Na so now. Blind followers of Barawo Bubu and coNrade Oshi-omo-Ole can't see nothing, even if it is right in front of their nose. Why should Edolites allow themselves to be led into the pit as the Association of Past/Present Criminals, APC coven dwellers have led the country with their next level change scam 419
Esseite: Ambrose Alli University Renovation - Civil Service Complex - Link road between Edo and Delta - Ogbemudia stadium. - Navis road Benin (Concrete tarred) - Gele gele seaport - Edo jobs (200,000) - Azura Power project - N25bn Bond with Nigerian Stock market - Benin industrial park. - Benin Modular refinery. - 200 primary healthcare centres - Edobest for Teachers and instructors etc
Can you help me with one Ize-Iyamu project anywhere in the world including himself, despite being In Edo Govt btw 1999 and 2003 as Chief of Staff and 2003 to 2011 as SSG?...
Understandable. Even the fake coNrade Oshi-omo-Ole knows.
dre11: FLASHBACK: Oshiomhole once wanted building named after Obaseki for ‘selfless service’
Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), once said Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo, worked for the state using his brain and creativity.
Oshiomhole, who praised the governor during the governorship campaign of 2016, said a building at the government house should be named after Obaseki for his selfless service.
Oshiomhole said while he was governor of Edo, Obaseki helped him build the economy team of the state with his network.
“I know my limit. He knows his limit. Godwin Obaseki has worked for seven and half years for the people of Edo state, using his brain, creativity, quietly, not making noise,” Oshiomhole said.
“He sits in the office of the economic team which he built using his network of friends inside the heart of government house without demanding one naira.
“A man like that who will not ask me to give him contracts, but will promise me, comrade, you just do the thinking, we will create the means to actualise your thoughts. And to his credit today, check the books of Edo state, we did not build new structures in government house with government money. That economic team office was built through Godwin’s network. Today, it remains a permanent asset of the state government.
“I want us to be calling that building Godwin Obaseki building. I don’t see your opponent Ize-Iyamu being able to say that. In 2007, check the records, Ize-Iyamu was hiding from EFCC. He didn’t not vote. How can somebody who didn’t vote claim that he made me.
“If you have to look at Godwin and his credentials and you look at a man whose only work, by his CV, was a student and rusticated for two years, he read law but he is not a barrister. That is his foundation. I never gave him government job. Lucky Igbinedion’s mother was reported to have slapped Ize-Iyamu for misleading her son. He tried it with me, but we kept him away. Nothing near government circle. No access to public funds.
“Look at the road to his house, in our books, was dual carriage way. They took the money, constructed the road to his house and stopped. Although we have liquidated the godfathers politically, the entire political family will be liquidated.”
Joshmanuel10: I thought bones used to decay Hmmmmm And if its true dinosaurs existed we should also find their so called fossils here in Nigeria it should be all over the world Its like ppl so start studying dead bodies... Bone will decay oo( banana sized teeth)
You obviously don't realise that most of religion is about studying dead bodies/people.
pretydiva: Soldier come, soldier go, barrack remain It's like Nairaland is against PDP and obaseki. I hardly see campaign pictures of obaseki on front page. But if it's that of Apc, it's straight to front page We the good people of Edo state know who to vote for. Elections are not won on social media
Na so o, dear sis. The APC propagandists are wailing all over nairaland with their concocted lies, but nothing for them and their thief cum acid-throwing cultist.
nairavsdollars: How will APC National chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, raise the hands and campaign for Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, the same man he called a thief and other vile names in the 2016 governorship election in Edo state?
Oshiomhole attacks Edo PDP guber candidate,says he’s a thief
Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State says the gubernatorial candidate of the PDP, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, is desperate to become governor because he wants to get immunity from prosecution for his role in the Dasuki arms deal scandal.
Speaking at the APC campaign flag-off for Edo North at Auchi, Wednesday, Mr. Oshiomhole said the EFCC should do its job and make the PDP candidate face the music for collecting N700m of the Dasuki Arms fund.
The governor, who said he has records of how the past PDP government looted the state resources, said the PDP has no project to point to in Edo North in 10 years.
He said: “According to Pastor’s statement to EFCC, he took the N700m Dasuki fund to their Leader’s house and they shared it in line with the principle of PDP which is ‘share the money’.
“Now EFCC asked how to narrate who and who did you share to, he said ‘ oh we gave various local governments’, they are singing how they shared government’s money for defence exactly same way as local witches used to sing at midnight when there was no light in villages.
