I believe in the Buhari and Tunde Bakare's Team and I have no apologies for anyone. He stood up with the SNG against the era of the Dead president's Junta just to advocate and make GEJ the president, those so called "champions of democracy" who were actually traitors kept quiet just to benefit from the Turai Yaradua's cabal. I have no confidence in the Jonathan's candidacy because he represents Obasanjo and the PDP's Do or Die politics!!! Jonathan should remember that those he refers to as "Western Rascals" lead the struggle that put him where he is now. Lastly, if Tunde Bakare does not win; it won't be a big deal because Gani Fawehinmi also contested in this country and Nigerians did not Vote for him. Leadership is not our problem in this country, WE ARE OUR PROBLEM!!!!

my vote too, and I can guarantee you additional 10 i am sure of! cheers and keep the good work

I join the group, GEJ has disappointed me.

GEJ has not seen Rascals, Rascals he asks for Rascals he would get!!!

GEJ and Sambo? Those two opportunist cowards arent getting my votes either. Its glaring everything will remain the same.
B/B jo!

Count me in. GEJ is simply a wasted opportunity

Me too.

I am already there b4 u guyz.

my vote also goes to BUHARI/BAKARE

Lets be very Bold about our BB

Definately am in guys,  We must get it right now or never,  BB all the way

#BB support! #NewNig JOY

Buhari/Bakare 2011 here I join!

Oshee 2011!!

Me too, no sentiment. We need change

I go for Nuhu Ribadu. Its possible. He is the change we need not people that put Shagari in a Luxurious house arrest while southerners were made to suffer in Kirikiri. We may need to start a new thread on the anti human postures of Buhari. Though i have never doubt his anti corruption posture. RIBADU its possible

seanet02:

I go for Nuhu Ribadu. Its possible. He is the change we need not people that put Shagari in a Luxurious house arrest while southerners were made to suffer in Kirikiri. We may need to start a new thread on the anti human postures of Buhari. Though i have never doubt his anti corruption posture. RIBADU its possible

How old were you then, did you experience it first hand or you were told? Please I'm not trying to diss you. Let me get the facts

I am very scared of the many concessions of the GEJ government to the governors so he could stay i power. Therefore I support the change going to Abuja not the change in Abuja. Buhari/Bakare is my choice. Let us show upright and honest Nigerians that we will vote for them if they aspire for any elective office.

blink182:

How old were you then, did you experience it first hand or you were told? Please I'm not trying to diss you. Let me get the facts

okay , did you know that AWOLOWO was jailed by buhari despite the fact that the man was not a political office holder in the second republic? Did you know that Jakande was brought up before a panel three good times and was cleared the three times by the panel yet buhari locked him up? Were you aware that Ebenezer Babatope spent the whole tenure of buhari in kirikiri despite not being convicted? Were you aware that Bola Ige was jailed for no just reason? And about my age or being present at that time, if i asked you when was Nigeria amalgamated you will say 1914 as if you were present then!! You can try and prove all i posted here as lies.

I wish all of you GOODLUCK

Seanet02. I knew when you converted to Ribadu, you used to be a Buhari until you read one aticle on a thread. and i remember telling you not to just switch over like that.

Have you asked Balarabe Musa, Governor of Kaduna who was equally jailed by Buhari, but came out very recently that Buhari's action was justified. he noted that while he was in prison, his fellow governors where bribing prison warders to get a bigger portion of their daily meals, and he then realized how entrenched these guys had entrenched corruption.

They were lucky. same time in Ghana, there counterparts were all killed by Rawlings.

I dont have a problem with Ribadu, except that he has youthful exuberance and arrogance and will be as viscious as a young Buhari in 1983. the way he talks shows he still has a lot to learn to manage his temper and the way he speaks. he will commit same mistake Buhari made in 1983. You also need to look at Tinubu beside Ribadu!

Buhari for now is wiser, older but remain principled. and bakare, with his age at 50 and a passion for a better nigeria, will complement him.

