Still on Buhari’s comment

Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd),

Ex-Head of state’s statement might have been failure of statesmanship, but only the guilty should be afraid

Major-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), former Head of State and presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the 2011 general elections is not new to controversy. Before the 2011 elections, his statement calling on the people to defend their votes against riggers generated uproar and was believed to have goaded the violence that engulfed some parts of the northern region after the elections. Perhaps, this must have informed the Presidency and the ruling People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) vituperation against the brutally frank admonition of Buhari while recently receiving CPC’s supporters from Niger State in his Kaduna office. 
Buhari reportedly said “God willing, by 2015, something will happen. They either conduct a free and fair election or they go a very disgraceful way. If what happened in 2011 (alleged rigging) should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood,’’ He further alluded to Prof. Ango Abdullahi’s statement that there are three ‘Boko Harams’, including the original one led by Muhammed Yusufu who was killed and his supporters tried to take revenge in attacking the law enforcement agencies and politicians; another Boko Haram of criminals that steal while the third and the biggest one he calls the current Federal Government.
Buhari has since been attacked from the Presidency that described his utterances as quite unbecoming of a statesman. The PDP was unsparing; it said the general is ‘inflaming the orgy of violence’ and proclaiming him a ‘bloodthirsty leader without democratic credentials.’ The ruling party cockishly wants the Federal Government to send him, a retired general, to lead the ECOWAS military contingent to Mali or Guinea Bissau so as to, in its view, ‘exorcise the bloodletting demons apparently haunting him. ‘Isn’t this a mockery of the government’s decision to send troops to Guinea Bissau and Mali to help maintain the peace? So, the soldiers are being sent to those countries so as to ‘exorcise the bloodletting demons apparently haunting’ them?
We condemn all forms of violence that can destabilise the already volatile security in the country. In the past, we had unequivocally condemned such statements from Buhari and others in that class. We recollect pointedly too in 2011 that we chastised Buhari for the statement he made calling on the almajiris to defend their votes with anything, at a period that was very close to the election.
At this point in time, the election is still very far and people are beginning to see desperation on the part of those in power who are ready to cling to power at all cost. The symptoms of an old political malaise is manifesting in the touted ‘Jonathan 2015 Project’, while the people are getting worried and hopeless that their votes may not count again in 2015. That must have informed Buhari’s statement. 
Rather than seize the opportunity to assure Nigerians that nothing of such will happen, the Presidency and the ruling party joined issues with the general, resorting to official blackmail and intimidation in the process. Yet, it is very clear that the ruling party has the worst electoral record since the inception of this democratic dispensation in 1999. Even the late President Umaru Yar’Adua under whom the current president served as deputy publicly acknowledged that the election that brought him to power was flawed. So, the fear of rigging has always been amongst the populace. 
We would have expected the Presidency and the ruling party to douse the tension by allaying the fears of the public about the suspicious manner in which the Federal Government has so far conducted elections in the country. After all, Buhari’s comment has received positive remarks from other segments of the society other than those benefiting from the ruling party. The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), CPC and other opposition parties have shared the views expressed by Buhari. Even the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF) has lent its voice in support of the critical issue that Buhari’s statement raised, at the same time cautioning the general against inciting statements.
Aliu Babangida, Niger State Governor and Chairman of the NSGF presented the position of the group after its recent meeting in Kaduna, to wit: ‘Again, certain facts are understood; that if this happens, that would happen... May be those who may be too concerned (about what Gen Buhari said) have not looked at what other eminent Nigerians have been talking about. I saw one that said Nigeria is going to be Somalianised....’ 
We share their views that a government that cannot guarantee free and fair elections and can still not provide good roads, effective transportation system, workable healthcare delivery services, good security and more importantly, stable electricity like Jonathan’s has no business aspiring to continue in power. Yet, it would want to rig election to sustain itself in power.
We want to make it known to those whose plan it is to rig the 2015 elections that the John Kennedy’s universal dictum of 1962 that “those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable” was not just a paper statement. Nigerians have been pushed to the wall- if they turn back, the consequences may be better imagined. Buhari might have needed to bring some finesse to bear in his utterances, given his status in the country. But then, the Jonathan administration too has to check itself and review its policies. Any government that takes the people for granted as this government has done, especially in the arbitrary fuel price hike, must expect some unpleasant consequences. Moreover, the winner-takes-all attitude of the government is not helping matters. Above all, we must say that electoral violence is itself an act of violence against the people and no one can legislate about how people will react to such.