Buhari seeks cheap popularity from adopting June 12

Sir: I dedicate this letter-article to the section of the Nigeria Judiciary that insisted that the forced to retire Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, be granted the honour of voluntary retirement. The lesson to learn is that one should not hide what needs not be hidden. I never had any huge amount of money in my life but I know that less than N50 million (indeed less than N47 million) total in all of Onnoghen’s bank accounts is not huge at all, when the Senate bought 36 cars for N36 millions each car in 2015, in a nation where anybody riding a N3 million car was (and still is) a king. Nigerian senators are said to earn more than N13 million monthly, even though paying N30, 000 minimum wages is yet to see daylight. So, why was Onnoghen shy to declare all his assets? So far, there is no indication that he has any “excess luggage.” That was why I said he deserved state pardon, but since he was a victim of conspiracy in the first instance; such a thought could only be my own wishful thinking.

The current President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB), like his predecessors, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and former President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, is unwilling to seek peace with Boko Haram, because it was not a war born out of justice or sincerity, but conspiracy of the Fulani Muslim imperialists, perpetuated by Jonathan based on his own inordinate ambition to be the elected President of Nigeria by all means, using nepotism, the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria, bribery and corruption to truncate rotational presidency against the northwest. The corruption, carnage and economic destruction under Jonathan’s rule led Nigerians into the hands of the most brutal GMB, who adds protection of the Fulani herdsmen terrorists to the unjustifiable war against Boko Haram. GMB is also the most corrupt as he doubles himself as the Petroleum Minister and is recovering looted funds without accountability for anything to anybody. He squanders money on warfare, buying warplanes and sophisticated weapons, and going to take care of himself in London and romancing with Arab countries, inordinately.

“June 12” is a commemoration of June 12, 1993; the day Nigeria held a free and fair presidential election presumably won by Moshood Abiola but annulled by the former military head of state, General Ibrahim Babangida. Abiola died (or was killed) in his own insistence to secure the mandate. GMB is using adoption of June 12 as Nigeria’s Democracy Day to gain cheap popularity even as carnage and economic destruction of Nigeria are unabated. GMB was an ally of General Sani Abacha who incarcerated Abiola, while adoption of June 12 as Nigeria’s Democracy Day is supposed to be in honour of Abiola. Hence I also describe GMB as Nigeria’s most treacherous and dangerous President; he is the most hideous and pretentious. How much is GMB squandering on his adoption of June 12 as Nigeria’s Democracy Day? When it comes to war and frivolities, Nigeria rulers with hardly any exception, count no costs. The former President, General Olusegun Obasanjo (OBJ), also squandered untold amounts of money on the so-called West African Games (Sports, or something like that) at the expense of infrastructure and welfare of common Nigerians, even though he (OBJ) did much better in maintaining peace for progress. After his rule, Nigeria has been subjected to consistent carnage and economic annihilation, 2009 till date, worst of all, under GMB.

Prof. Ọlọjẹẹde Oyeniran Abiọjẹ wrote from University of Ilorin.