OPINION: 20 Reasons Why Nigerians Have Rejected Buhari Since - TopicsExpress



          

OPINION: 20 Reasons Why Nigerians Have Rejected Buhari Since 2003 – By Silk O Austin For the career Buharists, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) is the “messiah”. Any attempt to set the records straight by highlighting the dark days of Buhari is viewed by these people as being paranoid. They would ask you, who is scared of Buhari if not corrupt people? In the real sense of it, I don’t think anyone (including a kid from my home town) is scared of Buhari. Some of us that talk about him do so to establish the facts because he has been living on image- laundered life. Within these few days, lots of people have seen that Buhari didn’t build any refinery for Nigeria. He has no legacy despite ruling the country with iron-fist for almost 2 years. He is indeed corrupt as shown by this article and again, no Igbo have worked or working for Buhari, neither did any Igbo marry his daughter. These are the laundered image he has been living on for a long time now. Facts are sacred, but not to the Career Buharists. To them, Buhari is God’s ‘gift’ to mankind and the most popular politician that can solve our numerous problems in a jiffy. Behind these accolades from his admires, is a man that has lost presidential elections three times consecutively. In 2003, over 24 million Nigerian rejected him. The same number rejected him in 2007 and in 2011; about 22 million rejected him. The excuse has been that, he was rigged out, but facts and figures proved that he is definitely unelectable as shown below: Northwest (Buhari’s strongest base) – 6,453, 437 (60%) voted for Buhari and3,395,724 (32%) for Jonathan Southeast – 20, 560 voted for Buhari and 5, 661, 177 (97%) for Jonathan Northeast – 3,624,919 (62%) voted for Buhari and 1,832,622 (32%) for Jonathan South-south – 49, 978 voted for Buhari and 6, 112, 608 (95%) for Jonathan Southwest – 321, 609 voted for Buhari and 2, 786, 417 for Jonathan North-central – 1, 744, 575 voted for Buhair and 3, 376, 570 for Jonathan Further analysis shows that, in Buhari’s State – Katsina, he scored 1, 163, 919votes and Jonathan got 428, 392 votes. But in Jonathan’s State – Bayelsa, he scored only 691 votes while Jonathan got 504, 811 votes. Mere looking at the figures proves that Buhari is unelectable or does it mean that Jonathan also out-rigged him in his region? These millions of Nigerians that have been rejecting him since 2003 despite his ‘popularity’ do so for the following reasons: 1. He Is A Hypocrite And Sanctimonious: Buhari is a self-acclaimed anti-corruption Czar, yet he served under late Sani Abacha without complaining of corruption. In the same period Buhari served as PTF Chairman under Abacha, Nigeria was named the 2nd most corrupt country in the world in 1996 by Transparency International; the most corrupt country in 1997 and 3rdmost country in 1998. Buhari didn’t resign or protest. He dismissed the TI Report with a wave of the hand. Can he do the same if such report says Nigeria is the most corrupt country in 2014? I know that Buhari would protest and call President Jonathan names. Buhari as a man of integrity as he claims should have done what Tai Solarin, Duro Onabule and Ebitu Ukiwe did under IBB’s regime. IBB’s attempt to take Nigeria into the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) made his Chief of General Staff, Ebitu Ukiwe to resign. Ukiwe maintained that Nigeria, as a country, should not be a member of a religious organisation. Individual organisation can take up membership of religious organisations, but not the country. IBB made Tai Solarin the chairman of Peoples Bank with no fund and power to run it; he resigned and tendered his apology to Nigerians. Buhari has not apologized to Nigerians for working for the most corrupt govt in the world then, but he still maintains that Abacha didn’t loot Nigeria dry even as Abacah loots are still being sent back to Nigeria. When he took over power by the gun, he supported rigging because it favoured him. But now, he is shouting of rigging. Hear him: “The last general election was anything but free and fair. The only political parties that could complain of election rigging are those parties that lacked the resources to rig.” – M. Buhari (First Speech after Military Coup, 31 December, 1983) 2. He Is A Religious Fanatic And Extremist: Buhari believes that his religion is superior to other religions and that Koran supersedes our constitution. In 2001, he gave his total support for Sharia with this statement: “I will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the Sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria. God willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the Sharia in the country.”- M. Buhari (August 27, 2001) He made the above statement after he had gone to BBC Hausa Service to condemn the then Vice President, Atiku Abubakar for urging Muslims states who adopted Sharia to return to the status quo. If you think that these statements mean nothing, then envision what would happen if a notable Christian political leader from the south make the same statement about spreading Christianity across Nigeria. Prior to the 2003 elections, he made another shocking statement: “Muslims should only vote those who will promote Islam. We are more than the Christians if you add our Muslim brothers in the West.”- M. Buhari (2003) 3. He Introduced Kidnapping And Smuggling Into The Nigeria System:The story of Umaru Dikko is already well known that repeating it here amounts to tautology. However, Buhari and his ADC Col. Mustapha Jokolosupervised the smuggling of 53 suitcases filled with cash against the protests of Tunde Idiagbon and ironically, Abubakar Atiku (an APC bigwig), was the former DG of Customs. Do you still need to know why Buhari has never accused Atiku of being corrupt? 