BUHARI DECLARES, BUT LEFT MUCH UNDECLARED?

"I humbly wish to present myself before you, before all of Nigeria and before God, seeking to be elected (nominated) as  APC's  presidential candidate." - Muhammadu Buhari. With those words, Muhammadu Buhari threw his hat in the ring to contest for the nomination as APC presidential candidate and by extension the right to challenge President Jonathan for Aso Rock's occupancy in 2015. Icheoku says thankfully dreamy fantasies do not often materialize into reality, as this man once again embarks on a strangely now much familiar travel, on a road that is eerily familiar and which does not and will not lead him into Aso Rock. Not this time, not any future time and not in the lifetime of Nigerians, especially those who are old enough to remember the disgusting taste of the dishes he served to them between 1983 and 1985. Icheoku joins Nigerians in vociferously rejecting this particular APC candidate Buhari, and in saying NEVER AGAIN, NEVER AGAIN this BUHARI, we know too well and know better to avoid like leprosy. 

Icheoku says having formally joined the race for Aso Rock and for the umpteenth time, it is now safe to examine and reexamine his eligibility and electability for the office of Nigeria's presidency. Icheoku is towing this line of action because, judging by the number of Bola Tinubu's surrogates that attended Buhari's declaration, including his wife Oluremi, it is safe to conclude that apparently Bola Tinubu has signed off on Buhari as  APC's putative presidential candidate. This means that Abubakar Atiku has once again been effectively checkmated by Baba Iyabo, who strongly counseled Bola Tinubu against providing Atiku with APC's platform to run for president. Icheoku says the naiveté of Atiku in thinking that he would be allowed to reap where he did not sow, jumping from one party to another and to another and yet to another, has fully bubbled up to the surface. Who knows when he will be returning back to the PD, except that this time, his welcome might be rather lukewarm, if ever.

So with Muhammadu Buhari practically for all intent and purpose, settled on as the APC's presidential candidate and the guy to slug it out with  incumbent President Jonathan in the forthcoming 2015 presidential election, Icheoku will now revisit the merits and demerits of his choice over Abubakar Atiku as the APC presidential candidate. Icheoku will also go through Buhari's declaration of presidential intent against the background of readily available facts, history and antecedents of the man Muhammadu Buhari, and guided by where he has been, where he currently is and where possibly he is going to, and analyze same in tandem. 

Icheoku says if they could, those sponsors, propagandists and praise singers of Muhammadu Buhari's preeminence stature and "over-qualification" for the presidency of Nigeria, would rather millions of Nigerians that lived under General Buhari's jackboot junta were all brain dead or have amnesia not to remember the horrors of that inglorious regime? Also this group of Buhari's apologists would, if horses are dreams, wish that Buhari's past is magically all-wiped away; and the despotic dictator is washed anew? Also that their "reinvented" Muhammadu Buhari is  now a "born-again" human being with real blood flowing in his veins and that this version of Buhari is no longer  the tin-headed, two-horn monster, whose arteries are filled with sulphuric acid and who hated Nigerians so much that he chastised them with scorpions. 

But unfortunately for these town-criers, voluminous records abound which attest, loudly and clearly, that this Daura monster, who saw Nigerians as slaves that needed a slave master, is not good for Nigeria.  It is Professor Wole Soyinka who once said that "history matters; records are not kept simply to assist the weakness of memory, but to operate as guides to the future." Icheoku maintains that the erudite professor provides Nigerians with a very  important beacon to guide them as they contemplate and gravitate towards a possibly Buhari's presidency in 2015? The professor wants Nigerians not to become victims of a deceitful campaign jingoes or become beguiled by the repackaging of a devil in the cloak of an Angel Michael? A Buhari is a Buhari and will always remain a Buhari, period.

Icheoku says the Buhari then still remains the Buhari now and teaching an old dog new manners is often a task in futility. It is also on record that Buhari unlike genocidal 'Jackal' Gowon, since being ousted from office thirty something odd years ago, has not gone back to school to acquire a formal education or at least augment whatever little "the dangerously bad Western education" he may previously possess? It is also on record that Buhari has not traveled extensively around the world in order to assimilate edifying values and also expand his world views? It is also on records that Buhari has not done anything with his time out of office, except for the shoddy job he did at PTF which forced Baba Iyabo to shut it down. 

It is also on record that Buhari did not in anyway put his services to use for Nigerians' benefit, not even through an NGO, in order to properly acquaint himself with public and human relationships' best practices? Icheoku says it is therefore far fetched and deceitful, for anyone, including these APC honchos, to try and suggest to Nigerians that a man who turned into a hermit, became a religious zealot, morphed into an ardent and fervent fundamentalist and who forced an enslaving life in Purdah on his wife, somehow, simultaneously, reinvented himself and would now lead Nigerians with some modicum of decency? Icheoku is not buying their tale by moonlight nor agrees that this Buhari of 2014 is any less the old melancholic Buhari of yore - the draconian dictator of 1983 to 1985.