“Do you know why he wants to be a governor, Mr Ize-Iyamu wants to be a Governor to get immunity to protect him from prosecution. Today, we ask EFCC why is Ize-Iyamu having confessed to money collected for Defence from Fidelity Bank, having confessed to taking it for purposes other than defence and directing how he shared it, he must face the music that Dasuki and others are facing. Even their leader wrote in his handwriting that he collected N300 million from NSA.
“Do you want to hand over Edo treasury to a thief. I’m a proud Kukuruku man, not the son of a cook, but we don’t take money for Police, money meant for soldiers, money meant for Defence to secure Christians in Churches, Pastors are collecting it and sharing it to their party members...."
ogbeking: You my friend, are very naive. So resignation of political appointees equals loss of election? Meanwhile, over 2000 ordinary citizens who most likely have PVC and whose support counts, decamped to PDP in Etsako West yesterday. But it probably wouldn't matter because they didn't submit resignation letter? The way most of you online think the election would go is far from reality, at least from the view of those of us in the streets of Edo. I'm also trying to grips with the link between Obaseki and IPOB. It's the same baseless sentiments we share that enthroned Buhari, and we're all paying the price today.
It is not impossible with APC propagandists to have engineered the resignation to create hype around their acid-throwing cultist and thief. Careful what you believe from these liars bros.
Ize-Iyamu will take Edo back to Igbinedion’s era – Oshiomhole September 18, 2016
The Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, has criticised a former Governor of the state, Chief Lucky Igbinedion, for saying Oshomhole’s successor will emerge from the Peoples Democratic Party.
Igbinedion, who was governed the state between 1999 and 2007, had recently said that the next governor would not only emerge from his political family but that the party would win by a wide margin.
But Oshiomhole told journalists at the 84th birthday celebration of a former Governor of the Midwestern region, Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia on Saturday that the state would not return to the ”dark era” of the opposition party.
The governor said that the task for residents of state on September 28, the day of the governorship poll, was to choose whether they wanted the house of Igbinedion, as allegedly represented by Pastor Ize-Iyamu, or they wanted to sustain the breakaway.
He explained, “The people have a clear choice to make. You want Igbinedion era back because Ize-Iyamu has been straight forward on it that they want to change this change to the Igbinedion era. Lucky has confirmed that one of their own would be used to reverse the clock back.”
He added, “Edo cannot return to the house of the Igbinedions… They want to use tax payers’ money to celebrate a man who has never served Edo State. ”
He called on people to vote for the All Progressives Congress candidate, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, in order to move the state forward.
“Edo people have seen the light. They cannot go back to the dark era which the Igbinedion house represents. They will consolidate the present gain and raise it to a higher level by voting for Godwin Obaski, who is not and will never be part of the Igbinedions,” he said.
Pastor Ize Iyamu, the Edo PDP flag bearer of the forth coming Governorship election in an interview agreed of being a one time member of a fraternity in University of Benin. He also agreed to being expelled from the university before being accepted back after two years to complete his school as lawyer.
RichBoy247: Okay. Right here on Nairaland, I will read "Obaseki's wife and children dump him, port to APC". By election eve, only Obaseki and Nairaland e-voters will be left in Edo PDP
If there was any truth in that, why is coNrade oshi-omo-Ole paying so much to the Association of Past/Present Criminals, APC e-rats to be spreading propaganda and commenting immediately on their own lies on the same nairaland? Obviously, the blind followers of illiterate, incompetent Barawo Bubu did not think about that. Continue your e-shouting on nairaland as your paymaster does his own town crying around Edo.
dre11: FLASHBACK: Oshiomhole once wanted building named after Obaseki for ‘selfless service’
Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), once said Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo, worked for the state using his brain and creativity.
Oshiomhole, who praised the governor during the governorship campaign of 2016, said a building at the government house should be named after Obaseki for his selfless service.
Oshiomhole said while he was governor of Edo, Obaseki helped him build the economy team of the state with his network.
“I know my limit. He knows his limit. Godwin Obaseki has worked for seven and half years for the people of Edo state, using his brain, creativity, quietly, not making noise,” Oshiomhole said.
“He sits in the office of the economic team which he built using his network of friends inside the heart of government house without demanding one naira.
“A man like that who will not ask me to give him contracts, but will promise me, comrade, you just do the thinking, we will create the means to actualise your thoughts. And to his credit today, check the books of Edo state, we did not build new structures in government house with government money. That economic team office was built through Godwin’s network. Today, it remains a permanent asset of the state government.
