BUHARI: A MESSIAH THE VILLAINS LOVE TO VILIFY

BUHARI: A MESSIAH THE VILLAINS LOVE TO VILIFY

By Godwin Erhahon, Benin City

Email: godwin.erhahon@ymail.com.

Nothing in recent time exposed how much most Nigerians hate the truth than the media distortion against General Muhammadu Buhari, Presidential Candidate of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), of the report of the Federal Government Panel on April 2011 post-election violence.

Virtually all Nigerian national dailies of Tuesday, October 11, that I read chose to interpret the report of the Sheikh Ahmed Lemu-led Panel as an indictment on General Buhari, under common sensational headline > “Post-election Violence: FG Panel Report indicts Buhari”.

A careful and objective study of the story which Nigerian press chose to give that judgmentally sensationalized headline would leave every discerning mind wondering why  our national press whose editors rank among  the most enlightened, courageous  and progressive journalists in the world chose to inform their readers that the panel report indicts General Buhari.

The Chairman of the Panel, Sheikh Lemu himself was so embarrassed by the media distortion of his panel report that he immediately refuted it. As patriots who anxiously awaited the report of the panel, what ought to interest us most in the report should have been:

              i.            The actual cause of the riots;

           ii.            The persons who sponsored or instigated the riots, if any;

         iii.            What should be done to prevent such riots in future;

         iv.            How to pacify and heal the wounds of victims;

            v.            How to promote the national unity that has been seriously jeopardized by the violence, etc.

After reading the panel report, as a journalist, I feel the most appropriate headline for any objective and patriotic newspaper should have been one that highlights the indictment of the Federal Government , that being the accurate summary and import of it all.

The part of the report that the press chose to interpret against General Buhari reads:

“Provocative utterances by many individuals and widespread charge by prominent politicians, including CPC presidential candidate to the electorate to guard their votes, appeared to have been misconstrued by many voters to include recourse to violence”.

In the above observation, not a declaration, by the panel, allusions are made to “utterances by many individuals” “widespread charge by prominent politicians including (not especially) CPC presidential candidate”, “appeared to have been misconstrued (not found to have been obeyed) by many voters…” brackets mine.

Obviously, the reference to CPC presidential candidate in the panel’s observation was in response to charges in some of the memos it received which had attempted to single him out for indictment. It is therefore exoneration, not indictment, of General Buhari, as it states that the “utterances” were made by “many” and “misconstrued” by voters. Come to look at it, in a country as ours where cabals of election riggers have continued to perpetuate themselves in power, is it wrong for opposition parties or their candidates to charge their supporters to vote, wait and guard their votes till true results are announced? If we blame post-election mass protest on pre-election calls on voters to protect their votes, are we not confirming that the protesters were voters who found that their votes have been fraudulently reversed? What lesson are we leaving for future elections by blaming those who challenged those they saw reversing their mandate or by shielding the reversers of the mandate?  Are we saying that Nigerians should not challenge those caught in the act of altering election results in future elections? Should we continue to wait for election petition tribunals most of which are manned by jurists who see their service on the tribunals as opportunities to have their share of the public fund stolen by the ruling parties to miscarry justice? Why should we play down the vital aspect of the panel report which blamed the insecurity in our country on the corruption of our rulers and the consequential mass sufferings, hunger and frustration?

Even as I write this piece, PDP supporters in Lagos State are protesting alleged rigging of Local Government Election in that state. Should we blame President Goodluck Jonathan for damages done by the protesters?

Why must we make General Buhari cheap target of vilification because he refused to steal but insists on ending stealing of our common wealth?

For easy understanding of how unjustifiably misleading the media headlines were, let us see the actual findings of the panel report on the causes of the electoral mayhem:

1.      “The existing widespread desire for change as a result of frustration and disappointment of many members of the general public regarding the inability of successive past regimes to solve the  problems of power failure nationwide, deplorable state of Federal Government roads throughout the nation , bribery and corruption which  have virtually been legitimized in all affairs of our nation. Thus with regard to the remedy of bribery and corruption, we recommend that the Heads of the three arms of government as well as other major stakeholders in Nigeria should come together and agree on the effective way forward to avoid the impending catastrophe.

2.      “General insecurity of life and property in peoples houses and on the high-ways and kidnapping are fuel to the fire of public frustration and disappointment. The true state of affairs could escalate to social revolution if preventive measures are not taken in time. In fact, the current sporadic demonstrations in educational institutions and labour unions are all considered to be signals of more serious negative events to come. This assertion could be verified for Your Excellency by the security agencies.

3.      “The manner in which political office holders have lucratised their respective positions at the expense of the whole nation. The panel discovered that the remunerations and allowances of the members of legislature, in particular are considered by stakeholders who addressed us or wrote to us about the issue to be outrageous. It has turned politics in Nigeria to a do- or-die affair for which many politicians of all parties are seriously establishing private armies to execute. In that respect, easy access to drugs, serious general poverty at the grassroots level  and youth unemployment, in particular, are providing many foot soldiers ready for recruitment at a cheap rate. The security agencies could verify this assertion also.

4.      “Generally speaking, the basic cause of the violence in nearly all the communities concerned is political. Ethno- religious sentiments were brought into the issue through negative campaigns and rumour- mongering by unscrupulous individuals to achieve their ulterior motives. The zoning controversy, which started basically as an internal political affair of the ruling party, ultimately changes the nature of the presidential election into ethno-religious contest in the country particularly in the northern states.

5.     “The most important major cause was the failure on the part of the previous successive regimes since the military handover of power in 1999 to implement the recommendations of various committees, commissions and panels that had taken place in our nation. That failure facilitated the wide spread sense of impunity in the culprits and perpetrators of crimes and violence in the Nigerian society”.

Why did our editors play down on the above findings and chose to concoct their own indictments of Buhari as if they were given that baseless headline by Buhari’s enemies ahead of the report?  

Have we forgotten so soon that General Buhari was one prominent northern politician who openly dissociated himself from the agitation for zoning of the presidency to the north? How fair is it for us to blame him for the consequences of an agitation that he dissociated himself from? Or we have chosen to forget or ignore those virtuous principles of his? Why are we so desperate to stain the stainless general?      

Must we gang up against Buhari because he has no money to bribe us with, having served our nation with utmost sincerity and patriotism?

Give the report of the Lemu-led panel to even a secondary school student to summarize the cause of the April post-election violence as identified by the panel and you will find that, as unbiased minds, their summary will differ from the concocted newspaper headlines.

I advice my colleagues, journalists, to always be guided by their conscience, true nationalist spirit, facts and the fear of God in the practice of our noble profession. Corrupt persons in power are our common enemies. No matter the size of the pea nuts that they give us from their loot, they remain our common enemies.

Now that the Federal Government Panel has traced the cause of the riot to the failure and ills of the PDP-controlled Federal Government, let us wait and see how President Goodluck Jonathan who had boasted that he would implement the report no matter whose ox is gored, will do.

From his handling of this report, we shall see how good Jonathan’s luck is to Nigeria.