WHEN Muhammadu Buhari overthrew a
democratically-elected government in a coup
d”etat in 1983, Sani Abacha declared in his
infamous radio broadcast: “(Our) health
services are in shambles as our hospitals are
reduced to mere consulting clinics without
drugs, water and equipment.”
However, Buhari did not address the
shambolic Nigerian health system in his two
years in power. In a Vanguard article of 7th
February, 2015, Ambassador Ignatius
Olisemeka said of Buhari: “He entrusted to
me the care and welfare of his family- he
sent his wife and two children to me in
Washington D.C. for medical treatment. His
family were with me in Washington D.C.
when the General was overthrown in a coup
d’état.”
Thus, while Buhari was grandstanding as Mr.
Fix-It, he sought medical care surreptitiously
for his family in the United States, instead of
fixing the Nigerian health system. This
typifies the hypocrisy and insincerity of
Buhari as an agent of change. It is all smoke
and mirrors. It is the same duplicity whereby
he claimed to be the apostle of anti-
corruption even while being complicit in the
smuggling in of 53 suitcases at Murtala
Mohammed Airport, Lagos in the middle of a
currency change.
Gen. Muhammadu Buhar
Buharinomics
Buhari’s grandstanding must not be allowed
to go unchallenged today, now that he is
seeking election under the same kind of
democratic system he truncated and trashed
in the past. We must not allow Buhari to
sweep his ignominious past under the carpet
of a bogus mantra of “change.” Indeed, there
is something anomalous about presenting a
72 year-old former military dictator as a
change candidate. What kind of change can
be represented by an old has-been?
In his first coming, the “changes” Buhari
brought were to Nigeria’s detriment. Under
him, the Nigerian economy went from bad to
worse. Our national debt rose from $14
billion to $18 billion in less than two years;
with the result that Nigeria was no longer
able to meet its financial obligations to
global bankers. We had to queue for
essential commodities, such as bread and
milk, which were hard to find. Raw materials
and spare parts needed to keep factories
running were scarce. Rather than create
jobs, tens of thousands of workers lost their
jobs. Inflation rose to the astronomical level
of 40%; while it is now 7.9% under
Jonathan.
When Buhari seized power in 1983, Nigeria’s
GDP was $444.45. When he was overthrown
in 1985, Nigeria’s GDP had dropped
dramatically to $344.14. That is not the kind
of change we want. When Goodluck
Jonathan became president in 2010,
Nigeria’s GDP was $369. By 2014, it had
grown dramatically to $510.
Buhari is going around complaining about
the recent devaluation of the naira. However,
when he took over in 1983, one dollar
exchanged for 0.724 naira. But by the time
he was overthrown in 1985, one dollar
exchanged for 0.894 naira. That is 23%
devaluation in barely two years. However,
when Jonathan took over in 2010, one dollar
exchanged for $167 naira. Five years later, it
is now $202.55. That is a devaluation of
21% in five years.
It is not surprising, therefore that, when
Buhari was overthrown in 1985, there was
wild jubilation throughout the length and
breadth of the country.
Unleashing the dogs and the baboons
One of the first things Buhari did when he
seized power in 1984 was to gag the press.
Decree 4 was promulgated making even the
publishing of the truth a criminal offence.
Under it, Nduka Irabor and Tunde Thompson
were jailed maliciously in a manner designed
primarily to intimidate the press.
Under Buhari, the SSS came looking for me
because I published an article in National
Concord entitled: “Counter-trading Nigeria’s
Future;” criticizing the government’s return
to the stone age economic policy of trade by
barter which resulted in even greater fraud
than import licensing. Buhari is now angling
to return to power under a democratic
setting. But has this leopard changed its
skin? In spite of his carefully crafted
makeover by his American handlers, has
Buhari changed from his anti-democratic
ways?
All the evidence suggests he has not. Buhari
is not even president and he is already
fighting the press. Recently, he threatened to
back out of the Abuja Peace Accord
concluded with Goodluck Jonathan and the
PDP because he was upset about the insults
and attacks he was receiving. He warned
that no one should regard his “patriotic
commitment to maintaining national peace”
for weakness.
Buhari’s handlers declared: “We cannot
continue to guarantee the tolerance limit of
our teeming supporters nationwide who are
daily being inundated with death wish
commentaries on the person of General
Muhammadu Buhari.” What exactly does this
mean? Is Buhari now going to unleash his
infamous dogs and baboons on Nigerians?
This is why it would be foolhardy to
mortgage the freedoms we have come to
enjoy under the democratic dispensation by
handing power back to a man who is
intolerant of criticism.
Let us juxtapose Buhari’s short fuse to the
disposition of Goodluck Jonathan. Jonathan
must be the most wrongly vilified president
in the history of Nigeria. He has been called
all kinds of names by his traducers. He has
been abused, reviled and condemned by
APC stalwarts. His motorcade has been
stoned. His campaign posters have been
torn down. His campaign ground has been
bombed. His wife has been maligned. How
has he responded to all this?
Jonathan responded by signing the Freedom
of Information bill. In effect, instead of
gagging the press, in the tradition of
malevolent dictators like Buhari, he has freed
the press even more; allowing it to criticize
his government without hindrance. In every
way possible for the past five years,
Jonathan has assured and reassured
Nigerians that freedom of expression is our
inalienable right.
The myth of Buhari’s northern popularity
One of the lies of the Buhari campaign is the
pretense that he has cornered the Northern
vote. Nothing could be further from the
truth. As a matter of fact, in this election,
Buhari is not the choice of the North. The
Northern political elite don’t want Buhari to
be president. The North did not vote for him
in the APC presidential primaries. The
Northern vote went instead to Rabiu
Kwankwaso and Atiku Abubakar. Buhari was
elected primarily with Southern ACN votes.
Let me ask some pertinent questions. How
many Northern elites have we seen recently
campaigning for Buhari? We have seen
Tinubu following Buhari around. We have
heard Obasanjo and Soyinka pitching their
tents with him. But the Northern elite have
largely kept mum. Governors Fashola,
Oshiomole and Amaechi of the South have
been busy singing choruses of praise about
Buhari, but Northern governors are mute.
Atiku and Kwankwaso have largely kept their
distance from him.
Why are they not shouting on the rooftops
for Buhari? The truth is that the Northern
elite have never liked Buhari. Therefore, it is
not in their interest for him to become
president. Buhari’s grandstanding on anti-
corruption resonates with the poor, but not
with the Northern elite. Should Buhari
become president, most of the current
Northern presidential hopefuls can no longer
be president in their lifetime. Eight years of
Buhari presidency would swing the
presidency back to the South for another
eight years. But these Northern bigwigs
don’t have 16 years to wait in the
wilderness. Some of them would even have
kicked the bucket by then.
It is better for them to wait for Jonathan to
finish his second-term in 2019, at which time
they would be able to contest for the
presidency without having to deal with an
incumbent president. What they need now is
the assurance that it would then be the turn
of the North. In that eventuality, South-South
support for a Northern presidential
candidate would be imperative. 2015 is not
the time to jeopardize this.
The strategic partnership of the North and
the South-South has been the enduring
decimal of Nigerian elections. The South-
South has supported the North in every
election, except when its own son, Goodluck
Jonathan, was on the ballot. The North must
be careful not to betray that partnership, if
for no other reason than that it will need it
again in the near future. It must be careful
not to betray that partnership because
Jonathan has done far more for the North in
his five years in power than he has for any
other part of the country, including the
South-South. In short, there is no excuse for
Northern denial of support for Jonathan in
2015.
The federal government’s mid-term
assessment of its development investment
shows that the investment in the North-West
and the North-Central zones alone amounted
to 792 billion naira; nearly double those of
the South-West, South-South and South-East
put together, which amounted to 403 billion
naira. If the North fails to support Jonathan
in the coming presidential election, in spite
of Jonathan’s obvious discrimination in
favour of the North, it can bid farewell to
South-South support in the future.
With all the noise about Buhari’s popularity
with the talakawa in the North, we have not
heard anything that he has ever done, or
would do, for them. When he was head of
state between 1984 and 1985, he did
absolutely nothing for them. In the unlikely
event that Jonathan becomes president, it
would not take long before there would be
rioting among the Northern poor out of
dashed and betrayed hope.
The man who has transformed the life of the
poor in the North has been Goodluck
Jonathan. Jonathan built 125 Almajiri
Schools in 13 states in the North; something
Northern rulers like Buhari failed to do. At
the commissioning of the first Almajiri Model
School in Gagi, Sokoto State, the Sultan of
Sokoto, Alhaji Abubakar Sa’ad III, observed
that Jonathan’s action was unprecedented in
the history of Northern Nigeria.
Jonathan also established ten new federal
universities; seven of them in the North.
Jonathan has made far more appointments
of Northerners than he has of Southerners.
His transformation of agriculture from
subsistence to commercial farming has been
of primary benefit to the agrarian North.
Therefore, it will come as no surprise if
Jonathan wins more votes in the North in
2015 than he did in 2011.
www.vanguardngr.com/2015/03/why-nigerians-must-reject-the-second-coming-of-buhari/

