FROM VINCENT EGUNYANGA
The world was jolted with the recent bombshell of the wife of
Nigeria’s President Aisha Buhari about her husband President
Muhammadu Buhari, the first lady had revealed that her husband the
President is not in charge of her government, that cabal had taken
over the government and that she does not know most of the Ministers
and she is sure the President does not know most of the Ministers
either. She claimed she only know former governor of Lagos state
Babatunde Raji Fashola and former governor of Rivers state Chibuike
Rotimi Amaechi.
The President in his response declared that the wife belonged to the
kitchen and the bedroom. Many people did not like the Presidents
response to the wife claim, they claimed it degrades womanhood.
But the truth is that Buhari was right. Aisha Buhari does not really
know the man she married. Just as I had written in my past articles
the All Progressives Partry [APC] did not make Buhari President. It
is wrong for the APC to continue to claim they made Buhari President,
instead it is Buhari that made APC what it is today and brought APC to
government or to power. The APC only provided the platform for him to
contest the election, and that was what the President meant when he
said the wife did not know most of his political associates.
Let Aisha Buhari, the APC and those who cared to know that President
Muhammadu Buhari’s journey to the Presidency actually started in
2002. It took him 13 years project to get to ASO ROCK while the
APC is just 2 or 3 years old, so how could anyone claim the APC made
him President.
The first love Nigerian masses especially the poor has for Buhari
started during the campaign for Sharia laws in the North. The
Nation was aghast and provoked when the then governor of Zamfara
state Ahmad Sani launched Sharia in the state. At that time the only
credible voice in the North that supported the introduction of
Sharia laws in the country was then General Muhammadu Buhari. Even
though it elicited negative reactions from Christians, Southerners,
the Media etc it made Buhari popular among the voiceless people and
masses in the North. This is because the message then was that
Sharia would end poverty, street begging, corruption and crime.
Naturally it became attractive to the poor especially the Northern
poor and they began to see Buhari as their only savior who is
courageous to speak the truth. That was how his popularity started.
It was at that point that some of his friends and associates began to
mute the idea of transmitting the popularity to political gains.
They formed an organization known as ‘The Buhari Organisation’
[TBO]. The Principal characters that made up of The Buhari
Organisation included one Air Vice Marshall Muktar Mohammed
although he hailed from Jigawa state but lived in Kano, infact one of
his sons later became a member of the House of Representatives
Representing Kano Federal constituency on the Platform of the All
Nigeria Peoples Party [ANPP], other members of the TBO included
Alhaji Sule Hamma who was the first Director General of the
Organisation, Alhaji Buba Galadima a former Director General of
Nigeria Shippers Council among others. later other people bagan to
join.
Buhari’s first political movement and intention to go into politics
was in 2003. I was a reporter with a National Newspapers in Kano then.
The General was to announce his journey to politics. He journeyed
from Katsina to Kano and was received by a huge crowd of people at
the boundary between Katsina and Kano. His first point of call was
the resident of the Late and former Head of State General Sani
Abacha. In fact it was said the wife of Abacha gave him the first
twenty million Naira [N20m] which he used to start his campaign.
[this however cannot be confirmed]
Of the 3 Political Parties that existed in Nigeria at that time Buhari
decided to join the ANPP to actualize his political ambition. In 2003
he joined the race for the Presidency. At that time there were about
four Presidential aspirants of the ANPP including Buhari. On the
night of the party primaries it was clear that if free, fair and
credible primaries were conducted the General may not win the
nomination. After series of meetings which lasted late in the night
the party came up at around 3.00am that it had adopted Muhammadu
Buhari as its candidate. One of the aspirants Owelle Rochas Okorocha
was furious and he left the party. Buhari became the party’s
candidate and he nominated Dr Chuba Okadigbo as his running mate.
The 2003 Presidential election was said to have been won by the
candidate of the PDP Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. There were series of
protest by Buhari to protest the results of the election using the
platform of the Conference of Nigerias Political Party [ CNPP].
