Does President Buhari Have A Conscience?

By Femi Fani-Kayode 

“Aside the 105 soldiers killed by Boko Haram, additional 34 soldiers were killed two days ago but it wasn’t in the news”– Deji Adeyanju.

I concur with Mr. Deji Adeyanju. The most heartless and reprehensible thing that our government could have done is to cover-up the fact that 105 of our soldiers were killed by Boko Haram a few days ago. To do such a thing is simply evil.

A soldier ought to be honoured in death and this is especially so if he died in the course of doing his duty and fighting for his nation.

The government has not only dishonoured them by not acknowledging their sacrifice but they have also buried them in the wilderness like rabid dogs.

This is wickedness of the highest order and President Buhari, his Chief of Army Staff and his Minister of Defence should bury their heads in shame.

Anyone that buys the lie and propaganda that the 105 soldiers never died and that they are still alive is a compound fool or a village idiot.

Will the military also deny the fact that a few days ago 34 of our soldiers were killed by Boko Haram? These boys died for their country. Why deny them?

I am outraged by the fact that a soldier will sacrifice his life for his country yet the citizens and authorities of that country don’t even appreciate it.

Pictures of the dead bodies were posted on social media. Everyone in the military knows that those soldiers are dead. It is an open secret. Yet because government denies it so many people just choose to believe them.

The truth is that Boko Haram must have used chemical weapons in the attack. When you look at the pictures of the dead bodies this is obvious. It was probably mustard gas.

All we want from the military is the truth. If 105 soldiers were not killed then how many actually were?

The whole episode happened last week in Borno State and the military authorities are denying it. I am sickened by that.

If others cannot appreciate the importance of honouring our dead soldiers, I can. I will not be intimidated and I will not remain silent.

Tell us where our boys are buried and if you refuse to do so we will keep asking. There must beaccountability and respect for those who have made the supreme sacrifice just to keep the rest of us safe. Our soldiers deserve that much.

Finally, let it be said loud and clear that since President Buhari came to power he has not bought one bullet for the military. Considering the fact that we are in the middle of a protracted and very bloody war I believe that this is utterly shameful. If you say you want to fight and defeat Boko Haram then why are you not buying arms for your troops?

This brings me to other matters and raises other questions about our President’s sincerity of purpose and commitment.

You say that you are fighting Boko Haram yet you are travelling the world drinking tea with world leaders whilst your soldiers are secretly being slaughtered.

You say you are fighting Boko Haram yet you were nominated as their spokesman and chief negotiator two years ago in a proposed peace talks with the Federal Government.

You say you are fighting Boko Haram but the man you appointed as your National Security Adviser was retired from the army a few years ago for ordering the release of Boko Haram terrorists under suspicious circumstances.

You say you are fighting Boko Haram but the first thing you did when you came to power was to remove military checkpoints. This guaranteed Boko Haram free movement and access to the entire country.

You say you are fighting Boko Haram yet last year you told the world that an attack on Boko Haram is an attack on the North.

You say you are fighting terror yet since you came to power Boko Haram has grown in strength, has regained lost territory and has been declared the “worlds number one most deadly terror group” by the Global Terror Index.

*Femi Fani-Kayode 

You say you are fighting terror yet since you came to power Nigeria, according to the Global Terror Index, has been declared as not just having “the first most deadly terror group in the world” which is Boko Haram but also of having “the fourth most deadly terror group in the world” which is a group that the Index describe as the “Fulani militants” and that we call the Fulani herdsmen.

You say you are fighting Boko Haram yet since you came to power Nigeria has been declared the world’s “third most terrorised country” by the Global Terror Index after Iraq and Afghanistan which were declared first and second respectively, whilst Syria and Pakistan were declared fourth and fifth.

You say you are a “born again democrat” yet you voted against the protection of human rights at the United Nations alongside Iran, Zimbabwe and North Korea.

You say you respect human rights yet you barricade Colonel Sambo Dasuki, the former National Security Adviser, in his home, endanger his life, deny him medical attention, flout court orders and make him critically ill.

You say you respect human rights yet you arrest Governor Boni Haruna simply for standing as surety for Dasuki and you try to force him to abandon his friend.

You say you respect human rights yet you raid Governor Attahiru Bafarawa’s home and arrest and detain his son simply because he is friends with Dasuki.