There are good and the bad of Buhari. I have decided to stick to the good (integrity, honesty and the will to fight corruption)

signing in, BB all the way

I'm in with about 2000 staff strength of the organization i work for.

Rascals Reloaded for Ballot Revolution.

Genbuhari3:

Seanet02. I knew when you converted to Ribadu, you used to be a Buhari until you read one aticle on a thread. and i remember telling you not to just switch over like that.

Have you asked Balarabe Musa, Governor of Kaduna who was equally jailed by Buhari, but came out very recently that Buhari's action was justified. he noted that while he was in prison, his fellow governors where bribing prison warders to get a bigger portion of their daily meals, and he then realized how entrenched these guys had entrenched corruption.

They were lucky. same time in Ghana, there counterparts were all killed by Rawlings.

I dont have a problem with Ribadu, except that he has youthful exuberance and arrogance and will be as viscious as a young Buhari in 1983. the way he talks shows he still has a lot to learn to manage his temper and the way he speaks. he will commit same mistake Buhari made in 1983. You also need to look at Tinubu beside Ribadu!

Buhari for now is wiser, older but remain principled. and bakare, with his age at 50 and a passion for a better nigeria, will complement him.

There are good and the bad of Buhari. I have decided to stick to the good (integrity, honesty and the will to fight corruption)

you are mistaking my support for buhari in thread against him that he is corrupt which is what i can vouch for any day that he remains one of the most incorruptible Nigerian whe have, but you also Have to ACCEPT THAT RIBADU HAS THE SAME QUALITY OF BEING INCORRUPTIBLE BUT DOES NOT HAVE THE NEGATIVITY OF JAILING INCORRUPTIBLE PEOPLE

Seanet02

Oh! You think UPN was not corrupt? I just dont want to mention Awolowo because of the respect I have for him


Go and read the interview of 85-year-old Olanihun Ajayi, one of the old Awoist left, in Punch? Please note the bold. Man we have read well to decide on Buhari


