Defeat Buhari to end carnage in Nigeria

Sir: There were allegations of corruption leveled against the military regime led by Generals Olusegun Obasanjo (OBJ), Shehu Musa Yar’Adua (the elder brother of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua) and Theophilus Danjuma, but it fulfilled the promise of the assassinated General Murtala Mohammed to return power to civil rule in 1979, albeit in its own way, by ensuring that the weak Alhaji Shehu Shagari who would not probe anybody won the election, rather than Chief Obafemi Awolowo or Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.

 Unbridled corruption became the order of the day under Shagari, with the late Olusola Saraki as the Senate leader. Thus Nigerians were happy when Generals Muhammadu Buhari (GMB) and Tunde Idiagbon overthrew Shagari in 1983, but they could not improve the economy as Mohammed did. They declared war against indiscipline but they themselves were not disciplined. For instance, they outlawed taking children on pilgrimage, but Idiagbon took his own child there.

President Buhari

Buhari/Idiagbon military rule was characterised by religious fanaticism and mass abject poverty. In his second coming, since 2015, GMB has been trigger-happy against Boko Haram, while protecting Fulani herdsmen terrorism. Now on the eve of the end of his first term in office, too many lives are still lost on daily basis from war against Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen terrorism. Common Nigerians have become economically emasculated; infrastructure is decaying, and debts are said (by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank) to be skyrocketing. Only a few months ago, GMB bought warplanes from America with some hundreds of millions of dollars, and news of war against Boko Haram, dating back to 2009 remains the order of the day! Where lies the rationale for GMB to seek reelection? He doubles himself as the Petroleum minister; increased fuel price from N97 to N145; recovering looted funds, and he is unaccountable to anybody on anything. What hope can common Nigerians possibly derive from a reckless war-monger?

GMB didn’t disclose his state of health until after his election in 2015 when he said “Age is not on my side.” Thereafter, he made London his own second home until protests in Nigeria and London embarrassed him out of it. How much altogether did GMB squander in his romance with London? Was it not on that basis he also had to spend untold amount of money to renovate the presidential villa? But, much more crucially, why is GMB bent on second term; is he growing younger, or what? Those questions are for Adams Oshiomhole, Ahmed Tinubu, and the rest of them. GMB is claiming to be fighting corruption when common Nigerians experience hyper inflation, business liquidation, and misery. He wants to use cows to occupy Nigeria for his Fulani ethnic group now that jihadist war can no longer be used to subdue humanity in the Christian manner.

Why is GMB bent on third term presidency for the northwest? Ask those who are supporting him and the PDP that is refusing to revert back to rotational presidency. Yet, there’s no doubt that GMB’s priority is not Nigeria but his own old age; Fulani Muslim hegemony that is responsible for the unjust war against Boko Haram, and occupation of Nigeria through creation of ranches with public funds in every state. Boko Haram that GMB is boasting to have degraded is still counter-attacking the Army and killing soldiers massively.

Much more crucially, how is Nigeria really and truly better than GMB met her? Which regime was as bloody and as bankrupt as GMB’s, 1999 till date? Hence Nigeria requires a peace loving person!
Prof. Oyeniran Abioje wrote from University of Ilorin.