Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani Kayode in a recent article spoke
about the 2015 presidential candidates. Read his long article and let us know what
you think...
Major General Muhammadu Buhari has emerged as the APC
flagbearer for the 2015 Presidential election and President Goodluck
Jonathan has emerged for the PDP. The battle for the soul and future of our
nation now begins.
Let us consider Buhari. On 22nd July 2014 he told The Nation
Newspaper that "our country has gone through several rough patches, but
never before have I seen a Nigerian President declare war on his own country as
we are seeing now.
Never before have I seen a Nigerian President deploy federal institutions
in the service of partisanship as we are witnessing now. Never before have I
seen a Nigerian President utilize the common wealth to subvert the system and
punish the opposition, all in the name of politics. Our nation has suffered
serious consequences in the past for egregious acts that are not even close to
what we are seeing now. It is time to pull the brakes''.
One may have been prepared to accept the general's words as being those
of a genuinely concerned and committed patriot who simply wanted our President
and his Government to do a better job and who was worried about the unfolding
situation in our country if he had not consistently exposed his true colors and
his obvious soft spot for Boko Haram.
Permit me to share just one example of the expression of that soft spot
in this contribution. On 3rd June 2013, Thisday Newspaper led their newspaper
with the following headline: ''The military offensive against Boko Haram is
anti-north- General Muhammadu Buhari''.
The headline was followed by these words: ''Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari,
has criticised the declaration of state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe
States and the subsequent military offensive against the Boko Haram Islamic
sect. Buhari, who featured on the “Guest of the Week,” a Hausa programme of the
Kaduna-based Liberty Radio, yesterday said the federal government’s action was
a gross injustice against the north. According to him, unlike the special
treatment the federal government gave to the Niger Delta militants, the Boko
Haram members were being killed and their houses demolished. He said he was not
in support of the declaration of state of emergency in the three north-eastern
states because President Goodluck Jonathan had failed from the outset in
addressing the security situation in the country''.
The implications of these shameful and indefensible comments, coming from
a former Head of State, are obvious and self-evident. If the truth be told
Buhari's peculiar affinity with the terrorists and his fawning about their
safety and welfare is as unbearable as it is nauseating.
Yet that same General Buhari who said these unacceptable things one year
ago is now busy pontificating about his concerns for our nation. Many would
argue that that is pretty rich coming from him given his past comments about a
ruthless group of terrorists who, more than any other, merit the award for the
greatest ''troublers of our nation''. Given this I regard Buhari's comments to
the Nation Newspaper on the 22 July 2014 as nothing but self-serving and
belated clap trap and balderdash.
Yet this clap trap and balderdash is worthy of a little attention. Of particular
interest to me were the following words: ''never before have I seen a Nigerian
President declare war on his own country as we are seeing now''. Really?
Correct me if I am wrong but I thought that the war that President Goodluck
Jonathan had declared was against terrorism and Boko Haram and not
against the Nigerian people.
Does General Buhari find it difficult to make a distinction between the
jihadists and the Nigerian people? Does he see them as being one and the same?
Does he actually equate members of Jama'at ahl as-sunnah li-d-da'wa wa-l-jihad
with the Nigerian people? Does he regard the military offensive against Boko
Haram as being an offensive against OUR people? Does he honestly believe that
anytime that a Boko Haram terrorist is killed by our Armed Forces and security
agencies or that his house is blown up that it is an attack on the Nigerian
people or an assault on the north? Are those people that Boko Haram
slaughtering, terrorising, abducting, pillaging, robbing and raping on a daily
basis all over our country not the real Nigerians?
Does he honestly believe that Boko Haram is representative of the
thinking of our people or even the majority of the people in the muslim north?
Has this man not lost touch with reality? Does he really belong to the 21st
century or is he nothing more than an old relic from the distant past who
secretly craves for a return to the norms, ways and values of 6th century Saudi Arabia
Is he still insisting on having another muslim as his running mate in
order to establish his strange dream of a muslim/muslim President and Vice
President for our country or has he shelved that idea due to political pressure
from President Olusegun Obasanjo, public resentment and bitter
outrage?
Has he beat a tactical retreat from the muslim/muslim adventure and
finally opted for Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Professor Yemi Osibajo,
Governor Kayode Fayemi or some other yoruba christian to be his running mate as
my sources are suggesting?
