PERSPECTIVE

Professor John Paden, President Muhammadu Buhari’s official biographer, is a man that is very comfortable with distorting the truth and telling lies. He is also a man that has been doing so for virtually all his adult life. Anyone that doubts that should read his biography on the late Sir Ahmadu Bello, which was written in 1986 and titled “Ahmadu Bello, Saudana of Sokoto: Values and Leadership In Nigeria”, and which is essentially a self-serving book. Paden’s book on Buhari falls into the same category. It is nothing but an illusion: an extraordinary and fantastic fairy-tale built on a shady foundation of pseudo-intellectual clap-trap and garbage.

To him, Buhari is infallible. He is, at best, an angel of light and, at worst, a perfect mortal with no warts.

Paden’s latest contribution is the greatest exercise in dishonesty and historical revisionism that has ever been undertaken by any foreign or Nigerian historian since independence.

The only one that comes close to it in this respect is the book that he wrote on the Saudana and a number of other books that he authored over the years which were primarily about core northern Nigeria. Writing rubbish seems to be Paden’s stock in trade.

In his latest book, amongst many other glaring and shameless mendacities, he indulged in two particular lies that are an eloquent testimony to his perfidy.

The first was that three names were sent to President Muhammadu Buhari for the position of Vice President, namely Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Yemi Osibanjo and Babatunde Raji Fashola in 2014 for the 2015 presidential election.

This is false and it is simply an attempt to demean and belittle Tinubu and the role that he played in the whole exercise.

The truth is that it was Tinubu and Tinubu alone that forwarded the only name that was given serious consideration for the Vice Presidential slot by President Buhari. That name was Professor Yemi Osibanjo.

Senator Olorunimbe Mamora was also considered by Buhari but he did not have the backing of Tinubu and neither did Tinubu forward his name.

The idea that Tinubu’s name was forwarded to be Vice President alongside that of his two protégées in the persons of Osinbajo and Fashola is nothing but fantasy and it was a beautiful and tasteful dish and tale that was spiced, cooked up and prepared in the kitchens of Aso Rock.

Again Tinubu never pressured Buhari to make him his Vice President as Paden has asserted because he had decided to drop that ambition long before then simply because the idea of a Muslim/Muslim ticket, which was originally on the cards, had eventually been jettisoned and rejected by the party due to public presssure and the division and outrage it attracted.

If the Muslim/Muslim ticket had not been rejected Tinubu would have been the Vice Presidential candidate of the APC and no-one else, including his erstwhile protegee Babatunde Fashola, would have had a hope in hell of getting it.

This is especially so given the fact that Buhari had originally promised him that position at the time that their parties merged and the APC was established but he later reneged. That is the bitter truth. Paden was either misinformed by those who commissioned him to write the book or he was being propelled by an ulterior and malevolent motive for writing the rubbish that he did on the Vice Presidential issue.

The second lie that he told, which was infinately more dangerous and repugnant than the first was that Buhari has documents which were signed by former President Jonathan which prove that the latter sought for what he described as “extra-budgetary funds”.

The whole thing is simply an attempt to further tarnish and demonise Jonathan and all those that served under him before the world and I believe that that is a crying shame.

I can understand such lies coming from a Presidency or a Federal Government that is scared of its own shadows and that feeds off its own propaganda but I cannot accept them coming from a supposedly reputable historian, albeit a foreigner, who has become the official writer and cheerleader of all things caliphate over the last 30 years.

Amongst many other things he also suggested that other senior figures in the political and military configuration in our country committed serious crimes and indulged in damning acts of corruption without being specific or even providing details of those acts. Instead of doing so he suggested that the individuals concerned, which included former President Olusegun Obasanjo, would have been prosecuted, brought to justice and called to account for their allegedly dastardly acts whilst in government if not for the fact that this could have had implications for the stability of the nation and national security.

Obasanjo, who is always quick off the mark and who was actually present at the launching of the book in Abuja as was Tinubu, responded in a measured manner by saying that there were “some insinuations” in it which he disagreed with.

Frankly that was a cop out. Obasanjo was being far too polite and this was probably due to the fact that he had not read the whole book as at that time and he did not want to dampen the enthusiasm of the biographer, upset the President or ruin the occasion. The adage is that you do not go to someone’s dinner party and spoil it by confronting his lies, challenging his allegations and speaking the bitter truth.

Yet, I believe that though Obasanjo touched on the matter he did not go far enough. I believe that it is incumbent upon all those that were maligned and alleged to have indulged in acts of corruption by Paden to set the record straight and state their case.

It would be very dangerous for all those that have been misrepresented in this so-called book, including Jonathan, Obasanjo and Tinubu, to keep quiet and not clarify the issues about what was written or insinuated about them because many years from now that book will be used as a major source and reference point for our history.