4. He Is Not A Man of His Words: Buhari cried in public and said he won’t contest elections again, yet couldn’t keep his words: “This campaign is the third and last one for me; since, after it, I will not present myself again for election into office of the president.” – M. Buhari (April, 2011 at the Int’l Conference Centre, Abuja) Then again in 2014, he swallowed his words with this: “I humbly present myself to all Nigerians and to God, seeking to be elected as APC’s presidential candidate.” – M. Buhari (Oct., 15, 2014 Eagle Square Abuja) 5. He Is An Ethnic Bigot Who Thinks That Vendetta Is Fighting Corruption: After Buhari and his boys overthrew the govt of Shagari with the sole reason that the govt was highly corrupt, he locked up Dr. Alex Ekwueme – the then VP in Kirikiri maximum prison but left Shagari – the president and Head of govt in his mansion. Ekwueme was tried by the tribunal set-up by Buhari and the tribunal declared that he was even poorer than he was before he came into office. Yet, Buhari jailed him and allowed Shagari to relax in his mansion. He gave Dede Sam Mbakwe 100-year jail term for stealing nothing and also went after his wife. Ambrose Ali was tried for an undeveloped plot of land and he was jailed for 75 years with heavy torture that led to blindness and later death. Jim Nwobodo and Lateef Jakande were jailed for 100 years for stealing nothing. Adekunle Ajasin was tried by a military tribunal and found innocent. Buhari ordered a fresh trial, he was found innocent again. Buhari changed the tribunal and tried him again. He was still found innocent. Buhari still jailed him. But, Buhari left his personal friend – Awwal Ibrahim – the then highly corrupt governor of Niger State who was arrested at Heathrow airport with £14 million. Awwal was never jailed. He was placed under house arrest in his mansion like Shagari for just two weeks and indeed released. 6. He Is A Coupist: Buhari has no moral ground to stand for an election in Nigeria because he’s a destroyer of democracy and can never benefit from it. He overthrew a duly elected govt and ruled illegitimately until he was kicked out. For those that claim he was invited, go read the recent interview by Chief Ebenezer Babatope on why Chief Solomon Lar was imprisoned by Buhari. 7. He Doesn’t Talk or Act Like An Elder- statesman: He makes provocative statements that are capable of putting the country in crisis. This attitude caused the death of over 800 innocent lives including about 10 Corp members after he lost the 2011 elections. A man who considers himself as an elder- statesman and wants to rule Nigeria again should not be talking this way: “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 should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and baboon would all be soaked in blood.” – M. Buhari “2015 will be bloody…” – M. Buhari Buhari snubbed the same Nigerians he now wants their votes by refusing to appear before Justice Oputa Truth and Reconciliation Panel. Buhari knew how important reconciliation is to the stability of democracy, yet he refused to appear before the panel. 8. He Cannot Formulate A Good Economic Policy: True to that, Buhari is the only former Head of State without a legacy. Not even one, despite ruling with iron-fist for 2 years. Someone said, Environmental sanitation is his legacy LOL and I ask, how has that improved our economy? Or is Nigeria now the cleanest country in the world with a booming tourism industry? And again, those that attended his declaration were disappointed as he couldn’t present a manifesto on how he can solve the numerous problems confronting Nigeria. We keep hearing from the Buharists: “I will fight corruption; I will stop corruption; I will end corruption.” How? By mouth? Recall what BBC said about Buhari’s economic policy: “Buhari’s attempts to re-balance public finances by curbing imports led to many job losses and the closure of businesses. These losses were accompanied by a rise in prices and a decline in living standards.” His economic policy started the devaluation of naira. During Shagari/Ekweme’s regime, $1 = N0.550 but before the end of his tenure in 1985, $1 = N0.894. 9. He Clamped Down On The Press: With the infamous Decree 4, he closed down Newspapers, arrested and jailed many journalists such as Ndukar Irabor and Tunde Thompson of the Guardian Newspaper on stories that were factual. He told the Nigerian journalists then that it did not matter whether the story reported was true or not, if his regime did not like it, the writer would go to jail. At a point Tai Solarin became the only voice who could speak as he stood at the road corner and was distributing leaflets detailing the various atrocities of Buhari. He arrested and jailed him. In prison, he was denied his asthmatic drug. He was released by IBB and later died of complication from the torture he suffered in prison. 10. He Is Not A Man of Principle And Integrity: Since 2003, Buhari has been jumping from one party to another in his desperate and endless quest to rule Nigeria. He started with ANPP in 2003 to CPC in 2011 and, now in APC. He might abandon APC for another party if they deny him ticket. 11. He Has No Regard For Human Rights: Mrs. Vera Ifudu, who was an NTA reporter then, was sacked for reporting what Dr. Olusola Saraki had told her in an interview about how the missing money was traced to
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 00:43:52 +0000

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