by Senator Ihenyen
Sometimes, one cannot help but wonder if
some of us realise the immeasurable and irreparable damage we cause
when we make certain unpalatable remarks that portend danger for the
polity. How in the world can a former Head of State of a country like
Nigeria such as Major-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), say that the ongoing
war against Boko Haram is anti-North?
The truth is that not a few northern
elders and leaders find it exceedingly difficult to exercise some
appreciable level of circumspection in their utterenaces on national
issues. It has become characteristic of Major Gen. Buhari to make
inflammatory statements whenever he feels like exercising some political
relevance in the polity. With all due respect, the former Head of State
needs to demonstrate a high level of political immaturity at a time
when the nation is in dire need of statesmen who have some political,
social and moral value to offer.
With the ruling party, the PDP,
constituting sheer nuisance all over the place heightened by the recent
NGF election of shame, one would have expected some of these
personalities in the opposition such as Buhari to be beacons of hope in
an alternative government come 2015. But of course, the opposition, if
precedents are anything to go by, always have a reliable way of
disappointing Nigerians.
As might have been expected in reaction
to the inflammatory comment, the leadership of Christian Association of
Nigeria (CAN) has alleged that Buhari was promoting the cause of the
radical Islamist group, Boko Haram. Also, a group, Niger Delta
Professionals (NIGERDELTAPROFS), employed the words “senseless and
foolish” to describe the comment made by Buhari. The group completely
rejected the comparison of Niger Delta militants and Boko Haram made by
Buhari, pointing out that whilst the former was a struggle for economic,
social and environmental justice, the latter was clearly a different
matter.
I continue to emphasise in my posts that
any such comparison is unreasonable and must be treated with suspicion.
The Niger Delta struggle has largely been a justifiable agitation for
resource control, infrastructural development and inclusion of the
region in the Nigerian state. No man in his right senses would not see
the activities of Boko Haram as acts of terrorism. If the stand of the
Federal Government before the dramatic proscription of the
fundamentalist sect had betrayed any sign of feet-dragging with a
knee-begging amnesty that since failed, it is not because there is
anything to justify it in the first place. The Jonathan administration
had only been compromising national security largely because the
Ijaw-born President cared more about saving his 2015 presidential
ambition than the country.
Even the politically naïve is not
unaware of the north’s decisive vote in national elections owing to the
huge population and usually mono-coloured voting patterns, unlike the
less predictable Southern voters. Therefore, if President Jonathan had
delayed his state of emergency action in the northern states of Bornu,
Yobe and Adamawa, it should not be a surprise to Nigerians who
understand the game of politics and power. Democracy after all is a game
of numbers.
At the wake of the eventual declaration
of the state of emergency in the three northern states, Nigerians
witnessed the hostile reactions from the north. Not a few northern
leaders accused the President of failing to see through the efforts
being made to dialogue with the fundamentalist sect, particularly after
giving in to pressures to grant a controversial amnesty to the sect. Of
course, a greater part of that political pressure had come from, again,
northern elders and leaders.
Typically, as reactions continue to
trail Major Gen. Buhari’s comment, there have been defences from the
northern part of the country, once again. The Congress for Progressive
Change (CPC) governorship candidate in Jigawa State at the 2011
election, Alhaji Faruk Adamu Aliyu, said in a British Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC) Hausa Service interview monitored in Kaduna on
Wednesday, that the comment by the CPC’s presidential candidate in the
2011 election on the state of the country was “the truth.” He also added
that there was truth in Buhari’s remark that those in the Niger Delta
are “favoured and pampered.”
Let’s call a spade a spade. Buhari is
not just any Nigerian. He is someone who has once ruled this country as
the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. He has got
a great political status and definitely one of the biggest political
heavyweights in the country. He was the presidential candidate of All
Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP) in 2003, 2007, and on the platform of his
own party, Congress for People’s Change (CPC) in 2011. Today, his name
is still among the list of possible presidential candidates ready to do
battlle with the ruling party, PDP, on the platform of the new
opposision mega party, All Progressive Congress (APC).
I am therefore usuallly perplexed
whenever Major-Gen. Buhari makes self-degenerating statements that do
not only constitute a serious threat to his political ambition, but also
pull down the pillars of support his otherwise principled personality
may have built for him over the years. Must we always remind Buhari that
he is not the Chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) nor his he
going to rule the north only if he ever finds himself in the presidency.
For a man who was in the highest political leadership position in the
country at the time I was yet unborn, it is very worrisome witnessing
such degeneration into absurdity. It is indeed disappointing, especially
considering what personalities of Buhari’s status should represent in
the nation today.
Without any overstatement intended,
Buhari’s remark portends great danger for the polity. For those who
continue to politicise sensitive issues such as our national security,
they are only gathering canons for their own self-destruction. It is
only the people who blindly idolise such demi-gods of bigotry and
sectionalism that I worry about. This is because when our elders and
leaders make the wrong decisions and employ the wrong approach to
national issues, it is usually the common man that suffers more from the
boomerangs. This is because such statements most times end up inflaming
the passion of their followers which usually results in ethno-religious
violence. The violent aftermath of the declaration by INEC of Goodluck
Jonathan as winner of the presidential elections in 2011 is still fresh
in our minds.
If you ask me, Buhari’s comment could
reasonably be taken as a confirmation of the suspicions of many
Nigerians that Boko Haram indeed enjoys some level of support from some
northern elders. Curiously, the Islamist insurgency is traceable to the
electoral violence that had followed the 2011 election. Gradually, it
metamorphosed into Boko Haram.
Against this background, I personally
believe that Major Gen. Buhari has crossed the line, again. The
invitation, therefore, by concerned Nigerians to security agencies and
the international community to extend their search for the leadership of
the fundamentalist sect by a proper investigation of Buhari may not be
unwarranted.
It is high time our political leaders
and supposed statemen began to exercise reasonable restraint in their
utterances partcularly concerning the our national security. Anything
less should be treated appropriately given the potential dangers such
inflammotory remarks portend for the polity. From precedents, asking for
apologies or retraction from a man like Buhari is dead on arrival. The
institutions of the state should simply do their job if they find any
reason to exercise proactiveness in their fight against the high level
of insecurity and violence in the country.
The north belongs to all of us, not just the northerners.
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