Great Nigeria Insurance caused the palaver between UPN govs and me –Olanihun Ajayi ADEMOLA ONI and ADEOLA BALOGUN Pa- Ajayi Sir Olanihun Ajayi, 85, is one of Nigeria’s earliest lawyers. The retired legal luminary tells ADEMOLA ONI and ADEOLA BALOGUN in his Isara, Ogun State country home the story of his life and how Nigeria can move forward People would be interested in why you chose the legal profession or did you follow somebody’s footsteps? In life, something would occur to you as the thing you would love to have or to be. Particularly at that time, there were not many people we could look up to as role models; the people we had that were very close to us were our teachers, most of whom were not graduates, but they appeared to us to be very good. So, what I wanted to be was to continue as a teacher. I asked the Methodist Church to give me a scholarship to do a nine-month course in England as a teacher, they declined. Then I was stuck, thinking of what I should do, yet, I wanted to go to England and study. I was prepared to go to England but I wanted to be possibly an ambassador; I wanted to study law; I wanted to study economics; and I wanted to do secretarial studies and then a friend of mine said, “Ah, before you finish all these courses, jobs would have finished back in Nigeria.” Then another friend of ours said, ‘Don’t mind him; jobs will continue to multiply, don’t worry.” So, I went to England, I did my A-level, just one subject because I had passed one subject before leaving Nigeria. I started with secretarial studies, and I passed the intermediate and then my friend, Ayo Adebanjo, because we were together, said if I could pass the intermediate in six months, I should try in December and do final part one which I did and passed. Meanwhile, after my A-level, I was admitted to three colleges of University of London. Kings College offered me an admission; University College, London offered me and London School of Economics offered me another. Of course, the vogue at that time was to go to the London School of Economics; so, I chose it. I did my law degree and other professional courses before returning home. You said the Methodist Church declined to assist you going abroad; so, how did you get the money to travel overseas? At that time, I had got married and then I was no longer a teacher. After teaching for two years in Sagamu, I was made the headmaster of a junior primary school and after two or three years, I was made the supervisor of schools for the entire Ijebu province. Then, I was the secretary of the Boys Brigade, Ijebu Battalion and the centenary of the founder of the BB was forthcoming and the Nigerian authorities decided to appoint me as the leader of the BB to represent Nigeria in England for the celebration in 1954. I led three boys for the occasion. When I returned from England, I applied for the scholarship from the Methodist Church, which was declined. Then my wife and I decided to improve our lives and we took part in what is called Esusu (contribution), which was used to finance my trip. At that time, she was carrying our second baby who is now a medical doctor. She came to join me later after a year. She came with a lot of food items, which sustained us for a very long time. While studying, were you combining it with working? Oh yes. Although when I got there, I bought a house of seven rooms with a statutory tenant. What that means is that if you bought a house with a long-staying tenant, the tenant became a statutory tenant. The tenant, who was an old woman, was occupying three rooms, so I was not getting enough rent. When my wife came, she too had to work to complement what we had. I later talked to the old woman who gladly left within a fortnight and we had more rooms. Were you not tempted to stay back in England after your studies? No, settle in England? No, not me. My children were here at home; my mother was here; my mother-in-law was here, so, I decided to come back. When you came back, why didn’t you join the public service? I have never been a government man. I decided to set up my practice because I had been a politician. Even as a student in London, I was the chairman of the Action Group, so I had to be able to practice politics. Why did you go into politics then, money or just the interest? It was just interest, not money. The way Awolowo (Chief Obafemi) was conducting affairs then was inspiring and motivating and encouraging. I didn’t vie for any elective post anyway. We returned from England in 1962 when the problem of the AG was very hot. As a matter of fact, I got enrolled in the Supreme Court as solicitor and advocate on November 2, 1962, that was the day Awolowo was arraigned in court for treasonable felony. But as soon as I left the Supreme Court, I went to join Awolowo’s legal team and it was a good beginning. I was in court when he was convicted even though we knew that it was an ‘arranged’ trial. They tried to pull him down but they couldn‘t do that. But he was imprisoned. Oh, that is not the end of it. When he was imprisoned, his opponents thought that was the end; that he would have become useless politically by the time he came out. But then, God had a purpose for him. He left the prison and came into glory. Nearly all of them who were in prison at that time came into prominence politically. How would you describe your legal career since you concentrated on that when you came back? There was a break, don’t forget, I was in the UAC in 1963 when the going was very bad because we had just returned to Nigeria. I was doing very well but I had to leave after five or six years as the group assistant legal adviser to face my legal work. And then, about three or four months after leaving, came a request from the military governor of the Western Region (then), Col. Oluwole Rotimi inviting me to join his cabinet. So I was there for three years because that was exactly what I told him I would do. He appointed me as commissioner for education and then health. When I had done three years, I went to him and said, “Your Excellency, I think I have done enough; I signed for three years, I have to leave now.’ As a matter of fact, I was overseas when the period of three years ended. He arranged a grand party for all of us in the cabinet where he thanked us for performing wonderfully and he presented us with valuable gifts. That was 1974 and I went back to my private practice. But others in your shoes would want to continue or you didn’t find fulfilment? I enjoyed my period under the Brig.