I know that the PDP will stop at nothing in
their quest to tarnish the stainless reputation of the man who has now become
the face of integrity in Nigeria. Just as a drowning man who would grab at
anything just to save himself, the Jonathan Campaign Team have lost all hope of
victory and now resort to sentiments, mudslinging and character assassination
Interestingly however, like a traditional
oracle whose mind is fixed, the supporters of the General have remained
resolute and unflinching in their zeal to rid the country of a leader whose
performance in the areas of religious and ethnic bigotry, unprecedented
corruption, boundless insecurity, worsening power supply, economic
mis-management, reckless disregard for rule of law and growing youth
unemployment can only support future medical research into the various degrees
of man-ape psychological similarities.
There is no gain saying, that the more the
attempts to malign Gen.Buhari's image, the more sympathetic votes the old man
gathers.
Now let us look at the theme of the AIT and
NTA Documentary on Buhari's 20 months regime of 1983 to 1985. The documentary
was mainly designed to showcase a seemingly high handed ruler who was so unkind
to the plight of the people that he threw them into prisons or sentenced them
to death at will.
I would have blamed the opposition party APC
for not equally considering a similar gesture of sponsoring a documentary on
the series of corruption cases swept under the carpet, the series of
Mind-puzzling bomb explosions, Azazi definition of BokoHaram and his sudden exit
from office and life, territorial losses to Shekau on daily basis and our once
brave army now chickening out of battle fronts, arming of the NigerDelta
Militants with both heavy war-like weapons and billions of naira royalty
monthly, death sentences on over 254 military boys, apo killings, presidential
pardon for criminals, National Assembly disgrace saga, political high handed
ness and so many other atrocities committed by the present regime. But I am
quick to understand that their was a peace accord and also an understanding
between both parties that all campaigns should stay issue based and not dwell
on personality attacks. But since the PDP have brought up a case against
Gen.Buhari, the least that is expected is a reply in defence.
1. When the Military took over from Shehu
Shagari, their mission was totally different, but in order to ensure
acceptability, they gave the first broadcast citing issues of corruption and
indiscipline as the reason for the coup. Abacha gave this first broadcast. This
was immediately followed by serious military brainstorming sessions on how to
make this excuse convincing, at one of such meetings, they decided to call in
the high handed, incorruptible and most disciplined fine officer from the Jos
Division. True to their words, they appointed the duo of Buhari and Idiagbon as
head of state. The point here is that the choice of Buhari/Idiagbon by his
military colleagues was mainly to restore discipline and accountability for a
while, and they led by example.
2. In leading by example was the simple fact
that they both left their ranks as ab-initio. Unlike the usual practice to
immediately elevate yourself to a 5 star full fledged General and instantly
award yourself with the toga of GCFR, up till today, Gen.Buhari is still a retired
Major-General and GCON.
3. Jerry Rawlings of Ghana fought indiscipline
harder than The Buhari regime was ready to. While the Buhari regime was
concerned about how Nigerians would accept the need for a thorough revolution,
the Rawlingses regime gave no room for doubting Thomases. In fact, Rawlings was
believed to have totally executed all bad political influences, he executed all
corrupt citizens, all drug barons, all embezzlers. He wiped the bad eggs out
completely and started on a brand new slate. But down here, the Buhari Regime
was in fact, so soft enough to allow rule of law prevail, he allowed corrupt
people to appear in court for Self-Defence. He mostly committed people to
prison sentences, he did this without fear and favour to the extent that even
close allies were affected. There was an unprecedented atmosphere of
discipline, civil obedience and patriotism in the history of Nigeria.
4. The most discussed event in his regime was
the execution of drug peddlers, who were men. There was also a case of female
drug peddlers who were equally sentenced to death but were not executed. While
I understand that the stories may sound very harsh, unkind and pitiable, I can
assure my readers that the overall effect of the activities of drug peddlers is
even more damning. If I were a story-teller, I could go on and on narrating to
you stories of how drugs have caused most cases of road accidents, criminality,
thuggery, armed robberies, homicide and of course hooliganism. But I would
rather be quick to point out that the penalty for drug peddling in china still
remains Death Sentence by Firing Squad. This is the same in most advanced
worlds were the dangers inherent in this acts is well understood by the law
makers. Although recently, capital punishments have been well discouraged, we
however cannot blame a 1983 regime for adopting such an approach to totally
discourage certain terrible vices which are in fact well understood to be
addictive.
5. Finally, the most important point is that
all the issues raised in the documentary were made to look EVIL of Gen.Buhari,
but amazingly, these are the same exact things done in Ghana, China, Malaysia,
India and others that made them great today...I keep asking myself...
what if we had allowed Buhari's Regime to last
4years?
What if he had totally eliminated those bad
eggs?
What if the laws against corruption and drugs
were still harsh ?
Would we have been in this mess today?
This corruption mess crumbling our economy?
This corruption stench oozing from our Security
Sector?
This situation where there is now only one man
in the whole of Nigeria that can be said to truly be Incorruptible and
disciplined?
What if...what if...what if...
#IhaveDecided .... For #theChangeWeWant ...
For #TheChangeWeNeed .... @ThisIsBuhari ... #Vote4Change
Solly Yula
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