Those who led the street protest included Muhammadu Buhari, Chief
Odimegwu Ojukwu who was then candidate of APGA, Chief Tunji
Braithwaite, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, Barrister Maxi Okwu who was the
secretary of CNPP among others, police used tear gas to disperse these
eminent Nigerians.
There was also a follow up protest in Kano where the Police used
poisoned gas to disperse the protesters. Buhari’s Running mate at
the 2003 election and former Senate President Dr Chuba Okadigbo did
not survive from the poisoned gas until he died. So many Nigerians
died in the struggle to make Buhari President including over 800
people that were killed in protest against the outcome of the 2007
Presidential election. Am not sure Aisha Buhari knew all these.
Buhari also contested the 2007 and the 2011 Presidential election. In
2011 he contested on the platform of the Congress for Progressives
Change [CPC]. In all these elections and the Political evolution of
Buhari most the people in APC now were either in AD, ACN, PDP or
other parties working against him.
Aisha Buhari claimed she does not know most of the Ministers except
Fashola and Amaechi as at 2015 when the APC campaigned for the
Presidency. Too bad. Two of the Ministers Minister of Communications
Alhaji Olarenwajo Shittu and the Minister of state Health Dr
Osagie Ehanire were members of the CPC who formed parts of the APC.
WHAT of Audu Ogbe who in one of the campaigns told the world that the
Bring Back our Girls Campaign was an APC agenda. Eventhough Dr Oby
Ezekwesili denied it at that time events have so far proved he was
right. One of the founding members of the BBOG Dina Melaye is now a
Senator on the platform of the APC while Hadiza Usman is now the
Managing Director of Nigeria Ports Authority [NPA].
THERE were also many PDP members who decamped to the APC before the
2015 election while there were some who remained with the PDP but
worked against the party. The money meant for the election were
pocketed making it easy for the APC to win at the polls.
So the wife of the President need to be reminded that there so many
factors outside the APC that led to her husband becoming the
President.
But to me what should really be an issue is that President Muhammadu
Buhari is now the President of all Nigerians and that is what is
lacking. He need to mobilize all Nigerians irrespective of party
affiliation to move the country forward, unite the people and keep us
out of Recession. If the issue is how to compensate people for
making him win the election then he should go beyond the APC. He
cannot tell us that all the 15million people that voted for him are
APC members. There are many Nigerians who were neither PDP, APC, APGA
etc who voted during the elections. Besides the 15million voters what
of over one hundred and fifty five million Nigerians who either
voted against him or did not vote at all on the election day. Should
they be ignored because they are not APC. Buhari should beware of
his wife so that their case does not become that of Samson and Delilah
in the Bible. Her loyalty is somewhere else.
By the way let us look at President Muhammadu agenda for the country
and see how he has been faithful or unfaithful to it. He said what he
promised the Nation was Security, Create Employment, fight Corruption
etc. He did not include that one of his promises was to kill PDP.
most of his supporters and admirers have been praising him for the
successes allegedly recorded especially in the fight against
corruption and the issue of security.
On the issue of Security they claimed the government has decimated or
defeated Boko Haram and have started releasing some of the abducted
Chibok Girls. To me I can only praise the gallantry and bravery of
Nigerian soldiers and commiserate with the families that have lost
their loved ones. Boko Haram has been defeated no doubt but I refuse
to accept that the government defeated Boko Haram. If we went back to
the first statement by Shekau, Leader of Boko Haram on their mission
which was released five years ago, he said their mission is to
Islamise Nigeria, have a Muslim President in the country and have
Political Parties based on Sharia. Now we have a Muslim President in
the person of Muhammadu Buhari and we have a Political Party the APC
fashioned after the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. That we have a
Christian as the National Chairman of the party the person Chief John
Odigie Oyegun does not stop the allegations, besides a principal
member of the Muslim brotherhood Alhaji Bola Tinubu is already
working for his removal. So to me there is really no reason for
Boko Haram to continue their fight when most of their demands from the
Nigerian state have been met. Besides, security challenges have
continued, the attack from Boko Haram have reduced but we have
continued to have increase in the attack by Fulani Herdsmen.