-Gen. as he now is. Oluwole Rotimi and I had as colleagues who were really committed like Alhaji Adegbite, Chief Bayo Akinola, Dr Dewe Aderemi, late TM Aluko, Mrs. Solanke. It was a very beautiful team and we were all putting in our best for the governor, which he appreciated. But then, I wasn’t there to make money. In any case, how much were we paid? We were not paid so much then which is a fact. While there, I was asked if I would buy a piece of government land in new Bodija, Ibadan which I turned down. Awolowo had taught us that once you have a piece of government land, that is the end. So, since I already had one in Surulere, Lagos, I declined. Though some of my friends took advantage and bought, I didn’t. You said you got married before you studied law. Was it that you were of age or you married so early? Oh, I started school very late at the age of 12 in 1937. I qualified as a lawyer when I was 39 or so and I got married at the age of 30. Why did you have to start school so late? Oh, a long story. My father and my mother were very concerned that I should go to school because I was my father’s first born and my mother had so many children who died in her first marriage. They wanted me to go to school, but they were challenged. So, my father said I should follow my uncle so that he would send me to school but he didn’t send me to school. After about 18 months or so, my father sent my sister and my cousin to Epe, where I was with my uncle to find out how I was faring in school. They came and were disappointed; so they came back and reported to my father that Olanihun was not in school. My father took it upon himself to come to Epe to find out what was happening. My uncle apologised to him and he immediately sent me to an Islamic school in Epe. But after three months, I stopped. So, my father came again and found out that I was not in school, and he brought me back to Isara and took me to Wesley School in 1937. So, how was your father able to cope with your school fees? My father was not rich at all. To make ends meet was very difficult. I remember when he had to sell his agbada etu (robe) during a very difficult circumstance to be able to pay my school fees. At other times, he had to sell his gun. At another time, he had to sell his herbal book, which was called Iwe Odumosu to be able to pay my school fees. It was a very difficult time but I was doing very well in school; always coming first and winning prizes. I had a younger brother who had started school before I came back from Epe, but because I was doing better, he had to be withdrawn because my father could not afford to send the two of us at the same time. When you came back from England, how were you able to support the family? Before I went to England, I was in Wesley College to train as a teacher for four years and it was a tough period because there was no money. When I was going to start, there was no money; I had to approach the superintendent minister of Methodist Church in Remo, Rev. W.F. Mello, who was here for many years. I went to him to help me draft a letter to the principal that my fees would be paid later and he gladly did that for me and it was accepted. At the end of the term, I couldn’t pay anything at all. When I came home, my father gave me £6. I don’t know how he got it but I later learnt that my father had to pawn his cocoa farm. During the second year, I suggested to my father to allow me to go to my friend working in Lagos, JS Talabi, who was working in the UAC as a typist; whether he could lend us some money. Talabi insisted that my father had to travel to Lagos to sign the loan agreement before he could lend me money. Of course, the old man who had never been to Lagos, agreed to come with me. At the end of the day, he lent me £12. Then, we products of Wesley College were being paid £5 monthly before our result came and if the result was good, then it would be increased to £7. But with the £5, I was saving towards repayment of the loan Talabi lent us. But my father had died then and I had to repay the loan, the man whom my father pawned his cocoa farm surfaced and demanded his refund, which I paid. In England when my wife came, we had a baby boy who is now a lawyer, we had to send him home when we couldn’t maintain him when he was barely five months to my mother and my in-law. Just about a year before we left England, we had our last baby. When we were returning in October 1962, I had no good pair of shoes. I went to a shop to buy a pair of shoes for £3. I issued a cheque even though I had no money in the bank but when we got to the port, I wrote the bank manager to honour the cheque and promised to send money from Nigeria and he did that. So, you arrived in Nigeria without money? The money in my pocket when I arrived was eight shillings with my wife and baby with three of them already in Nigeria. Mine was a terrible battle with poverty. But when we arrived, we were received as if we were a king. Isara people organised a welcome party for us for a whole week. The Sunday after, we had to go to church for thanksgiving, I had no cloth to wear. So it was my mother-in-law who bought brocade for me to sow; she arranged another attire for my wife for the church. What happened to your house in London; did you sell it? No, we didn’t sell it. We asked someone to look after the house. We asked him to live there free, but collect rents from other tenants. One of the tenants in my house at that time is the present Onipara of Ipara. Anyhow, we got nothing from the house and when we decided to sell it, we were asked to come and pay the electricity bill, which had accumulated so much. So, I had to send money from Nigeria to pay the electricity bill for the house to be sold. We didn’t get a penny from it but I regarded the situation in this way: I didn’t go to England to make money; I went there to study; I studied and I passed, so, I was okay. [b]There is this allegation that some of the testimonies that you gave nailed some of your political associates such as Bisi Onabanjo. That is a vexed question. When we won the election in 1979, the governors of the Oodua Investments appointed me as the chairman of the board of directors of the Great Nigeria Insurance Company, an appointment I didn’t want to take up because I only read about it in the newspapers. I refused and I got support from the Remo UPN but somehow, someone tried to play a dirty game and said Baba Awolowo was not happy about my not taking the appointment. Already, Baba Awolowo was away overseas. When I heard that Awolowo was not happy, I had to take the appointment but unfortunately, Baba didn’t know anything about it. When he came, and said he learnt I had taken up an appointment which I turned down initially, I told him that I had to take it when I heard he was not happy with me. I told him that I got a letter from so and so to that effect and I showed him the letter. When he looked at the letter, he said I should have known better even though the fellow was said to be close to him. Anyhow, the governors wanted me to do a number of things which I didn’t like. In the end, they asked me to look at the contract for the building of the insurance company, which is there now, whether the previous board of directors did the correct thing. Then I made an enquiry and reported back to them that they took the correct step in my findings but they said no, I must cancel the contract. At