By Bashir Adefaka
“Again, how many Nigerian masses – for whose sake this three years administration of a man of integrity, impeccable character, very highly enigmatic and exceptionally pragmatic person by the name Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) – know that it is because the sitting President is working hard to take the ownership of Nigeria from the hands of the few (are they more than five?) self-acclaimed owners of the country and give it back to its rightful owners the PEOPLE OF NIGERIA that all of the challenges we have faced since late 2017 till now are happening?”
We, no doubt, have faced our challenges in the last three years different from the kind of challenges we had faced from May 29, 2015 back to May 29, 1999 for the 16 years of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) the years of nightmare we, as peoples of Nigeria, should never wish for ever again in that those 16 years were 16 years of horror, distortions, deceits, do-or-die, hypocrisy, officially permitted religious bigotry and ethnic sentimentalism, where a particular religious organization broke fake news and misrepresentations against other religious group, a section of the ethnic based society would whip sentiments against another and the media would celebrate those hates and fakeness thereby heating up the polity for as long as it was, snowballing into the very highly tense condition with which the election ushering the current administration into power was conducted, won and lost.
Three years after the elections were won and lost, whereas the winner decided to be magnanimous at victory allowing elements from even the defeated party to come along in governance, the main bloc of the losing party never let go with its defeat. So much that since May 30, 2015 barely 24 hours after it relinquished powers to an opposition that had defeated the incumbent upon all its powers of military, police, DSS and maliciously introduced dollarized electioneering economy, it began to plot the fall of the new Sheriff in Town. The lost-out did not even mind to collapse the country on the new government just to prove a point that it must be back in power – an attestation to the fact that claims of its Presidential arrowhead willingly relinquishing power to the new Sheriff were fake – but the intervention of the international communities.
But is it clear to some so called retired Generals and former rulers of the country, who also were part of the intervention at that time that they were not the real reason that over-bloated ruling party let go with power? Definitely it is not clear to them as such. If it is clear to them, they would not, because the new government that is now three years in power has refused to let them take over the nation’s economy and security control from its hands, now arrogate the powers to decide its fate come 2019 to themselves. It further tells they never ever had free, fair and credible elections in their 16 years in power, if they believe by figment of their own imagination that they can successfully decide the fate of the current Presidency in the 2019 outing.
Again, how many Nigerian masses – for whose sake this three years administration of a man of integrity, impeccable character, very highly enigmatic and exceptionally pragmatic person by the name Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) – know that it is because the sitting President is working hard to take the ownership of Nigeria from the hands of the few (are they more than five?) self-acclaimed owners of the country and give it back to its rightful owners the PEOPLE OF NIGERIA that all of the challenges we have faced since late 2017 till now are happening?
If therefore the masses of the Nigerian people continue to see the “truth” only according to the self-acclaimed few owners who never told them any iota of truth and to treat as lies whatever the man fighting their course in all honesty, sincerity and in the spirit of Godliness and profound push of patriotism and mere propaganda, and in doing so their situation remains not only static but backwardly worsening, for how long therefore would they continue to blame God for their predicaments? Or were we not the people who went to Kaabah, Jerusalem and even organized prayers in Mosques and Churches in this country that the Maker of our lives and country should give Buhari to us at election as our rescuer from the People’s “Destructive” Party (PDP) that already made our lives miserable?
All the economic hardships we have experienced in the market prices and things of such are as a result of sabotage by these fellows who refused to accept their defeat three years after elections had been won and lost. They are the ones causing fuel hardship every December and they are already plotting another December fuel hardship despite abundant availability of products by NNPC. They are the ones who do not want to supply electricity to Nigerians and yet give them crazy bills to make the people get tired of President Muhammadu Buhari and say they do not want him in power in 2019.
These are happening so because they had sold the Nigerian economy to themselves before they handed over power to Buhari: petroleum products (Buhari has refused to renew their oil bloc licence reason they are charging threatening heavens and earth they did not create), electricity distribution rights (DisCos), market price determination, etc, and they are the ones behind unabating smuggling that has badly affected our local manufacturers’ ability to grow.
All the killings we have had since the crossover night of December2017/January2018 till date are offshoots of the bitterness of these supposed leaders of Nigeria who, instead of fighting for the love of country and good of its people, want to collapse the heavens of the country on the Muhammadu Buhari Administration as if when the heavens fall they will only fall on Buhari and will not affect them.
These masses are accepting their falsehood against President Buhari, instead for them to sit back and probe, “We sent these PDP politicians out of power because of their corruption, impunity-incited insecurity and economic parasitism so much that they were borrowing money to pay salaries and they never showed concern for our welfare as they increased fuel price at will and even when they claimed they gave us subsidy we never felt it. Now they are telling us Buhari, whose regime has given us Ajaokuta, Lagos-Ibadan road, East-West road, 2nd Niger Bridge, Enugu-PorthHarcourt road, Onitsha-Enugu road, improved power, better education, health, care for poorest of the poor, etc, has failed and that he is bad supporting his Fulani herdsmen to kill Christians to Islamise Nigeria and all of that. Which President in the world would want to kill the same people that voted for him without money influence?”
