Last week, a certain Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz, who claims to
be second in command of Boko Haram, held a radio conference with
journalists in Maiduguri in which he declared his sect’s readiness for a
conditional ceasefire. He went ahead to name those they preferred or
trusted to facilitate a proposed dialogue with the federal government.
On his list of preferred facilitators were General Muhammadu Buhari,
Shettima Ali Monguno, Gaji Galtimari and Bukar Abba Ibrahim. Only Buhari
is not of the Borno/Yobe axis. But only the name of Buhari has
generated passionate interest from both admirers and detractors.
Predictably, Buhari’s foes have jumped on this piece of news and are
celebrating their pet fantasy: that Buhari must have been a sponsor of
Boko Haram. Why should they pick him if they do not share common
beliefs, someone declared in a newspaper yesterday. A certain Bitrus
Kaze, who claims to be a lawmaker representing Jos South/Jos East
federal constituency in Plateau State, and who, I am certain, has never
met Buhari, asserted quite “authoritatively” via a press statement that
the nomination of Buhari as a facilitator by Boko Haram can be “likened
to the proverbial birds of the same feather (sic) that flock together”.
Continuing, he said, “anyone who has been following the internecine
violence perpetrated especially in northern Nigeria by those merchants
of death should understand their choice of General Buhari. Eventually,
the men behind the masks are being unveiled. In my view, Buhari, like
Boko Haram, is a religious extremist who cannot be trusted to negotiate
for sustainable peace in Nigeria. In the build-up to the 2003
presidential election, Buhari was reported to have asked Muslims across
the country to vote only for the presidential candidate that would
defend and uphold Islam.”
Hon. Kaze also spoke of the Sheikh Lemu report in a way that showed
clearly that he didn’t read the report and didn’t listen to all the
statements and explanations of Sheikh Ahmed Lemu.
The social media and the internet have also been worked into a frenzy
on this issue of Buhari’s nomination by Boko Haram. Most who berate the
former head of state on the internet are clearly ignorant of the man
they comment so authoritatively about. But the one I find more
exasperating is the mischief of those around government who, though not
making public statements, are rejoicing over this development. It’s like
Boko Haram has given them exactly what they have always craved free of
charge. One of them jokingly said, “Why should we be surprised? We have
always known that Buhari is the chairman of Boko Haram.” Of course, they
did not want to be quoted.
The people around President Jonathan have, for long, been insinuating
the nonsense about a link between some northern leaders and statesmen
who have served this country in the past meritoriously and Boko Haram.
Because they were the sponsors of the Niger Delta insurgency, they
believe that everyone must be like them. Only a few like Pa Edwin Clark
have been courageous enough to actually name General Buhari, General
Ibrahim Babangida and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the
sponsors of Boko Haram. I once told some of them to take Clark to court
on the matter, but they all told me they would not dignify the man.
Only very few people would claim to be closer to General Buhari than
I. And even among those close to him, very few can claim to know him
like I do. Buhari is one of the most outstanding human beings I know,
with all his faults. He is certainly not a perfect man. It is not for
nothing that I have supported and voted for him in all the three
attempts he has made to be president of this country. Buhari may not be a
perfect person or your ideal politician, but I am yet to meet a sane
person who would disagree with me that Nigeria would have been a totally
different place if he had been sworn in as president in 2003 or 2007 or
2011. At the very least, nobody would have attempted to steal N2.6
trillion under his presidency and if any thief were bold enough to try
it, there would be very harsh consequences – exactly the kind of
leadership that any country that cherishes progress would need. He would
have given a damn about declaring his assets and there would have been a
very clear response to the Niger Delta militancy and oil thefts that
took a life of their own during the Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan
presidencies. And Boko Haram would not have overpowered the government
as we see today. Remember when he was head of state and Maitatsine
insurgents struck in Kano? That was the last time the world heard
anything about Maitatsine. In fact, for those who remember very well,
Maitatsine started during the Shehu Shagari era and it was when Buhari
took over and the sect struck in Kano killing many people that he put a
decisive end to the insurgency. Buhari had said at the time that
Maitatsine would never happen again and it never did. Boko Haram is a
mutation of Maitatsine.
Anyone that is close enough to former presidents and heads of state
would know that one thing that binds them together – and which they all
agree on, no matter their differences – is the obsessive belief in the
oneness and stability of Nigeria. And I am close enough to almost all
living former heads of state (with the exception of Obasanjo, of course)
to authoritatively speak on this.
Buhari, of course, is one man that is generally misunderstood. I
remember, a few years ago, when a pastor friend of mine said that Buhari
didn’t laugh at all and would always be unfriendly. I found a way to
lure my friend into Buhari’s home one evening. Immediately we came
before the former head of state, I announced to Buhari in the presence
of everyone, “Sir, this my pastor friend said you don’t laugh at all.”
Buhari burst into a hearty laughter and immediately started a very funny
conversation with my pastor friend. By the time we left, my friend was
both in stitches and delighted. This has been a subject of his
discussions since.
Buhari’s favourite in LEADERSHIP is the Ghana-Must-Go pocket cartoon
at the back page. He would call several times laughing and laughing and
laughing. By the way, this Ghana-Must-Go fetish is also shared by
General IBB, General Abdulsalami, General Danjuma, the late President
Yar’Adua, former Vice President Atiku and sundry political leaders of
disparate tendencies across the country.