“I want us to be calling that building Godwin Obaseki building. I don’t see your opponent Ize-Iyamu being able to say that. In 2007, check the records, Ize-Iyamu was hiding from EFCC. He didn’t not vote. How can somebody who didn’t vote claim that he made me.
“If you have to look at Godwin and his credentials and you look at a man whose only work, by his CV, was a student and rusticated for two years, he read law but he is not a barrister. That is his foundation. I never gave him government job. Lucky Igbinedion’s mother was reported to have slapped Ize-Iyamu for misleading her son. He tried it with me, but we kept him away. Nothing near government circle. No access to public funds.
“Look at the road to his house, in our books, was dual carriage way. They took the money, constructed the road to his house and stopped. Although we have liquidated the godfathers politically, the entire political family will be liquidated.”
Grandmeister: You go to school but instead of being able to question things for yourself you end up being an educated robot! Carbon dating is so convinent in the sense that the years are put so far in the past that it superceeds recorded history so no one can go back to disprove it..the metric used in carbon dating(and other dating means) is still determined by MAN! The Gregorian calendar for example was invented by man and since then we’ve being using (atleast most of the world has)..the world time zones too was adopted by man but all these are different in the sense that man was able to witness them and assign a metric to them..but how the fvck do you assign a metric to an event/time that no human ever witnessed and then stand upon it as infallible??
Science, unlike religion, does not give the impression that it is infallible, hence continuous research to update and sometimes disprove previously held standards.
PHAYOL81: It ain't by force to stay in Lagos. We only need the lots who would contribute effectively to the development, not the useless lots hoping to see its rot. Anybody is allowed to try another if Lagos is giving him/her some headache instead of wailing all the time about it.
simplesearch: Anytime science undertake a travel back in time they almost always end up making a fool of themselves. Past events for which one is not an eye witness can only be learnt by written or recorded evidence(s) procured by eye witnesses to such times and event, this is further handed down and preserved through history by same medium, no scientific equipment can undertake a procedure by itself i.e sensing and divulging abstract information by itself . The second factor to obtaining accurate info on past event can only be through God himself who created all things from the beginning, this was the means by which Moses was able to learn and accurately pen down vital details on creation without making a single mistake, and till date none has been able to provide a convincing alternative to that narration. In a nutshell, No equipment can practically go back in time and none can navigate to the nearest future except in theory, this fact is evident to Albert Einstein himself.
Ojady: These animals may have been wiped out during the flood of Noah's time. I doubt that though, as only land animals were recorded as having 'died'. This suggests that, some of the water animals, if not all-did not die, rather some of these beasts MAY HAVE dived deeper and deeper into the darkest parts of the oceans, into the earth's core. Such creatures only being seen when, there is an earthquake or tsunami - either due to their moving or their being pushed up a bit closer up to where humans are able to sight them. The movie 'The Meg" starring Jason Statham and sea-farers attesting to this. The ocean is loaded.
Joedoyle: And man will soon evolve, right? Don't worry. I enjoy science and practice science but anything beyond science is what I don't appreciate. Do yo know why scientist won't believe in God, let me tell you. Because they can't prove God existence in their way! Most science is just fiction and portrays folly art. Yes, this animals might have exist with their stated dimensions but the scientist date of existence is faked!
IMAliyu: The thing is annoying guy. The type of reasoning from these folk is the same thing that created Boko haram and why they were against education and could not fathom modern science. But ironically will still use technologies and devices which are the product of the same science education they are against.
The irony does not stop there. The same guys will be abusing Boko Haram terrorists for being against books/Western education, but using western technology for their propaganda and wars.
omanzo02: Religion is to spread fear and trick people into submission, simple. The people that sold religion to us had long moved on to something new with science and planning to send people to live on Mars, discovered other planets that could sustain life, building spaceships that could travel lightyears and eager to discover what's on the other side of the black hole, already knows the sun is gradually dieing out etc.
We also had our own organised religion, which the Arabs and then the whites wiped out, by tricking us into believing that their own worship/God version is better.
dazzlingd: Very funny, science never claimed to be perfect, that's why there are researches daily to update. But it is still the best way to unraveling mysteries, answering questions and solving human problems... Since the inception of time, nothing else has ever been known to do it better
hidhrhis: if crocodile evolve during the years what causes the evolution the discovery isnt what they should be focused on but what is causing the evolution
They have left that part for us blacks to work on. Or do you expect the oyinbos to do everything, when we are equally intelligent and have 24 hours daily?
stanluiz: There's no way that airport will cost $2.2 billions dollars.