that time, the contract had been awarded to Boyd, the French building contractor. We cancelled the contract and paid damages of 10 per cent. After a few months, they asked me to fire the architect, who was accused of being an NPN (National Party of Nigeria) man. I told them the man would claim damages, which he did. I had to beg the MD and the man not to insist on the amount he claimed. We were left to appoint the next contractors and I told the governors and we awarded the contract. In the meantime, the governors were quarrelling with me and Baba Awolowo was worried about this and he saw all the governors and me during the national executive meeting of the party in Yola. He told them to leave me to run the company since they appointed me. I thought the matter was settled only to be accused by one of the governors that I awarded the contract to a non-performing contractor and so, we had to look for a performance bond. The heat was so much that I was asked to cancel the contract. Why were the governors so hostile? Well, I don’t know. They said we should meet to consider re-awarding the contract in one of the governors’ houses in Victoria Island. I was shocked when I met the expatriate boss of Boyd Construction Company with Pa Ajasin. Bisi Onabanjo was there; Bola Ige was yet to arrive but his SSG was there. When Onabanjo announced that Boyd would get the contract, I tried to let them know the embarrassment such a step would cause, but Pa Ajasin said, ‘Mr. Ajayi, let them go ahead so that the work would be done.’ Then the coup came and (Muhammadu) Buhari emerged and he said anybody that gave money to a political party had committed an offence. Of course I didn’t know that the contractor, Boyd, had passed money to my party because I was completely out of the show. As a matter of fact, I resigned my appointment about September/October 1983, but I was still communicating with the governors. However, soldiers came and started arresting people. I was arrested and detained by (Oladipo) Diya, who was governor then in Ogun. All the governors were arrested and detained and the soldiers set up a tribunal. There was a good deal of correspondence between the governors and myself and I was told by an elderly friend of ours who was with (Chief Bisi) Onabanjo when the NSO (National Security Organisation) officials came to search his house in Abeokuta. One of the papers in his hand dropped and was picked up by the security agents and incidentally the paper turned out to be one of my letters to Onabanjo. It was that letter that they used to get me arrested. So, the thing that concerned me was a subpoena from the tribunal to come and testify whether the letters were mine. And all I had to do was to answer questions put to me by the prosecutor, which should not have been anything but the person who took on me was Chief Onabanjo and I was with him for about an hour asking me a series of questions. Then of course, the tribunal had to interrupt him for about three times. Then Bola Ige took me up for about 10 minutes. Then Pa Ajasin asked me just one question and that was the end. And then of course Bisi Onabanjo reported to his family and other people that I implicated him and it pleased Bola Ige to join in that regard. When the verdict came and they were imprisoned, Chief Ayo Adebanjo and I decided to go and see Onabanjo’s wife and children. That day, I was so embarrassed because of the terrible things they said to me and I had to leave in real disgrace. But I want to tell you, in whatever you may do, make sure you are sincere, you are honest and make sure that with your fellow man, you are right. If you are right with your fellow man, you are right with God. So, wherever Mrs. Onabanjo saw me, or any of Chief Onabanjo’s children, it is abuse, openly. So, what happened when the governors were released? I was trying to bear it, then Chief Onabanjo was released, so also was Ige and Pa Ajasin. I went to Bola Ige’s house in Ibadan, he was not there; he had gone to Ikenne to see Chief Awolowo. I didn’t go to Onabanjo’s house. So when we met Bola Ige in Ikenne, I said, ‘Bola pleased to see you, we are just coming from Ibadan.’ He said, ‘Thank God you didn’t meet me there, you traitor.’ He said all sorts of things and I wanted to reply him, but Chief Awolowo upbraided us. Like an old and experienced man, Baba had his own opinion, which he did not disclose to me. But this one I remember, immediately they were arrested and detained, (Tunde) Idiagbon made a statement that all the UPN governors had confessed that they took money from so and so and they paid the money to the party and baba felt very bad. He called me and said since he had been born, no man had successfully cornered him like Idiagbon and that he felt it was me who could give him the materials to use to reply him. Baba delivered the paper and everybody shut up when they knew he had debunked their lies. Later, Baba tried to settle Onabanjo and I and I pleaded with him to include Bola Ige.[/b] This allegation came up and I asked how I implicated anyone. For the settlement, Papa invited my wife and Onabanjo’s wife, but Onabanjo’s wife never came and I don’t think she has stepped Papa’s house since then. So, Papa took that very seriously. Anyway, the matter was settled, but not in the minds of Mrs. Onabanjo and family because wherever she saw me then, it was abuse. When I was fed up, I wrote out the whole story in the media and they shut up. How do you think this country can move forward? From time to time, people will say the problem of Nigeria is leadership. It is beyond that. Our problem is really not leadership. There is a need to restructure the country because of its sheer size. Even when the colonialists were here, they divided the country into many parts and the administration was easier. Nigeria is a multi-national country; it is a multi-cultural country; it is a multi-lingual country, a country with different traditions and different attitudes to education. Our way of wearing dresses is different just as we had in the former Soviet Union. There were about six ethnic groups in Yugoslavia and each wanted to go different ways, but their leaders said they must be together. At a stage, Tito was the head of the country and Tito, a general, said no. Then Tito died and the agitation started and there was nobody to hold them together again and they exploded. They killed themselves for about 10 years. The same thing in Czechoslovakia, but the leaders were wise and they mutually agreed to go their own ways. The same thing in Soviet Union and it burst. So, anyone that wants to solve the problem of this country, there must be a sovereign national conference. Unless we do that, we may not have a solution to our problem. We may likely have an explosion as it happened in the former Yugoslavia or we sit down and decide how we want to live together. The death of your wife is something that you are not likely to forget. , Read more at The Punch

