Buhari: Sad And Saddening Interviews

 By Tony Eluemunor

Ordinarily, any Nigerian should celebrate the very fact that President Mohammadu Buhari granted two nationally televised interviews in two days. This was a man who had been dubbed the taciturn one simply because he would clam up even when the cries of a need to address the nation was howling like the harmmattan wind. 

*Buhari 

Yet, what did the average Nigerian get? On very vexatious issues, the average Nigerian has remained as uninformed about the real issues in BUhari’s mind as though the man never spoke. And yet, he did speak volumes. 

This time, the blame does not lie with the President at all. He never at any moment refused to answer any questions and it is to his credit that he never ruled some topics as no-go areas. So, what went wrong? 

First, we have to agree that we have all the time over simplified matters by believing as a national creed that the only trouble with Nigeria is that of leadership. Ah, I know you must have, at this juncture remembered that most memorable of phrases, which was molded by the mind of the most celebrated writer Nigeria has ever been blessed with; Chinua Achebe. He said: “The trouble with Nigeria is clearly and squarely the trouble of leadership.” 

Achebe argued that nothing was wrong with the air or water in Nigeria but that “if a leader lacks discipline the effect is apt to spread”. Well, if Buhari’s interviews aired on Thursday by ARISE Television and Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) showed anything, they showed us that the problem with Nigeria is also that of followership, the citizens. Part of that followership, the journalists who interviewed Buhari messed up totally and irredeemably. And I will show you why. 

When on Thursday Buhari, in reply to a question about open grazing, talked about the gazetted laws of 1963, which delineated cattle routes. Buhari’s words: “On Open Grazing: “What I did was ask governors to go and dig the gazette of the first republic. There are cattle routes and grazing areas. If you allow your cattle to stray into any farm, you are arrested. The problem is trying to understand the culture of the cattle rearers. The Nigerian cattle rearer has nothing else about from machetes and sticks to cut trees for cattle. Fulani herders from outside Nigeria (who look the same as Nigerians) move to Nigeria and they look like they are from Nigeria and some of them carry AK 47”. 

Then, how on Earth could it be explained that the Arise TV titans of Nigerian journalism; Tundun Abiola, Reuben Abati, Arise News Chairman Nduka Obaigbena, and current head of the editorial board of ThisDay, Olusegun Adeniyi, could not remember to ask Buhari whether it is the duty of the Governors or his own duty to stop “Fulani herders from outside Nigeria (who look the same as Nigerians)” from entering Nigeria? And that if they entered Nigeria illegally, is it not the duty of the Federal Government which Buhari heads as President to accost and deport them? Also, why did they not ask Buhari just one simple question: is it not the duty of the Federal Government to arrest, arraign and punish herders who, illegally “carry AK47”? 

I say this because the gazetting of any law in any year concerning Nigerian herders did not make legal the illegality of allowing illegal aliens to come into Nigeria at will. Also, nothing in that 1963 gazette would have authorized illegal aliens not only to carry guns illegally, but to use the guns to kill Nigerians at will. 

If any answer from Buhari cried out for a follow-up question it was the one under review here and now. Or are those journalists from Arise TV convinced that a total and unhindered implementation of the that 1963 law about designated cattle routes would immediately stop the harassment and killing of Nigerian farmers by foreign and illegal aliens who also illegally tot dangerous guns about? If not, why did they not raise this so that Buhari would tell his fellow countrymen and women, perhaps, if after the implementation of that 1963 law, he would also do something to fish out the Fulani illegal alien herders because their being of the Fulani ethnic stock would not have automatically made then Nigerians. 

In other words, why did the presence of gun-toting illegal alien Fulani herders within Nigeria’s borders not become an issue during that interview? Or are we saying it was not germane to the discussion? 

Now, there is a related topic that needs be addressed. Buhari’s reply to a question: On State Police: 

“I’ve told governors who came to me to complain about herders and farmers crises to go back to the old system where traditional leaders, police, traders and elders meet regularly to discuss security situation in their localities and solve them. And if it is above them, they pass it on. Governors can’t go round and win elections and then sit tight and wait for somebody to do their jobs for them”.

There are two issues here: the first concerns Buhari himself while the second touches on the Arise TV journalists who interviewed him. 

Number one: Would our President be saying in other words that, in the case of Benue for instance, that he is unaware of the much-publicised fact that Benue has enacted a law against open grazing? To put it differently, the Benue people having considered all the laws in the books, all the “traditional leaders, police, traders and elders, and how often they have been meeting and decided that such intangibles have not worked for the state as farmers have kept dying in droves in the hands of herders who engage in open grazing, and therefore decided to try a different approach; to ban open grazing. So, with that answer, was Buhari saying that he would allow the Police which at present is completely and totally under him as there is no state Police in Benue or in any other state, to obey a law genuinely and duly passed by the Benue State of Assembly? And which has been assented to by the duly elected Governor? Does that law stand? If it does stand, should that law not be enforced by the Police, which is totally and completely under Mr. President? And if not why not? 

Are we being told that the Governor of Benue state, who signed a bill into law, which bans open grazing in his state, has not done something tangible to stop the harassment and killing of those living in the state by herders who may not be Nigerians, and who may be, against the laws of the land be illegal aliens in Nigeria even as they illegally bear arms? And at the same time, when the Federal Government has not arrested and deported them or tried them for illegal possession of arms? 

What else should a Governor do? To hold meetings with traditional rulers and the Police and traders and farmers and herders? Are we asking any sane Governor, to parley with gun-toting illegal aliens who have no reason being in his state in the first place? I don’t think so. And the journalists who conducted the interviews should have pointedly asked Buhari to further explain his stance. And it is likely that Buhari would have happily done so, after all, he was truthful enough to tell us that he loves the Nigeria-Maradi rail line because of the good neighborliness that would help elicit between us and the people of that country. Buhari’s answer on the extension of rail line to Niger Republic 

“How many neighbours do we have? You have to cultivate your relationship with your neighbours, if you don’t, you are in trouble. Nigerians have first cousins and relatives in Nigeria, Benin Republic. 

Niger has discovered oil, we want them to transport their products through Nigeria instead of Benin by building rail (to Maradi) and good roads”. Unfortunately, many have taken that answer to mean that Buhari has personal relations in Niger Republic. 

Yet, that answer should have given birth to a follow-up question: Why did he not begin by extending a rail line to Benin Republic, because more volume of trade is carried on the Cotonou – Lagos route than from across Maradi? And is the Maradi-Nigeria rail line a part of the Trans-African Rail Line or just a tip of the hat to Buhari’s whim? 

On Saturday, June 12, 2021, Mr. Innocent Nwajei, the former General Manager of the Daily Independent South-South Operations, Asaba, was buried. He was aged 54. 

This man from Asaba, who loved print and publishing issues with a passion, died after just three days of illness on Holy Saturday, that is, the day before Easter. He was said to have died of, wait for it, just ordinary typhoid. Yes, ordinary typhoid, which comes from contaminated drinking water, ended his life. 

That tells us how underdeveloped Niger still is. He and had been toying with the idea of his returning to Independent. I think he spoke with the Daily Independent Managing Director on the Thursday preceding the Saturday he breathed his last. Man proposes, death….! RIP. Innocent Nwajei; I will ever remember your passion for your printing profession, sunny smile and gentle nature. 

*Eluemunor is a commentator on public issues