BUHARI 2015; YES HE CAN. BY PETER CLAVER OPARAHOCT 20, 2014 He stands tall and unmistakable in any crowd. His sparkling white personage compliments an untainted and unsoiled history of presence in the moth-infested national politics. He has what is greatly lacking in Nigerian politics, especially in the present genre of our politicians viz; honesty, integrity, discipline and incorrigibility. These are very rare attributes, which perhaps no other loud player in the murky and sordid Nigerian politics at present, has. With these, he stands as a perpetual rebuke to the philistines and vandals that have over ran our politics and rendered it such a sordid art that only thieves and their cahoots excel. His looming sparkling presence indicts their own messy records. His record of integrity and honesty clearly violate their own putrid baggage. That is why they fear him. That is why they can’t stand the scrutiny his presence is bound to bring to their shady presence in our national politics. Muhammadu Buhari It is in the light of these aforesaid redoubtable testimonials that most Nigerians especially the lowly, the downtrodden and the deprived find comfort in the candidacy of General Muhammadu Buhari for the serially abused and horribly downgraded Nigerian presidency in the epic 2015 contest. It is such that the man draws massive approval from the deprived cache of Nigerian population who had been at the very receiving end of political marauders and heartless political rent collectors who have deigned the national treasury as a swathe of their personal heritage to be milked and exploited to the detriment of millions of suffering Nigerians. By deciding to once again, lay a strong challenge to the Nigerian presidency, Buhari, fondly called Mai Gaskiya by his myriad of supporters, is raising some glimmer of hope of what is rescuable in an ant-infested polity where political cannibalism and predatory exploitation have become the order of the day. There is little doubt that in deciding not to soil and corrupt his hands when he was in control of fonts of riches and power, Buhari made very mortal enemies of those who frown at any effort to disallow a free meal of the national treasury. It is certain that these slutty nabobs will do everything to stop him in 2015, as they did in previous elections but the masses must insist on having their ways this time around given the torture they have undergone in the past fifteen years. It is just easy to say that Buhari has contested and never ‘won’ any of the macabre parodies that pass for Nigerian presidential elections in the past. It is just too easy to use that parameter to play down on his chances in the ensuing 2015 election. But when those elected through such shambolic elections live and wake on what Buhari said or did not say on issues that spew forth from governance, it is easy to discover who the real winner of such intentionally manhandled elections was. But then, nothing could be done about the fact that under his towering personality that suffers laggards and sluggards gladly, that avoids the many useless parades of power that stands aloof in the endless show of shame that has come to deface governance in Nigeria, the genius of the robbers and marauders now vandalizing Nigeria are eternally rebuked. Nothing can be done to the fact that those that continue to strip our country of every available resource are scared stiff by the possibility of a Buhari comeback but then, nothing can prevent an idea whose time has come. Buhari ruled Nigeria as a military Head of State. He served Nigeria as Minister of Petroleum and Works and further served as Chairman of PTF. These are plum positions one could have employed to ensure that his generations never get assailed by poverty. But he refused to employ these lofty offices to serve himself. He neither helped himself nor his generation from the barn he was to guard but did everything to set a record of honesty, integrity and discipline those that came after him have found too difficult to adhere to. He lives a life of practical example and this has made of him mortal enemies of the serial leaches and vampires who would rather he liberalized the fonts of looting for them to grow fat in a land riffed by mindless poverty and want. Buhari left office without a personal house and without fat bank accounts and this has made him a laughing stock among the thieving elites while it has drawn for him fanatical following from the poor and the downtrodden. In Nigeria, legions of the poor and downtrodden are powerless against one wealthy robber and ragamuffin who stands to control the politics and the electoral process to force either himself or his hireling to power. There lies the root of Buhari not ‘winning’ elections in Nigeria and therein is embedded the very soul of the spirit of anomie and evil that controls Nigeria at present. Buhari made mortal enemies of the rich and powerful, and these are wont to exhale so much hot air whenever the prospects of Buhari coming to power arise. They are wont to pant and threaten that Buhari will never return to power, and they know that pliant and sordid process in Nigeria well enough to issue these threats. They deploy the stolen and illicit cash at their disposal to manipulate and twist the electoral process to give them the person that will do their bidding. Their increasing power and access accounts for why Nigeria remains a pitiable parody, a wretched irony and the despised wrench it is today. These mongers have visited and re-visited every account book to impugn on Buhari’s well-cultivated record of integrity and have failed. They have sowed religious, ethnic and sectional biases against Buhari, and they are failing on these. They get more desperate as Buhari towers on but given the collective pestilence Nigerians have endured in their hands for fifteen sorrowful years, Buhari offers the most viable solution to an arrest of the anomie under which they have thrived. In throwing his hat into the ring, Buhari promised to deal frontally and decisively with corruption and insecurity; twin decibels on which the ruination of Nigeria rests and which have vitiated the dreams of a viable nation. It is trite to say that dealing with the two evils is bound to recover Nigeria from the paths of perdition it is threading now. He spoke against the culture of stealing, corruption, plundering which has become a way of life and promised to stop these. He can do this because his untainted history of contact with power and national wealth is well known. So long as the leader refuses to steal, those around him will interpret his body language and know he will have the will power to stop them from stealing. Here, lies the panacea to the present complete deprecation Nigeria is suffering. If stealing and looting of public treasury is stopped, enough resources will be freed to attend to the dying infrastructures, fix the many decadent sectors of the economy, create jobs, engage the tens of millions of hopeless and unemployed Nigerian youths as to take them away from crime and revive the public service from the ruination of corruption. Again, Buhari promised to stop the Boko Haram insurgency and here, there is nothing to doubt about him. In 1984, while he was Head of State, a much fiercer Maitatsine fanatical religious group was marching with so much bloody vengeance to take over some parts of the North. Buhari not only paid a prompt visit to Yola where over 100 people were hacked to death by this devilish group in one day, he ordered full military action that ensured that the group died a permanent death. With him, there are no room for haunting with the spirits and mourning with the living. His words remain his bond. Buhari promised that if elected, he will rescue the moral soul of the country, which had witnessed an unprecedented assault in the hands of our current leaders for the purpose of furthering the reign of locusts they have brazenly promoted as governance these past fifteen years. We know his record in this wise confirms his capacity to do this and restore honour and integrity to the conduct of our national lives. Buhari promises to bridge the divides that have been created by those that seek power for the purpose of self-fending and mass pauperization. He promised to restore discipline not only in the conduct of governance and politics but in the entire national life. His records bear him out here. Buhari made many promises and from his words and antecedents, he doesn’t strike as a prospective president who will pass the buck or blame others for his failings as we see today. These are not politicians’ promises as we know them in Nigeria. Strictly speaking, Buhari is not a politician in the real sense of it. He is a man that lives his words, and this is an attribute Nigerian politicians lack. Nigeria badly needs a rescue and Buhari is the best that fits into the rescuer tag. He has everything it takes to pull Nigeria from the raging fire it is presently slaving in. He had done it before and proved to be the only one among those that have ruled Nigeria with the requisite integrity and trust to do this arduous task. The fear-struck marauders may taunt that he will fail again, as they know their ways with the country’s electoral system but it is left for the majority deprived to mass together and say NEVER AGAIN for he can pull Nigeria out of the deep morass it is today. Peter Claver Oparah. Ikeja, Lagos. E-mail: peterclaver2000@ yahoo
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 18:48:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015