As the war on corruption heightens, the political
battle-line between the governing All Progressives
Congress, APC and the opposition Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP has sharply been drawn.
While leaders from both parties voice out their
support for the clean-up of the country by ridding it
of corruption, the National Working Committee of
the PDP seems clearly to be working contrary to the
anti-corruption rhetoric of their Board of Trustees.
Their public communication organs have, in
particular, become increasingly combative against
the exercise. All that the President, leading the APC
change orchestra is trying to do is to revamp a
moribund nation with growth, jobs and recovered
looted funds.
Sadly, only a few, if any in Wadata House are
treating the war against corruption as the extra-
ordinary event which it is. Instead, when they speak
up, they do so most ardently against it. In a clear
demonstration of abstructist politics, they challenge
the government in every move it makes, but fail to
spell out alternative roadmaps to curbing the
monstrous corruption that threatens to consume the
country; they rush to condemn and dramatize even
the smallest of measures which, given time and
patience will manifest through positive outcomes.
Doing this gives the PDP the illusion of being an
effective opposition party but taken in the context of
national interest and the mood of the nation, it is
doubtful it it is yielding anything beyond limited
political returns. To most Nigerians, the
cacophonous opposition is just a media spectacle
to distract or mellow the President.
After an historic loss in an election to the
opposition for the first time in the annals of this
country’s political history, PDP has not looked
inwards in any serious way to seek its revival. The
first and major leap at reform ended disastrously
when first, the party establishment rejected a well-
timed apology tendered on its behalf for their past
failures. Then, the leader of the reform movement
got himself mired in allegations leading to court
charges of the theft of billions of Naira voted for
weapons purchase to fight terror in the North East.
Chief Raymond Dokpesi’s trial ( and Col. Dasuki’s)
is no doubt a serious blow to any prospects of a
turn-around in the PDP.
The party did not seek democratize their internal
organization, a major reason for their implosion
leading to the loss of the election or began thinking
innovatively about the challenges of modern day
Nigeria, nor have they got a “Plan B” that is inviting
to the voters.
It is this failure to reckon with, or look at the real
issues confronting the party and the nation that led
to their call for an investigation of President Buhari
for having been supplied two jeeps by the erstwhile
Jonathan administration after the personal bullet-
proof jeep he owned was bombed by yet unknown
assailants.
As the Special Adviser to the President, Femi
Adesina said, issuance of the cars,soon after this
incident was merely a face-saving move, intended
to cover the government’s failure to keep its duty to
this particular former leader.
The law, cited as the Remuneration of Former
Presidents and Heads of State (and other Ancillary
Matters), entitles former Nigerian Presidents
including General Muhammadu Buhari to “three
vehicles to be bought by the Federal Government
and liable to be replaced every four years”.
Cars are just a few in a litany of entitlements
written in that law although it is contestable to say
that General Buhari had been given his due
entitlements by successive administrations as
provided thereunder.
Regime after regime treated him as if he was not a
former Head of State.
General Abacha came on the saddle and wanted to
throw everything at Buhari who, knowing his very
nature declined virtually but his military pension.
The military in particular treated him so badly that
its leaders kept silent when the PDP charged that
he didn’t have WAEC papers.
One shameless Army Records officer said that the
former Head of State had no records at all under
their system. General Buhari went without a full
compliment of armed guards from the army he
served at the highest level until the dastardly bomb
attack on his convoy in April 2014. It was at this
time that the Chief of Army Staff at that time
thought it necessary to reinstate the armed convoy
to protect him.
When they brought the two cars within a few days
of his being bombed, the staff of the General were
merely informed that this was from the Federal
Government in fulfillment of its obligation to him.
Since this was an entitlement long-overdue, not
minding that it came short of what was expected,
there was absolutely nothing wrong on the part of
the General for accepting that which was due to
him.
This hashtag “#Buharigate” was intended as a
counterpoise to “Dasukigate,” the phenomenal
corruption scheme by which money intended for
weapons to fight terror was shared among PDP
leaders. It was a fake intervention and a malicious
propaganda against the president, obviously
intended to detract from his enormously huge
reputational capital, the basis on which the APC
nation-wide victory was founded.
The #Buharigate failed to gain traction because was
seen as an opposition overreach and a desperate
attempt to tarnish his hard-earned name and
nothing more. No serious blogger therefore paid a
serious attention to it.
This baseless allegation that the President had
benefitted from the diversion of money intended to
fight insurgency under the former National Security
Adviser equally underlines the cruel nature of
today’s politics, that even the best personal
examples cannot keep a leader from the tar brush
of the opponent.
Apart from seeking to mellow the President, I
suspect that the opposition had thought these
attacks would revive the collapsed fortunes of the
PDP while at the same time projecting their leaders
as victims of persecution in the hands of the APC
administration.
What however is encouraging in the country today is
that Nigerians have thrown their full weight behind
the war on corruption. This itself is an account the
constructive nature of the government’s engagement
against the vice and the determination with which it
is being fought. Adding impetus and flavor is the
frustration at the routionisation of corruption by the
last administration and their inadequate and
impotent efforts to curb and punish high-profile
offenders.
My concluding augment is that President Buhari’s
election and war against terrorism and corruption
have become a template. In Niger, Chad and Ghana
where there will be elections next year, opposition
candidates are parading themselves as the “Buhari”
of their own country.
President Buhari must have himself been
embarrassed by calls, through newspaper articles,
posters and banners in the course of his visits to
these friendly countries, saying “we want Buhari type
elections; we will wage Buhari-type anti-corruption
war”.
One Chadian political party published an advertorial
asking their government to procure and issue
permanent voters cards as well as the use of card
readers in the coming election and if the funds were
not available, “let us borrow from Nigeria” for the
coming elections.
President Buhari was and is far, far away from, and
remains untouched by the “Dasukigate”.
“#Buharigate” is therefore a fraud and an
unbecoming spectacle designed to tarnish the
illustrious record of the President so as to mellow
his anti-corruption drive.
It failed because it was born out of desperation to
gain sympathy by an opposition that can’t heal itself
unless it comes to terms with the danger of
corruption they thrived in, and the party’s internal
structures are overhauled and remade to meet the
minimum requirements of a democratic
organization.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/12/buharigate-as-the-limit-of-obstructionist-politics-by-garba-shehu/

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Note: Mallam Garba Shehu is the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity.
www.vanguardngr.com/2015/12/buharigate-as-the-limit-of-obstructionist-politics-by-garba-shehu/

Aso Rock Maintenance Fee for 2016 is N19bn. Those who normally scream under Goodluck Jonathan are now silent. What changed?

PDP and desperation are like bread and butter.