[size=14pt]The Crimes of Buhari[/size]

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 Akinjide, 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 justice. 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.



On the theme of double, triple, multiple standards in the enforcement of the law, and indeed of the decrees passed by the Buhari regime at the time, let us recall the notorious case of ‘Triple A’ – Alhaji Alhaji Alhaji, then Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance. – Who was caught, literally, with his pants down in distant Austria. That was not the crime however, and private conduct should always remain restricted to the domain of private censure. There was no decree against civil servants proving just as hormone driven as anyone else, especially outside the nation’s borders. However, there was a clear decree against the keeping of foreign accounts, and this was what emerged from the Austrian escapade. Alhaji Alhaji kept, not one, but several undeclared foreign accounts, and he had no business being in possession of the large amount of foreign currency of which he was robbed by his overnight companion. The media screamed for an even application of the law, but Buhari had turned suddenly deaf.

By contrast, Fela Anikulapo languished in goal for years, sentenced under that very draconian decree. His crime was being in possession of foreign exchange that he had legitimately received for the immediate upkeep of his band as they set off for an international engagement. A vicious sentence was slapped down on Fela by a judge who later became so remorse stricken – at least after Buhari’s overthrow that he went to the King of Afro-beat and apologized.

Lesser known was the traumatic experience of the director of an international communication agency, an affiliate of UNESCO. Akin Fatoyinbo arrived at the airport in complete ignorance of the new currency decree. He was thrown in gaol in especially brutal condition, an experience from which he never fully recovered. It took several months of high-level intervention before that innocent man was eventually freed. These were not exceptional but mere sample cases from among hundreds of others, victims \of a decree that was selectively applied, a decree that routinely penalized innocents and ruined the careers and businesses of many.



