular group of people by others

look at the disobedience of court orders in Dasuki's case, Nnamdi Kanu and the former NIMASSA's DG.
Nobody is against the fight against corruption but carry it out in line with respect of the rule of law. lack of respect for the rule of law amounts to anarchy and ds might lead us to the state of nature where life was " short, nasty and brutal".
I know most of u won't agree with me because u have no idea of what rule of law is. I am legal practitioner and it hurts me seeing orders of court been disrespected with total impunity all in the name of fighting corruption.

not supprised

Soyinka is singing a new tune now cos before the last elections he claimed Buhari is now a born again democrat isn't that ironic

Anyway no matter how one whitewashed a tomb and termed it changing room to heaven does it take the fact away that its a place for dead bodies

Merry Christmas to Nigerians.

Buharidick:

trying to let u know how time flies and how change of time brings about old foes to become best of pals.
Also to let u know that Buhari disregard for court rulings are not mere incidence rather they were quite glaring before he was voted in because of hatred for a particular group of people by others

We're you telling us now that prof collected bribe?
PROF is supporting him now over Dr Jonathan!
political propagandacrat!!!