I must confess that all three of these individuals are profoundly good
men and are eminently qualified for the job but does this latest concession
come from the heart or is it just a ruse and an attempt to appease the
christian community? Is it an attempt to lure them in and make them drop their
guard? Does Buhari have any respect for Christians?
Does he have any empathy with the christian community in northern Nigeria
Does he regard christians as being human beings? Does he accept the fact
that Boko Haram are nothing but beasts? Does he recognise the fact that no-one
has the right to take the life of another human being in the name of religion?
Does he know that compulsion has no place in any civilised religion and that
each human being has the right to exercise his or her free will to determine
which religious faith he or she wishes to espouse?
Does Buhari understand the meaning of the words ''secular state'' or the
concept of the secularity of the state? Can he possibly accept the virtues and
comprehend the wisdom of such an equitable and reasonable constitutional
arrangement which guarantees the rights of all faiths and which does not allow
one faith to laud it over another anywhere in our country?
Does he recognise the fact that Nigeria
Does the General support paedophiles, sexual predators, sociopaths,
sadistic perverts and the criminally-insane like the Boko Haram leader Abubakar
Shekau who are sexually attracted to innocent and defenceless little girls and
who believe that they can be ''sold in the market'' and ''forced into marriage
and slavery?'' Does he honestly believe that Boko Haram are human beings? Does
this man that wants to be President of our country not recognise a heartless
and callous beast when he sees one?
Does the wanton and relentless shedding of rivers of innocent blood,
including the blood of children, not move his heart? Does the open abduction of
almost 300 little girls, each of whom is young enough to be his grandaughter,
from the sanctity of their school dormitory in the dead of the night not evoke
pity in him and not stir him to rage?
Does he have any compassion and does he feel no pain for the suffering of
the victims of Boko Haram? Does he know that Boko Haram has killed as many
muslims as they have christians in their insane attempt to establish an islamic
fundamentalist state in our country?
Is his inability to make a distinction between Boko Haram and the
Nigerian people informed by the fact that he is a closet Haramite whose stated
desire is to ''spread sharia throughout the whole of the country'' as he said
in 2001? Does Buhari still believe that ''muslims should only vote for
muslims’’ or ‘’for those that will protect
their interest'' as he said in 2001?
Does he still believe that ''christians should not worry when muslims
chop off their own arms and hands in the name of sharia because it is none of
their business'' as he said in 2001? Does he still believe that Boko Haram
members should be forgiven, granted amnesty, pampered, sent abroad to learn and
given monthly allowances ‘’like the Niger Delta militants’’ as he suggested in
2013?
Does he still believe that , if he is not elected as President in 2015,
''the dog and the baboon shall both be soaked in blood''?
The questions are legion. Given his views about Boko Haram does General
Muhammadu Buhari have the moral right to condemn anyone, least of all the
President and the Federal Government, for the challenges that we are facing in
this country?
Never before have I seen a former Nigerian Head of State openly express
sympathy and covertly support a murderous and bestial terrorist organisation
that has killed well over 30,000 innocent Nigerians in cold blood, that has
abducted and raped our little girls and that has slit the throats and drained
the blood of our young boys.
Never before have I seen a former Nigerian Head of State openly defend a
bunch of cowardly, uncouth and barbaric jihadists that have bombed and burnt
alive the weak, the vulnerable and the elderly in our country and that have
slaughtered our soldiers, policemen and intelligence agents at will and with
such callousness and glee.
Never before have I seen a former Nigerian Head of State openly canvass
restraint and mercy for a bunch of bloodthirsty, cold-blooded mass murderers
and criminals that have turned our country into a pariah nation, that has made
the north the home of the most callous, ruthless, hateful, vile and evil
terrorist organisation in the world and that has transformed our nation into a
horrendous haven for ruthless islamic fundamentalists and bloodthirsty islamist
militias.
If the truth must be told the only thing that is worse than Boko Haram
are those in the Nigerian political class that secretly support and covertly
assist them. A Buhari Presidency would be a disaster for our country, a danger
to the Christian community and clear evidence of the final victory and triumph
of Boko Haram and the jihadists over the Nigerian state. It would also
represent the end of Nigeria
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