What else? What does one choose to include or leave out? What precisely was Ebenezer Babatope’s crime that he should have spent the entire tenure of General Buhari in detention? Nothing beyond the fact that he once warned in the media that Buhari was an ambitious soldier who would bear watching through the lenses of a coup-d’etat. Babatope’s father died while he was in Buhari’s custody, the dictator remained deaf to every plea that he be at least released to attend his father’s funeral, even under guard. I wrote an article at the time, denouncing this pointless insensitivity. So little to demand by a man who was never accused of, nor tried for any crime, much less found guilty. Such a load of vindictiveness that smothered all traces of basic human compassion deserves no further comment in a nation that values its traditions.



But then, speaking the truth was not what Buhari, as a self-imposed leader, was especially enamoured of – enquire of Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor both of whom, faithful to their journalistic calling, published nothing but the truth, yet ended up sentenced under Buhari’s decree. Mind you, no one can say that Buhari was not true to his word. [size=14pt]“I shall tamper with the freedom of the press’ swore the dictator immediately on grabbing office, and this was exactly what he did. [/size]And so on, and on, and on….



The argument of those who say that, by endorsing Buhari, they are settling on someone who can be guaranteed to give Obasanjo and the NPN a good fight, is one of the most depressing excuses I ever encountered for placing a political noose around a nation’s neck. Buhari owes a debt to this nation, not the other way round. If Buhari wishes to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of the citizenry whom he has so cruelly wronged, he should first scuttle his ambitions, then place whatever following he has garnered in the meantime at the disposal of a consensus candidate among the opposition. To insist on another taste of power, after such a history of gross abuse of power is an insult to any nation that values freedom and human dignity. Buhari should sit with the opposition and coordinate strategies to defeat the most unscrupulous act of political gerrymandering that, we all know, is about to be inflicted on the nation by a desperate incumbent seeking for a clone to secure his exit from power. The nation has more than sufficient time and strategic intelligence to organize behind a common choice, publicize his or her qualities and defeat the arrogance of incumbency.



What is being eroded, through the power of suggestion, is a people’s confidence in itself, and this is the beginning of mass suicide. Without that confidence, no powers on high or on earth, external or internal, can rescue the community from both the palpable and symbolic chains of slavery. To invite back into power a man who did so much to destroy a people’s self-esteem, dignity, and faith in law and justice, is a sign of self-abasement, lack of self-esteem, a slave mentality that dooms, not only the present, but succeeding generations.

I wish to declare, unequivocally, that those of my party, the ARP/DFPF shall not participate in such a degrading surrender.


http://www.saharareporters.com/news-page/crimes-buhari-wole-soyinka



[size=16pt]This is the lunatic we should elect to office? Please no sane person can support this.[/size]

Johndoe

so you are just copying and posting everywhere this achaic article. have you asked wole soyinka if he feels same way today?

traits of propagandist you are exhibiting

Johndoe100:

[size=14pt]The Crimes of Buhari[/size]

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 Akinjide, 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 justice. 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.



On the theme of double, triple, multiple standards in the enforcement of the law, and indeed of the decrees passed by the Buhari regime at the time, let us recall the notorious case of ‘Triple A’ – Alhaji Alhaji Alhaji, then Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance. – Who was caught, literally, with his pants down in distant Austria. That was not the crime however, and private conduct should always remain restricted to the domain of private censure. There was no decree against civil servants proving just as hormone driven as anyone else, especially outside the nation’s borders. However, there was a clear decree against the keeping of foreign accounts, and this was what emerged from the Austrian escapade. Alhaji Alhaji kept, not one, but several undeclared foreign accounts, and he had no business being in possession of the large amount of foreign currency of which he was robbed by his overnight companion. The media screamed for an even application of the law, but Buhari had turned suddenly deaf.

