NIGERIA AND THE BUHARI AGENDA

Tola Adeniyi argues that the president has not done enough to protect the people

Nobody should by now be in doubt about President Muhamm adu Buhari’s gory agenda for Nigeria. I wrote about this subject in a satiric article titled The Agenda (theeagleonline.com.ng/the-agenda-by-tolaadeniyi/). We cannot pretend to be unconcerned when hundreds of thousands of our fellow country men, women and children have been consigned to Internally Displaced Persons crammed camps all over half of the country, and yet we pretend not to be at war!

Let me confess that I used to be one of Buhari’s most ardent fans. I was the founder of the Canada-based Global Intelligentsia for Buhari with members drawn from Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas. I campaigned vigorously and canvassed funds for his ascendancy and wrote copiously to ensure his victory but it hurts me to the marrow that the blood of the innocent flows ceaselessly all over the country under his watch. Whatever achievements Buhari may have made cannot compensate for irreplaceable lives of the victims of pogrom.

Today, I will only reproduce concerns published by other observers to buttress the fact that Nigeria faces extinction if Buhari’s government is allowed to continue with its incredible drive as conveyed by the president’s body language to annihilate certain Nigerians, destroy their means of livelihood, forcefully take over their lands and give such lands to ‘foreign’ terrorists and implant totally alien cultures to the occupied lands.

I will start with the highly respected CNN prodigy Christiane Amanpour, hear her: “By all definitions and descriptions, the Nigeria’s so called herdsmen are terrorists and if President Buhari doesn’t believe so, then it would be difficult for anyone to reasonably absolve him (Buhari) from complicity. I cover wars and crisis as a journalist, I think I know, and the world also knows how terrorists operate.

“The fact that herdsmen’s attacking pattern is focused primarily on wiping off farmers should rob Buhari who has achieved only little in his economic agenda that’s expected to be powered mainly by farmers. The impact of these well defined attacks on Nigeria’s economy is expected to be grave, maybe on the long run greater than that of Boko Haram which has been largely localised to the North East”. Christiane Amanpour, CNN

My next reference is the Presidency itself as quoted by Chief Femi Fani Kayode: “The Nigerian Presidency, through presidential spokesman Femi Adesina, has told the Vanguard Newspaper that “giving land for ranching is better than death”. He also said “Being alive is better than ancestral attachment to land”. In other words you must surrender your ancestral lands to the Fulani or prepare to be slaughtered. You must give them your homes or they will take your lives! You must give them your money and all that is dear to you or they will butcher you and your family and take over all that is yours. Surely only the accursed still support this evil government. Do we need any further evidence to prove that Buhari is not condoning the ethnic cleansing and genocide?”

This buttresses my conviction that the killings are not necessarily inspired by religion but rather by messianic craze to grab peoples’ lands by force of arms and drive original owners into extinction. We follow this up with Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose who in his Twitter asked

I CAMPAIGNED VIGOROUSLY AND CANVASSED FUNDS FOR HIS ASCENDANCY AND WROTE COPIOUSLY TO ENSURE HIS VICTORY BUT IT HURTS ME TO THE MARROW THAT THE BLOOD OF THE INNOCENT FLOWS CEASELESSLY ALL OVER THE COUNTRY UNDER HIS WATCH

Buhari eight critical questions concerning the president’s anti-corruption campaign:

One, I ask our President, what has happened to the report on the $43m discovered in an apartment at Osbourne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos? Two, what has happened to the allegation of award of $25bn contracts without following due process made against Dr. Baru by Dr Ibe Kachikwu?

Three, what happened to the DSS indictment for corruption of Magu and the AGF Investigative Panel set up by the president? Four, who is the owner of LEGICO Shopping Plaza, Ahmadu Bello Way, VI, Lagos inside which the EFCC claimed that it found N448.8 million cash? Five, who brought the five sacks in which the EFCC claimed that it found N49 million cash to the Kaduna Airport? Six, what happened to the probe panel on the alleged N500m bribery by MTN? Seven, most importantly, what has happened to the report on the fraudulent reinstatement of Maina? Eight, is the president going to use APC broom to sweep the report on Maina under the carpet just as he did to others before it?

Incriminating evidence is the unprecedented nepotism and extreme I-don’t-care parochialism exhibited by Buhari in his disguised military government masquerading as civilian. See the composition of the country’s Security Council: Muhammadu Buhari (President); Mansur Mohammed Dan Alli (Minister of Defence); Abdulrahman Dambazau (Minister of Internal Affairs); Lawal Daura (DG-SSS); Ibrahim Magu (Chairman, EFCC); Tukur Buratai (Chief of Army Staff); Sadique Abubakar (Chief of Air Staff); Mohammed Saliu Usman-AVM (Chief of Defence Intelligence); Ibrahim Idris (Inspector-General of Police); Abubakar Malami (Attorney-General); Baba Gana Monguno (National Security Adviser); Ahmed Rufai Ababukar (DG NIA).

In what language will they communicate, please? Do they discuss Nigerian security or Northern Security? An expanded meeting will have: Abdullahi Gana Muhammadu (Civil Defence); Hamid Ali (Controller-General of Customs); Mohammed Babandede (ComptrollerGeneral of Immigration); Ja’afaru Ahmed (Comptroller-General of Prisons). Notice anything? They are all from the North, mostly Fulanis.

And witness the recklessness of a war monger who in normal country should have been charged to court for terrorism, the so-called Myetti Allah Kautal Hore, who has rejected calls for sacking of service chiefs apparently because the said chiefs are acting out their script. And I quote: Secretary-General of the group, Mr Saleh Al-Hassan, said this during an interview on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, on Monday.

A large section of Nigerians, including National Assembly and governors, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack service chiefs for failing to protect lives of Nigerians. However, Al-Hassan said those calling for the sack of service chiefs “are corrupt politicians.”

“That is why people calling for the removal of service chiefs are either corrupt politicians or those working for them. We should not fall for that gambit.” Says foreign herdsmen can graze in Nigeria. Al-Hassan also rejected suggestions that herdsmen from other countries should be prevented from grazing their cattle in Nigeria. Otunba Adeniyi, Jagun Oodua Adimula ll