Better oil dey your head.
Oct 8, 2019
The Newest U.S. Airport Will Open Thursday In A North Dakota Oil Boomtown
The new airport cost $273 million, financed with $106 million from the FAA, $55 million from the state and $112 million from bonds supported by airport revenue.
NgeneUkwenu: Discipline Him For Saying Things As There Are? Discipline Him For Saying Things As There Are?
Only a Lunatic, IPOB Vandal Or A PDP Dreamer, Will Not See The Sign That Thief Obaseki Is Not Retuning To The Osadebe House After Next Month ...
We Will Bundle Him Straight To The EFCC Office For Grilling....
Na who do you this thing
dre11: FLASHBACK: Oshiomhole once wanted building named after Obaseki for ‘selfless service’
Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), once said Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo, worked for the state using his brain and creativity.
Oshiomhole, who praised the governor during the governorship campaign of 2016, said a building at the government house should be named after Obaseki for his selfless service.
Oshiomhole said while he was governor of Edo, Obaseki helped him build the economy team of the state with his network.
“I know my limit. He knows his limit. Godwin Obaseki has worked for seven and half years for the people of Edo state, using his brain, creativity, quietly, not making noise,” Oshiomhole said.
“He sits in the office of the economic team which he built using his network of friends inside the heart of government house without demanding one naira.
“A man like that who will not ask me to give him contracts, but will promise me, comrade, you just do the thinking, we will create the means to actualise your thoughts. And to his credit today, check the books of Edo state, we did not build new structures in government house with government money. That economic team office was built through Godwin’s network. Today, it remains a permanent asset of the state government.
“I want us to be calling that building Godwin Obaseki building. I don’t see your opponent Ize-Iyamu being able to say that. In 2007, check the records, Ize-Iyamu was hiding from EFCC. He didn’t not vote. How can somebody who didn’t vote claim that he made me.
“If you have to look at Godwin and his credentials and you look at a man whose only work, by his CV, was a student and rusticated for two years, he read law but he is not a barrister. That is his foundation. I never gave him government job. Lucky Igbinedion’s mother was reported to have slapped Ize-Iyamu for misleading her son. He tried it with me, but we kept him away. Nothing near government circle. No access to public funds.
“Look at the road to his house, in our books, was dual carriage way. They took the money, constructed the road to his house and stopped. Although we have liquidated the godfathers politically, the entire political family will be liquidated.”
Buddy0: Why na... He said nothing but the truth. Everybody knows obaseki is loosing this election.
Is that why coNrade Oshi-omo-Ole is shouting upandan like a patient in Uselu psychiatric hospital
RuudVanNisteroy: Adams Oshiomhole told the world that Ize Iyamu was a cultist who was rusticated after he deformed another student by pouring acid on him and also a thief who looted the state dry when he was Secretary to the State Government, under convicted thief Lucky Igbinedion.
allthingsgood: It's not that dino stole, but he is constitutionally forbidden from having foreign account
Was that not what ThiefNuibu was wrongly exonerated from at the CCT
Freegift75: Code Of Conduct Tribunal Freed Bola Tinubu In Error – Rotimi Jacobs . . . Rotimi Jacobs, a senior advocate of Nigeria and the Federal Government prosecuting counsel in the 13 count charge of false assets declaration trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki on Thursday said the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) was misled to discharge former Governor of Lagos State Bola Ahmed Tinubu when he was arraigned before it in November 2011.
Bar1941: Mumu, can't you click the link and see how the Military in 2014 during your saviour's era barricaded a news outlet and prevented them from dispersing the dailies? Emergennce of Buhari was as a result of GEJ's incompetence, It's just unfortunate we did not have a better option then.
Those who promoted Barawo Bubu in 2015 knew his antecedents that he was not better than Jonathan and should have stuck with the less bad option, if they were smart and not selfish greedy pretenders. Not so
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 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.
Professor Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian playwright and poet. He is the first African to be awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature (1986).
This article was first published in January 2007 on Sahara Reporters with the title, The Nigerian Nation Against General Buhari.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
BUHARRRIIIIII AND HIS COWS ARE STUPID! This country is getting worse every single day. This is what happens when a cretin is elected by his fellow cretins to lead a large populations of cretins. Pathetic!
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