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Friends, I got this android application I made to browse nairand but it does more than just a browser.
Directly access each section using well land out shortcut icons
Nice presentation
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Create new topic and make your comment
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You will like it.
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No need 4 long talk, the cattle man has being losing over time immemorial. Losing runs in his veins, if u doubt ask 2003, 2007 & 2011; he has being an ardent loser. So, don't worry about 2015 because, the cattler rearer will still go baq to his 150cattles in 3weeks time..

Anyone is allowed to write but we all know the truth. I might not know much about the past but those who know even confirm to GEJ as way worse than Buhari. Also, we have seen the best of GEJ and his lies therefore, we want CHANGE.

Story for the gods. I see a man that is desperate to take up Abati job.

Only e-rats who are mostly underaged campaign fo Brhari. The rest of Nigerians are for GEJ.

BeeBeeOoh:
No need 4 long talk, the cattle man has being losing over time immemorial. Losing runs in his veins, if u doubt ask 2003, 2007 & 2011; he has being an ardent loser. So, don't worry about 2015 because, the cattler rearer will still go baq to his 150cattles in 3weeks time..

Very true.
2011...Buhari and Pastor Tunde
Bakare...2015 Buhari and Pastor Osinbajo,...2019
Buhari and Cardinal Okogie,....2023 Buhari and
Bible ...hahaha

This "PhD" holding foolllll with his fossilised and false postulations.