Most times a little introspection helps to put things in perspective. After I bantered into the night with some friends on Watsapp and Twitter yesterday following my tweets demanding that Buhari should apologise properly for the atrocities committed when he was the head of a military junta in 1980s, I asked myself why I’m so critical of the man.
This is it: Buhari has, at least a 50 per cent chance (some would argue more) of becoming the next president of Nigeria. This why I believe, unlike most of his supporters, we shouldn’t cut him any slack. This is even more because his past as a military Head of State was far from endearing. I shake my head when I read half-baked attempts at trying to whitewash the atrocities that took place during his regime. The Buhari regime perpetrated industrial scale human rights abuses. Fact. Any attempt to dry-clean it would fall flat on its face before it’s even uttered. Perhaps, apart the Abacha regime, Buhari’s regime was the most brutal in the history of the country. But what makes the brutality of Buhari regime hard to forget was that it was deliberately and systematically waged to humiliate ordinary Nigerians.
The wanton abuses and impunity synonymous with the military and other armed forces today was institutionalised during the Buhari regime. Horrible decrees were enacted and backdated to deal with dissenting voices. Soldiers and policemen became prosecutors and judges. Verdicts were passed on the streets and dispensed in the most dehumanising and brutal manner. People were horsewhipped and giving all kinds of demeaning punishments, right on the streets in full public glare, if the queues they were standing were deemed not straight enough by a soldier, for instance. Workers dressed for office were ordered to bathe in gutters. Long jail terms were given to pickpockets and petty thieves. The list is endless. Asking Nigeria to move on as if none of these ever happened is insulting, really.
It is not out of place to demand a proper apology from Buhari. Saying he accepts responsibility for what happened during his regime, like he did during the Chatam House speech yesterday, and immediately watering it down with the excuse that it is normal for military government to be dictatorial is a kite with no string.
To social media critics, you’re either paid or are a closet supporter of the ruling party if you criticise the opposition and vice versa. I hate to do this, but take the United States for instance, during the last presidential election there, the opposition candidate, Mitt Romney and his running mate, Rand Paul were ripped to bits by the media. Hard questions were asked. Their stewardships in the past were called to question. Their statements during the campaign trail and before were dissected and analysed. Even more recently, the American media is already tearing Jeb Bush apart, merely for announcing his intention to run for president. Nobody attacked those asking these questions or called them paid supporters. This is a democracy, when did criticising politicians become a crime? It worries me that young Nigerians are censoring dissenting voices. If this is a strategy to win votes, please let’s stop it already!
So why do I criticise Buhari? I criticise Buhari not because I loathe him; I criticise him for the sake of posterity. I criticise Buhari for his regime’s brutality against the Nigerian people. I criticise Buhari because I hate to see a time when Goodluck Jonathan (if he’s rejected by Nigerians on March 28) under whose administration nouveau corrupt officials became rocks stars and ageing thieves were canonised, through a twist of harsh fate, for instance would be repackaged and sold to Nigerians as Goodluck “Squeaky-Clean” Jonathan. And people would tell me to shut up if I pointed out how corruption thrived during his administration. You think this is not possible? Ask Ekiti people!
I criticise Buhari because I see a growing number of his supporters who think and even say he’s beyond reproach and should not be questioned. This is a dangerous trend that has the capacity to derail any democracy. It’s the stuff idolatry is made of. This is a democracy not a personality cult.
I criticise Buhari because he’s already displaying a God complex. He thinks he owes no one an explanation. For instance, he kept quiet and did nothing about his certificate controversy until it threatened to derail his campaign. He expects Nigerians to take his integrity at face value and not question it. He should count me out.
I pray his fanatical supporters would read this and learn. Until then I don’t mind being the lonely voice in the wilderness.
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Article written by Nicholas Ibekwe with permission from the writer for NewsWireNGR to re-publish…
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