In
a piece title "BuhariGate, as the limit of obstructionist politics'
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Shehu
Garba, distanced President Buhari from the ongoing Dasuki $2.1 billion
arms deal scandal. Read the incisive piece below...
As
the war on corruption heightens, the political battle-line between the
governing All Progressives Congress, APC and the opposition Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP has sharply been drawn.
While
leaders from both parties voice out their support for the clean-up of
the country by ridding it of corruption, the National Working Committee
of the PDP seems clearly to be working contrary to the anti-corruption
rhetoric of their Board of Trustees. Their public communication organs
have, in particular, become increasingly combative against the exercise.
All that the President, leading the APC change orchestra is trying to
do is to revamp a moribund nation with growth, jobs and recovered looted
funds. Sadly, only a few, if any in Wadata House are treating the war
against corruption as the extra-ordinary event which it is. Instead,
when they speak up, they do so most ardently against it. In a clear
demonstration of abstructist politics, they challenge the government in
every move it makes, but fail to spell out alternative roadmaps to
curbing the monstrous corruption that threatens to consume the country;
they rush to condemn and dramatize even the smallest of measures which,
given time and patience will manifest through positive outcomes.
Doing
this gives the PDP the illusion of being an effective opposition party
but taken in the context of national interest and the mood of the
nation, it is doubtful it it is yielding anything beyond limited
political returns. To most Nigerians, the cacophonous opposition is just
a media spectacle to distract or mellow the President.
After
an historic loss in an election to the opposition for the first time in
the annals of this country’s political history, PDP has not looked
inwards in any serious way to seek its revival. The first and major leap
at reform ended disastrously when first, the party establishment
rejected a well-timed apology tendered on its behalf for their past
failures. Then, the leader of the reform movement got himself mired in
allegations leading to court charges of the theft of billions of Naira
voted for weapons purchase to fight terror in the North East. Chief
Raymond Dokpesi's trial ( and Col. Dasuki's) is no doubt a serious blow
to any prospects of a turn-around in the PDP.
The
party did not seek democratize their internal organization, a major
reason for their implosion leading to the loss of the election or began
thinking innovatively about the challenges of modern day Nigeria, nor
have they got a "Plan B" that is inviting to the voters.
It
is this failure to reckon with, or look at the real issues confronting
the party and the nation that led to their call for an investigation of
President Buhari for having been supplied two jeeps by the erstwhile
Jonathan administration after the personal bullet-proof jeep he owned
was bombed by yet unknown assailants.
As the Special
Adviser to the President, Femi Adesina said, issuance of the cars,soon
after this incident was merely a face-saving move, intended to cover the
government's failure to keep its duty to this particular former leader.
The law, cited as the Remuneration of Former Presidents and Heads of
State (and other Ancillary Matters), entitles former Nigerian Presidents
including General Muhammadu Buhari to “three vehicles to be bought by
the Federal Government and liable to be replaced every four years”.
Cars
are just a few in a litany of entitlements written in that law although
it is contestable to say that General Buhari had been given his due
entitlements by successive administrations as provided thereunder.
Regime after regime treated him as if he was not a former Head of State.
General
Abacha came on the saddle and wanted to throw everything at Buhari who,
knowing his very nature declined virtually but his military pension.
The military in particular treated him so badly that its leaders kept
silent when the PDP charged that he didn't have WAEC papers. One
shameless Army Records officer said that the former Head of State had no
records at all under their system. General Buhari went without a full
compliment of armed guards from the army he served at the highest level
until the dastardly bomb attack on his convoy in April 2014. It was at
this time that the Chief of Army Staff at that time thought it necessary
to reinstate the armed convoy to protect him. When they brought the two
cars within a few days of his being bombed, the staff of the General
were merely informed that this was from the Federal Government in
fulfillment of its obligation to him. Since this was an entitlement
long-overdue, not minding that it came short of what was expected, there
was absolutely nothing wrong on the part of the General for accepting
that which was due to him.
This hashtag “#Buharigate”
was intended as a counterpoise to "Dasukigate," the phenomenal
corruption scheme by which money intended for weapons to fight terror
was shared among PDP leaders. It was a fake intervention and a malicious
propaganda against the president, obviously intended to detract from
his enormously huge reputational capital, the basis on which the APC
nation-wide victory was founded.
The #Buharigate failed
to gain traction because was seen as an opposition overreach and a
desperate attempt to tarnish his hard-earned name and nothing more. No
serious blogger therefore paid a serious attention to it.
This
baseless allegation that the President had benefitted from the
diversion of money intended to fight insurgency under the former
National Security Adviser equally underlines the cruel nature of today’s
politics, that even the best personal examples cannot keep a leader
from the tar brush of the opponent.
Apart from seeking
to mellow the President, I suspect that the opposition had thought
these attacks would revive the collapsed fortunes of the PDP while at
the same time projecting their leaders as victims of persecution in the
hands of the APC administration.
What however is
encouraging in the country today is that Nigerians have thrown their
full weight behind the war on corruption. This itself is an account the
constructive nature of the government’s engagement against the vice and
the determination with which it is being fought. Adding impetus and
flavor is the frustration at the routionisation of corruption by the
last administration and their inadequate and impotent efforts to curb
and punish high-profile offenders.
My concluding
augment is that President Buhari’s election and war against terrorism
and corruption have become a template. In Niger, Chad and Ghana where
there will be elections next year, opposition candidates are parading
themselves as the “Buhari” of their own country.
President
Buhari must have himself been embarrassed by calls, through newspaper
articles, posters and banners in the course of his visits to these
friendly countries, saying “we want Buhari type elections; we will wage
Buhari-type anti-corruption war”. One Chadian political party published
an advertorial asking their government to procure and issue permanent
voters cards as well as the use of card readers in the coming election
and if the funds were not available, “let us borrow from Nigeria” for
the coming elections.
President Buhari was and is far,
far away from, and remains untouched by the “Dasukigate”. “#Buharigate”
is therefore a fraud and an unbecoming spectacle designed to tarnish the
illustrious record of the President so as to mellow his anti-corruption
drive. It failed because it was born out of desperation to gain
sympathy by an opposition that can’t heal itself unless it comes to
terms with the danger of corruption they thrived in, and the party's
internal structures are overhauled and remade to meet the minimum
requirements of a democratic organization.