On the issue of the fight against corruption all Nigerians have agreed
to support the fight against corruption but must be fought within the
ambits of the law. During the first world Press Conference in Abuja in
2003 Muhammadu Buhari told the world that he followed closely the
collapse of Socialism in Eastern Europe and especially the collapse
of the Berlin wall and disintegration of USSR and have come to
realize and accept that the best form of government is Democracy. He
said he is now a Democrat. I urge the President to go back to the
speech he made on that day. There cant be Democracy without the Rule
of Law. To me the fight against corruption should not be to punish
offenders but also to reward people who have refused to corruptly
enrich themselves. During the last governorship election in Edo state
there were allegations that a former commissioner of Police was
offered bribe. The commissioner was said to have refused the offer
and he was transferred out of the state. I expected the members of the
Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, EFCC, POLICE or
even DSS to investigate the allegation. If it was true the
commissioner should be invited by the President for a breakfast
meeting and be given a Presidential handshake. This will go a long way
to tell the world that there are still honest Nigerians and that we
are not all corrupt. It will also tell Nigerians that there are still
some Policemen that are not corrupt. It will improve the image of the
Police and the credibility of the anti corruption fight. Besides we
also heard of politicians given money for vote. We learnt all the
parties were guilty of this. I expect the Presidency to condemn this
openly irrespective of the fact that his party was the beneficiary of
the buying of vote. Election rigging, bribery and vote buying are all
corruption.
ON the claim by Aisha Buhari that if the situation continues she will
not support her husband re election ambition in 2019. She said she
will not mobilize women again to vote for her husband. Exactly my
point. Aisha knows nothing about Nigeria politics. The truth in
Nigeria is that if Buhari contests another election in the country
today he will win. With or without Aisha support. Election in the
country is not about Nigeria, its about interest. Who is going to
defeat Buhari and which political party can defeat APC today. The
biggest opposition party today is the PDP. If Buhari continues his
one sided anti corruption war, by 2019 PDP will be dead. Those who
are waiting to vote out Buhari or APC in 2019 are just wasting their
time.
PLANNED PLAN TO ISLAMISE NIGERIA.
There has been too many talks about plans to Islamise Nigeria. I
really don’t give a damn about that. Religion is not important to me.
Igbos were in the forefront for a Christian Governor in Lagos state.
we now have a Christian governor in Lagos, in what way has his
administration favoured Igbo or Christians in the state. In fact the
discrimination faced under Ambode couldn’t be imagined when Muslims
like Bola Tinubu and Babatunde Fashola both muslims were in office.
Christians and Igbo were treated with respect then than now.
WHAT I ADVISE NIGERIANS TO CONTINUE TO DO FOR NOW IS TO CONTINUE TO
PRAY. NIGERIANS SHOULD CONTINUE TO PRAY TO GOD TO CONTINUE TO
INTERFERE IN THE AFFAIRS OF THE COUNTRY. WE SHOULD NOT LOSE HOPE IN
GOD. OUR SALVATION, PROSPERITY AND WELFARE LIES WITH GOD, NOT APC OR
PDP.
CONGRATULATIONS DONALD TRUMP
I want to at this point congratulate President elect of the United
States of America DONALD TRUMP for his election at the Presidential
poll of the worlds most powerful country and Economy. Am really not
interested in the sponsored protests across America. It is really a
shame for God’s own country. Majority have spoken. Minorities will
have their say but majorities will always have their way. All
Americans must accept the results of the election in good fate and
work with the President elect and Russia to create a new world order
to end ISIS, BOKO HARAM, ALSHABA, FULANI HERDSMEN in the Africa.
But the biggest lesson in this election is that YOU MUST NOT ALLOW
ANYONE OR ANY SITUATION TO KILL YOUR DREAMS AND AMBITIONS. TRUMP
FOUGHT POWERS AND PRINCIPALITIES IN HIGH PLACES AND GOD GAVE HIM
VICTORY.
VINCENT EGUNYANGA a public affairs analyst wrote from Abuja.