By contrast, Fela Anikulapo languished in goal for years, sentenced under that very draconian decree. His crime was being in possession of foreign exchange that he had legitimately received for the immediate upkeep of his band as they set off for an international engagement. A vicious sentence was slapped down on Fela by a judge who later became so remorse stricken – at least after Buhari’s overthrow that he went to the King of Afro-beat and apologized.

Lesser known was the traumatic experience of the director of an international communication agency, an affiliate of UNESCO. Akin Fatoyinbo arrived at the airport in complete ignorance of the new currency decree. He was thrown in gaol in especially brutal condition, an experience from which he never fully recovered. It took several months of high-level intervention before that innocent man was eventually freed. These were not exceptional but mere sample cases from among hundreds of others, victims \of a decree that was selectively applied, a decree that routinely penalized innocents and ruined the careers and businesses of many.



What else? What does one choose to include or leave out? What precisely was Ebenezer Babatope’s crime that he should have spent the entire tenure of General Buhari in detention? Nothing beyond the fact that he once warned in the media that Buhari was an ambitious soldier who would bear watching through the lenses of a coup-d’etat. Babatope’s father died while he was in Buhari’s custody, the dictator remained deaf to every plea that he be at least released to attend his father’s funeral, even under guard. I wrote an article at the time, denouncing this pointless insensitivity. So little to demand by a man who was never accused of, nor tried for any crime, much less found guilty. Such a load of vindictiveness that smothered all traces of basic human compassion deserves no further comment in a nation that values its traditions.



But then, speaking the truth was not what Buhari, as a self-imposed leader, was especially enamoured of – enquire of Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor both of whom, faithful to their journalistic calling, published nothing but the truth, yet ended up sentenced under Buhari’s decree. Mind you, no one can say that Buhari was not true to his word. [size=14pt]“I shall tamper with the freedom of the press’ swore the dictator immediately on grabbing office, and this was exactly what he did. [/size]And so on, and on, and on….



The argument of those who say that, by endorsing Buhari, they are settling on someone who can be guaranteed to give Obasanjo and the NPN a good fight, is one of the most depressing excuses I ever encountered for placing a political noose around a nation’s neck. Buhari owes a debt to this nation, not the other way round. If Buhari wishes to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of the citizenry whom he has so cruelly wronged, he should first scuttle his ambitions, then place whatever following he has garnered in the meantime at the disposal of a consensus candidate among the opposition. To insist on another taste of power, after such a history of gross abuse of power is an insult to any nation that values freedom and human dignity. Buhari should sit with the opposition and coordinate strategies to defeat the most unscrupulous act of political gerrymandering that, we all know, is about to be inflicted on the nation by a desperate incumbent seeking for a clone to secure his exit from power. The nation has more than sufficient time and strategic intelligence to organize behind a common choice, publicize his or her qualities and defeat the arrogance of incumbency.



What is being eroded, through the power of suggestion, is a people’s confidence in itself, and this is the beginning of mass suicide. Without that confidence, no powers on high or on earth, external or internal, can rescue the community from both the palpable and symbolic chains of slavery. To invite back into power a man who did so much to destroy a people’s self-esteem, dignity, and faith in law and justice, is a sign of self-abasement, lack of self-esteem, a slave mentality that dooms, not only the present, but succeeding generations.

I wish to declare, unequivocally, that those of my party, the ARP/DFPF shall not participate in such a degrading surrender.

what do you expect from a military regime that tried to put the nation on a fresh part? the above is myopic and basically a sentimental thought. please let somebody point out from the above what he did in his own personal interest. when he took over power; he said this, “this generation of Nigerians and indeed future generations have no other country than Nigeria. We shall remain here and salvage it together.”
  that is what he did and still want to do.BB ticket all the way

no to GEJ yes to BB. Buhari all d way!

i wish u all GOODLUCK

caringchi:

[size=14pt]i wish u all GOODLUCK[/size]

Couldn't have said it better myself.

@gen.buhari, where is the evidence in the article that the UPN govs were corrupt? Will you award a contract to an opposition member especially the anti masses NPN?