You say you respect freedom of speech and human rights yet you lock up Nnamdi Kanu indefinitely and your security agents shoot two unarmed and harmless pro-Biafra youths to death in Enugu simply because they were involved in a peaceful demonstration.

You say that you are a believer in the rule of law yet you ordered your secret police to storm a sitting governor’s official home in Akwa Ibom knowing that he enjoys immunity from such matters.

You say you love Nigeria yet a bomb goes off in Kano killing over 21 people and instead of coming back home to mourn with your people you continue junketing around the world.

You say you know how to run Nigeria but according to Paul Wallace and Michael Cohen of the United States magazine known as Bloomberg Business your “bounce has become bust”, your “policies irk investors”, you have “destroyed Nigeria’s economy” and you “do not have the capacity to move the country forward”.

You say that you know how to manage the economy yet stocks and shares have crashed, small businesses are folding up, our foreign currency has dried up, industries are collapsing, agricultural output has decreased, our foreign reserves have been spent and the value of the naira has depreciated since you came to power and it continues to fall.

You say you know what you are doing and how to manage Nigeria’s affairs yet the U.S-based Washington Times newspaper says that you lied to America about your so-called good intentions for Nigeria and that you have “duped the United States of America” with your false promises and empty words.

You say that you are fighting poverty, yet according to the Business Day newspaper, Nigerians are “getting poorer for the first time since 1999”.

You say that you will restore our country’s fortunes yet the fuel queues are back and the prices of food, transport and basic commodities are soaring by the day.

You say that you are a man of your word and after you were declared winner of the election you promised not to malign, persecute, witchunt, demonise, disrespect or go after President Goodluck Jonathan and members of his administration unless you have concrete evidence of wrongdoing, yet when you came to power you did precisely that.

You say you are fair-minded, true to your friends, loyal to your supporters and always reasonable yet you did not concede even one ministerial slot or approve one ministerial nominee of the two men that helped you more than any others to win the presidential election, namely President Olusegun Obasanjo and Governor Bola Tinubu.

You say that you want the country to change, that you believe in fairness and equity, that you are a progressive, that you believe in a generational powershift and that you want the country to move forward, yet you are trying to destroy Governor Bukola Saraki simply because he won an electionand became Senate President.

You say that you are fighting corruption yet no one has been made to face the music or brought to book over the 25 billion naira REMITA and Systemspecs scandal, and neither has the matter been clarified or resolved even though it has been established that the whole deal was struck under your watch.

You say you love Nigeria and all Nigerians yet your Fulani kinsmen, under the guise of herding cattle, are slaughtering thousands of innocent people all over the south and Middle Belt, yet you remain their Grand Patron and you refuse to utter to a word of condemnation for their actions.

You say you respect Nigerians yet every time you travel out of the country you spend your time telling foreigners and the foreign media how useless, rotten and corrupt your people are and how you are the only saint in Nigeria.

In view of all these, I am constrained to ask whether President Muhammadu Buhari has a conscience or is it that he has just lost touch with reality? Everything that I said about him during the presidential campaign has been confirmed and in just six months he has betrayed the trust and squandered the goodwill that the Nigerian people bestowed upon him in the March presidential election. I have to say that I am not surprised by this because his “change” mantra was just an illusion.

What he and his APC failed to disclose to the Nigerian people during the campaign is that what he meant by “change” was a change from light to darkness. Sadly our people trusted him and now he has plunged our nation into that darkness.

May God enable him to find the courage to retrace his steps before it is too late and may the Lord deliver Nigeria from those that are around him that fail to tell him the truth.

I gather that they call those of us who oppose President Buhari and that are PDP supporters the “wailing wailers”. That is an interesting expression because by the time Buhari finishes with Nigeria I have little doubt that the entire country will be wailing.

The truth is that I would rather be a “wailing wailer” that posterity vindicates than a “lying liar” or a “howling howler” who has lost his way and who continues to have confidence in a man like Buhari and a party like the APC that is hell bent on destroying our country and our cherished democratic institutions with their Rambo-like insensitivity and total ineptitude.

All those “lying liars” and “howling howlers” who voted for President Buhari should clap for themselves for the terrible mess our country is now in. We will remember them in our prayers too.

*Femi Fani-Kayode is a former Aviation Minister