But in truth, is it true that Buhari is Islamasing Nigeria? When does he do that? What for? Where has he done one? Which of the Islamic aspect has he implemented in his administration? Who are the people he has involved in the Islamising process? How?
Go to Sokoto and ask Megrima Alhaji Sheikh Dr General Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, Sultan of Sokoto and Ameerul Mu’mineen of Nigeria whether President Muhammadu Buhari has ever said him down to discuss Islamisation of Nigeria. Go and ask the Sultan whether Buhari ever sat him down to discuss the need to Northernise this country. I can say clearly here that Buhari’s government has favoured Christians more than his own Muslims and has favoured Southern Nigerian more than his own Northern Nigeria. Then where is the justification for the Islamisation cries by Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and its fathers in National Christians Elders’ Forum (NCEF)? Where is the justification for the nepotism by Olusegun Obasanjo whose own regime’s crimes against humanity and unity of Nigeria, when open soonest, will be seen by all as the worse of all governments of the Nigerian history?
Instead for the masses to sit back and ask these questions, they are either ignorantly or deliberately giving in to the antics of the deceivers thereby trying hard to make the country ungovernable for the sincere leader.
We have demanded for Buhari to do something about what we call “killer herdsmen”. Even, knowing Nigerian situation for its many packs of deceits and hates, we have concluded immediately that those killers are truly Fulani herdsmen and so that the President, knowing also he is being Fulani, should declare his own Tribe as terrorist organization. When some of us asked why? Some of said because he had declared Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) a terrorist group, so he must declare his own tribe a terrorist organization. This shows the peak of deliberate attempt to cause malice, hate and conflict thereby disturbing the peace of the land. What is the correlation between Fulani ethnic nationality and IPOB? Is IPOB the Igbo Tribe that is recognized by the Constitution of the country? Who on earth, except he is packed with wicked and malicious political games, would identify with a group as IPOB if not a people who do not wish Nigeria well like we found in Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, Senator Oyinnaya Aberibe, Governor of Ekiti Ayodele Fayose, “Pastor Lawyer” Femi Fani-Kayode and other leaders of PDP who think it is the best way to collapse the Buhari government thereby relegating the North after their sponsorship of Niger Delta Avengers approach had woefully failed? If any Northerner thinks Obasanjo is for them, he should forget it. Obasanjo’s main plot is to repeat the Yar’Adua game, cut short the tenure of the North and install a Southerner and Christian from the Akwa Ibom, Cross River axis.
We, both as people and professionals including the media, watched the boasts of making Nigeria ungovernable for Buhari by these elements of ousted powerbrokers of yesterday and saw how they actually exposed themselves as sponsors of the militancy that bombed the five-month old achievements of President Buhari in the area of refineries revitalization and restoration, power generation from inherited 2,600 megawatts up to 5,100 megawatts first ever in the history of power generation in the country so much that their bombing of our oil installations caused economic recession, as oil dependent nation, that we suffered as foreign investors packed out and our oil output daily declined sharply from 2.4 million barrels per day to 800,000 barrels per day.
Particularly as media practitioners, we celebrated those economic terrorism acts of the destroyers but when the government decided to check them by sending down soldiers, as lawyers, “human rights activists” and media practitioners, we were the leading in holding back the hands of the government from taking action when we screamed “persecution” of Niger Delta people who own the oil with which “the Northerners” live. We forgot that the Northerners do not depend solely on our oil as they too had existed living by their own economy before the discovery of the so called oil. We forgot that while Chief Obafemi Awolowo built the Western Region with Cocoa money, Sardauna Ahmadu Bellow had also built the Northern Region with Cotton, Groundnut Pyramid and hide and skin proceeds which were major contributory indices with which national economy grew at that time.
Then President Buhari said and I am not quoting him correctly, “Okay, already our plan is to go to farm and diversify our economy from oil.” He rolled out his plans, Dangote keyed into it with large expanse land of rice production in Jigawa, Atiku Bangudu in Kebbi not only became the largest producer of rice but also he established the largest rice mill in Africa so much that “only” in the December each of the three years, Akinwumi Ambode partners with Kebbi to give affordable and more healthily nutritious rice to his people of Lagos.
Seeing that the President was now succeeding with agriculture away from our oil, these same elements who sponsored Niger Delta Avengers (avenging their party and/or son’s defeat) went on collaborating with already redundant hands they created through political thuggery and now are into cattle rustling and who now are killing people in not only Benue – as these “irresponsible politicians” in the look of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), National Christian Elders’ Forum (NCEF), Afenifere, Ohaneze/IPOB, Middle-Belters want us to believe – but also largely Taraba where over 1,000 Fulani men, women and kids were killed unjustly, Zamfara where at a go 200 people were killed for no just cause, Sokoto where only recently 32 innocent Nigerians were killed.