Icheoku says to Buhari that overthrowing a duly elected democratic government of President Shehu Shagari is a worst form of injustice than any election rigging. Also if anyone ever held Nigerians in a stranglehold, it was the Buhari/Idiagbon military junta, between 1983 to 1985, but certainly not the PDP as people are somewhat free to say what they think including the opposition party. Lastly, Icheoku does not believe a hair of Buhari's assertion that his government would respect "constitutional separation of powers as well as rights of citizens" except his records as a military dictator no longer matters and is completely discarded:- 

Decree 4 the muzzle decree, prohibition of drinking before 5pm in predominantly Christian Southern Nigeria in the name of WAI; disregarding Oputa Panel's invitation to appear before it; murdering three innocent Nigerians for an offense which was not a death-penalty offense just to bare his bloody fangs; locked away Southern Christian politicians in Kirikiri without due process while their Northern Islamic counterparts enjoyed convenient house arrests; etc. Icheoku was expecting Buhari, during his declaration, to acknowledge these shortcomings of his first adventure and duly apologize for them, but he didn't. Instead he failed and stubbornly refused to atone for his past and thereby further throwing sand in the eyes of conscionable Nigerians. 

Icheoku says one of the funniest and craziest commendation heard during the said Buhari's declaration came from Audu Ogbe, Communication Minister during Shagari government, who said "Buhari's interest inn the presidency is to come and stabilize the polity and then STEP ASIDE?" Icheoku coils in shame at this parody of Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida and his shameful "stepping aside" episode, after the wicked June 12 annulment. Now Audu Ogbe, a victim of Buhari's highhandedness, is reminding Nigerians some of these haranguing and harrowing experiences that are better confined in the darkest corner of Nigerians forgotten history? Then, came Timipre Silva, who said Buhari is coming to properly intervene in Nigeria's economy but failed to tell Nigerians when and where Buhari obtained his 'PhD in Economics or his corporate managerial skills?' 

Icheoku says Buhari has nothing palliative or new to offer to Nigerians or to help solve the myriad of problems facing the country. Instead he is the trigger of it all when he overthrew a duly elected democratic government of President Shehu Shagari, leading to the advent of Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha's maddening institutionalization of corruption, which eventually cascaded to the cesspool presently hounding Nigeria. Icheoku maintains that but for Buhari's military coup, democracy would have since taken very deep root in Nigeria, with most of the current incidental problems already fixed by now. Further if Buhari's very advanced age of 75 years is not a militating factor against his ambition, does it mean that gerontologists are mistaken when they propound that certain risks are largely age related, including dementia, arthritis of the extremities, leaking and forgetfulness? Icheoku says if Senator Mamora is right, then Nigerians should expect to be governed by a Council of Elders in a Buhari's government regardless of their elderly infirmities?  

And in a world where most world leaders are now barely the half age of Buhari, Icheoku wonders the inconvenience of bilateral relationships between a Buhari and these other leaders? Icheoku asks does anyone know if Buhari knows how to even surf the Internet? Also George Akume extolled Buhari's time as Petroleum Minister but tactically forgot that the issue of the $2.7billion missing oils money during Buhari's said tenure has not been conclusively resolved till date? An APC women leader Hajia Rabiu Ishaq urged fellow women to support Buhari as a leader who can liberate Nigerian women, but failed to mention that Buhari's own wife, a woman and potential future Nigeria's First Lady, is not herself free, but is forced to live a pining-away life in Purdah? Icheoku asks Hajia, who would be Nigeria's First lady or is she auditing for the job to act in the stead of the Purdah(ed) Buhari's wife? 

Icheoku bemoans that the owner and the CEO of APC PLC Bola Tinubu is going to blow this golden opportunity at his party's best shot at the presidency with this Buhari misfit. Buhari is not sellable nor acceptable to Nigerians and irrespective of who he chooses as vice presidential candidate, he will not be elected president of Nigeria. If he chooses Rotimi Amaechi, the Southsouth will not trade their number one presidency for a mere number two vice presidency position? If he chooses Fashola, Ngerians will not accept two Muslim candidates, neither would Igbo Southeast accept two affirmed Igbo haters at Aso Rock? If he drops his erstwhile running mate Pastor Bakare, he would be making a statement that Bakare was not good enough and made him lose the previous election, thus creating bad blood between they supporters? If he chooses Rochas, Rochas is a lightweight and will not deliver any Igbo State? 

So generally asking, why would Northern Nigerian Christians, especially those in the Middle Belt, now choose a Muslim over their already existing Christian president or  put in another way, who prefers the shackles of slavery which a Buhari presidency portends to the boundless freedom relatively being now enjoyed under the Jonathan's presidency? Lastly, Icheoku says Nigerians are fed up with these military men, especially after the garrison government ran by the other military man Obasanjo and wouldn't stand for such hallowing experience again. Icheoku says Muhammadu Buhari is a wrong choice and if Bola Tinubu does not listen to Nigerians and foist him, the APC would woefully lose the coming election. Icheoku says APC must say no to Buhari, they should reject his candidacy if they stand any chance in 2015.