Buhari always enjoys a good joke even if it is one poked at him. And
he is one of the wittiest persons I know. Recently, some pretty-looking
ladies went to visit him at home to seek his support and blessing for
their NGO. They asked for a photograph with him which was later
published in several newspapers. On sighting the photograph, I called
him to say that he should have proceeded to pick one of them as a second
wife. He was so amused that he told some people that “Sam ba ya da
kirki”, meaning “Sam is a very unkind person.” He said I was unkind to
have suggested such an unkind thing to him. Everyone laughed.
During a Council of State meeting just before the 2003 elections in
which he was the presidential candidate of the opposition ANPP
contesting against the PDP of which a sitting President Obasanjo was the
candidate, there was a banter between him and Obasanjo which many
people still remember. Buhari had a cold then and was coughing just
before the meeting. It was also during the outbreak of some strange kind
of flu in Asia. When Obasanjo noticed Buhari was coughing, he said,
“Muhammadu, hope you have not contracted that strange disease”, or
something to that effect. Buhari immediately responded and said, “I have
not been globetrotting sir.” Everyone burst into loud laughter. That
was the period Obasanjo was gallivanting all over the planet and hardly
stayed at home to perform his presidential duties. What Buhari was
telling Obasanjo then was that it was he (Obasanjo) who would more
likely contract a foreign disease as a result of his famed
globetrotting.
Hon. Kaze and many others who do not know Buhari call him a religious
extremist – and Hon. Kaze particularly still quotes something he claims
Buhari said a long time ago: advising Muslims to vote only for fellow
Muslims. Well, I think people like him would need to read Bishop Matthew
Kukah’s position on this, which he wrote in an article at the time.
Bishop Kukah, who knows Buhari well and even spoke with him on the
matter, spoke the truth at that time as he always does. Those who also
know Buhari would tell you that there are only two Nigerians who can get
him to do what he doesn’t want to do – General Gowon and General
Danjuma, both Christians. I am sure Hon. Kaze and his like do not know
Buhari enough to know this. Neither would they know that his personal
driver of more than 10 years is a Christian. His cook is a Christian and
so are many others on his domestic staff.
On December 31, 1983, just after the overthrow of Shehu Shagari, and
the coup was still going on, Buhari left Kaduna to return to his base in
Jos where he was the GOC. On his way, he sent a message to other
“conspirators” that Major-General Domkat Bali, who was the most senior
among the coupists, should be declared head of state. It was later in
the day that Bali and others in Lagos dispatched an Air Force plane to
Jos to bring him (Buhari) to Lagos in order to make him head of state.
Muslim extremist Buhari choosing Bali, a Christian, to be head of state?
Does this make sense? Buhari told me this story himself. The story was
even the more corroborated by Dr Mahmud Tukur, the cerebral minister of
commerce in his cabinet then and perhaps the closest to him. Dr Tukur
actually went further to tell me that, on two occasions as head of
state, Buhari almost walked away and simply wanted to hand over to Bali
because he just didn’t like the way some of his colleagues were
behaving. This is also another exclusive for people like Hon. Kaze.
You may not like Buhari and may actually hate his guts, but there are
some facts about him that cannot be controverted. He actively detests
corruption, he hates slothfulness and takes Nigeria and public service
too seriously to be associated with any type of crime whatsoever. He has
told me that Islam does not approve of taking innocent lives. Boko
Haram people may be trying to latch onto his credibility, but the Buhari
I know is unlikely to accept to be part of anything to do with Boko
Haram. Don’t forget, this is the man who obliterated Maitatsine when he
was in power.
If Buhari has any faults at all, it is that he is totally without
guile and too naïve to stop election riggers from always taking
advantage of him. I have had issues with him over the path to victory in
the past elections. He has not been able to cobble together the kind of
national alliance that is a desideratum for winning the presidency in a
democracy and a strategy for stopping election riggers. When Obasanjo
in 2003 and 2007 and Jonathan in 2011 declared that the elections would
be free and fair, he believed them hook, line and sinker. You can accuse
Buhari of too trusting but certainly not violence or religious bigotry
or mischief. He is too much of a statesman and too much into the
principles of law and order to be associated with the kind of crimes
that Hon. Kaze and Jonathan’s cronies are trying to associate with him.
I am a Christian, a Bible-believing one and a very proud one for that
matter. If Buhari were a tenth of what people like Kaze, who don’t know
him but authoritatively say he is, would I still be one of his closest
associates?
EARSHOT
The Murder Of General Shuwa
If Nigerians are not frightened about the way someone of General
Mamman Shuwa’s stature would so easily be shot dead by yet undetermined
gunmen, then, we must be sleepwalking into destruction. Boko Haram has
declared that it had no hand in the needless murder. Shuwa was a very
simple man and mingled freely with the lowest in the society. If a war
hero like Shuwa did not die on the warfront only to be killed so cheaply
by common criminals, then, we must all sit back and ponder the future
of Nigeria. As someone wrote in a newspaper yesterday, if someone like
General Shuwa can so easily be killed, then, an endgame is unfolding in
the north which could spell terminal disaster for the whole country.
But why are we so helpless? Why do we seem to be sleepwalking
inexorably towards our annihilation as a nation? Have we been so
programmed for self-destruction that we can do nothing to reverse it? We
need answers to these questions quickly before it is too late. And only
those in charge of the country can give the correct answers.
Leadership