But CAN and NCEF want us to believe it is Muslim Fulani killing Christians and in that went on to cause the escalation of Barkin Ladin, Plateau killings of over 100 innocent Nigerians who Christian Berons claimed they were revenging for in a reprisal that led to the killing of many innocent Muslim travelers on Jos roads few days after. If Sokoto, Zamfara Muslims now want to revenge the killings of their own people, should they start killing any Christians in sight in their respective states? Why the Federal Government has not commenced arrest and prosecution of CAN and NCEF leaders for these treasons against Nigeria remains a matter of surprise to me.
We then stepped up our demand for President Buhari to do something, painting the picture that he never acted because the killers are his Fulani tribesmen. For such reckless statement to come from beneficiaries of Better Nigeria like Lt. Gen. TY Danjuma, General Olusegun Obasanjo, General Zamani Lekwot who because of similar role he played in Zango Kataff massacres of Nigerians thinking they were killing Muslims was demoted from the rank of Major General to Brigadier General and others, it means people who we rely upon as to lead us back to the lost glory as Nigerian Nation and peoples are indeed the major problems that we have.
Notwithstanding we called for action only for us to discover that actions have always been taken but we as media practitioners chose to only report the problem but avoid reportage of the actions and successes being achieved by the government and its security forces. Then who is fooling who? It is no wonder therefore foreign media restrain themselves from the Nigerian issue because they discovered particularly from the Benue hype that Nigerian media are actually part of the problem of Nigeria. And they were never bothered when Femi Fani-Kayode, Ayodele Fayose and CAN were for their restraint accusing the foreign media: CNN, Aljazeera and BBC of conniving with Buhari’s Fulani by not reporting the distorted crisis.
We all remember how Nigeria was almost turned to religious war situation by Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) when two priests were murdered in Church in Makurdi. Yet, these CAN people were alive when Sheikh Mahmud Ja’afar was murdered in Mosque at his Goronduze base in Kano and when the Islamic cleric killed in Mosque in Zaria without the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) raising religious conflict as solution; that was even under a Christian President who chose the Church as centre where his government policies were issued and announced and who chose the leader of CAN (Ayo Oritsajefor) as contractor supplying weapons to the Nigerian Armed Forces after the President, Goodluck Jonathan, had presented him, Oritsajefor, a Bombardier Jet as a birthday gift.
Now killers of the two Makurdi priests have been arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to death by the same Nigeria under the President of Fulani Tribe to the face of a Governor Samuel Ortom who despite taking security votes in full failed in his duties as he rather cried Federal Government until it became clear that the killers were members of the militia he hired the services of a run-away Boko Haram commander to train.
But those (media) who should also report and hype the actions and achievements of government security forces in that direction to the knowledge of Nigerians chose not to do so. Instead, they hyped how over 100 petitions bothering on genocide and human rights violations have been filed at International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, Kingdom of Netherlands against the same President, Buhari, they so much deride in their own thinking.
To the extent that when ICC invited Buhari recently as mark of honour as the only State Leader invited to come and address the world criminal court on anti-corruption war and security, some of the media – knowing the nature of many Nigerians whose information grab stops at headlines – said “ICC invite Buhari”. And the next thing, the self-mockery Nigerians particularly of the now opposition political group jubilated and said, “When you get there, tell the ICC all the truth about how you kill Nigerians here at home”.
They were in that self-deceit until they began to read from the international media how Buhari had further at ICC become one of world most revered leaders of integrity and pragmatically incorruptible personalities and they were shocked. That was in addition to the glory, economic and security gains he brought from United States of America when President Donald Trump in his own self volition invited him and started pouring encomiums on the Fulani President of Africa’s most populous nation to the glory of Nigeria and Nigerians home and in the Diapora.
Just before I end this piece, the killers of Barkin Ladin have been arrested including the Police Sergeant, Zakariah John, one of those policemen of State “fighting” terrorists in Borno, who supplied weapons to the killers of Barkin Ladin. They have been paraded and are being prosecuted. Still, we still have many Nigerians including the man who is leading the Coalition against the President’s re-election in 2019, Olusegun Obasanjo, saying Buhari is doing nothing; things he would never accept during his own reign as President.
It was under Obasanjo 500 Muslims for real were killed in Yelwa Shendam, same Plateau in 2004 which caused reprisal in Kano because he, as President, failed to act.
Now, to rest my case for now so as to come back at next series, where is our sincerity of demand for the killers when even after we have seen a lot of achievements not only in the area of arrests and prosecutions of such killers but also in the intelligence based discoveries made of the sponsors now being worked upon, we still continue to cry woe of a Fulani President not doing anything? When would we begin to see what the President is doing or has done? When he declares his own Fulani Tribe unjustly as terrorist organization so that after his reign as President he will now return to your tribes of Igbo or Yoruba and rest the rest of his life in retirement?
*Bashir Adefaka is a Lagos-based media practitioner. Send your feedback to him via:omope72@gmail.com TO BE CONTINUED IN PART II.
