[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Oxford English Dictionary defines a terrorist as a person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.
Taking the above definition into account, I am convinced, and so are many others that General Muhammadu Buhari is a lifelong terrorist.
Let me explain. On at least four different occasions, Muhammadu Buhari has used unlawful violence to achieve his political objectives.
On December 28, 1983, he used unlawful violence to execute a military coup against an elected government, and overthrew the democratically elected President of Nigeria, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, and supplanted him on December 31, 1983. Though he subsequently legalised his actions via military decree, it nevertheless was, ab initio, an act of terror that led to the death of our democracy, our economy, and several individuals.
Also, after the April 16, 2011, Nigerian Presidential elections, the defeated Muhammadu Buhari, by his utterances and actions, instigated the worst post-election violence Nigeria had ever seen since Operation Wetie in the 1960s. It did not matter to him that former Botswana President Festus Mogae, who chaired the Commonwealth Observer Group, declared those elections the most credible since Nigeria’s 1999 return to civil rule.
According to the New York Times, thousands of people were killed (a very conservative number), by General Buhari’s supporters, including at least seven youths of the National Youth Service Corp, without him condemning the violence and calling on them to end it. To add salt to injury, Buhari’s then political party, Congress for Progressive Change, libelled they dead corp members by calling them “PDP IT consultants”, which they were not. But if even they were, would that justify their murder?
Thirdly, on becoming President, after threatening that “If what happened in 2011 should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood”, General Buhari superintended over the mass murder of perhaps over a thousand Shiite men, women, children and infants, on December 12, 2015.
What was the stated reason for that mass murder? Buhari’s chief of Army Staff Staff, Turkur Buratai, alleged that the Shiites had attempted to assassinate him, a claim that has been established to be very ridiculous!
And then finally, on November 20, 2020, General Buhari presided over the murder of an as yet unknown number of peaceful, unarmed #EndSARS protesters, at Lekki, in Lagos state.
That Generals Buhari and Buratai are serial terrorists, is a fact. And I assure Nigerians that they will both one day pay for their crimes.
So, now that we have established that Muhammadu Buhari and Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihād, AKA, Boko Haram, are colleagues, let us now examine further similarities or dissimilarities between the duo.
Shekau is an evil terrorist, who should be found and executed. Other than Joseph Kony of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army, there is hardly a worse criminal in Africa. Shekau is a mass murderer, and a scion of the devil. However, in terms of leadership and management of men and resources, he is far better than Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari. Let me explain.
Shekau is ruthless. If he sends his terrorist commanders on a mission and they fail, he does not show mercy. He executes them. He does not tolerate failure.
In multiple instances, we read in the media about how Shekau has killed his subordinates who failed at missions, including Tasiu, also known as Abu Zinnira, Amir Baba Kaka, and Ali Gaga, amongst uncountable others.
Now, contrast this with Muhammadu Buhari. His service chiefs, and military and security commanders are serial failures. They have failed to secure Nigeria, and Nigeria has slipped from fourth to the third most insecure nation on Earth, according to the Global Terror Index, under their watch. Yet, Buhari has not sacked anyone of them and continues to keep them in place despite their glaring dereliction of duty.
Obviously, Buhari has shown a failure to lead, and as evil as Shekau is, he has shown less tolerance for failure than Buhari.
Another comparison is the fact that Shekau, as evil and satanic as he is, is noted for personally visiting his fighters and commanders, when they have either a military victory or setback.
We have seen this via media reportage, time after time. The evil fiend physically went to Gamboru to comfort his fighters after a military setback and released propaganda videos of himself amongst his fighters.
After Boko Haram commanders, Abubakar Mubi, Malam Nuhu and Malam Hamman, were killed, the beastly Shekau again went on a morale boosting tour of his forces, which was also captured on video and covered by the media.
These are just a few of multiple instances of Shekau visiting his fighters.
Now, ask yourself how many times Buhari or Buratai have visited troops at the front, despite promising to “lead from the front”? Only this week, they demoted Major General Olusegun Adeniyi, the gallant former Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, on the flimsy excuse that he personally led his men to defeat Boko Haram in a decisive battle, where he shot a video complaining of lack of weapons and tactical support.
What was he meant to do? Die, so that the arm chair Generals, in air conditioned offices in Abuja, would give him a post humous medal?
A third trait that Shekau displays, which is sorely lacking with Muhammadu Buhari, is that Shekau shoots videos to address Nigerians (you can imagine his effrontery), while Buhari would not even bother doing so.
For example, after Boko Haram killed between 43 and 110 farmers (no one really knows the exact amount) Shekau released a video, directly addressing Nigerians, claiming responsibility, and threatening us with more of such. He did this less than 48 hours after the #ZabarmariMassacre.
As I write this, a full week has gone, and neither Buhari, nor Buratai, have addressed Nigerians, or our troops. Instead, Garba Shehu released a statement blaming the killings on the rice farmers, who he said had not gotten clearance to harvest on their farms. You can imagine! Even Shekau did not blame the victims.
If I were in Buhari’s shoes and an event like the Zabarmari massacre occurred, I would have cordoned off the sector with a heavy security presence, then visited the town, and immediately rush back to Abuja to address the nation, declare a national mourning, replaced my service chiefs, and deploy the chief of Army Staff to Borno.
Buhari did NONE of these things! In his place, at least Shekau would have done all, except declare mourning.
If you ask me, there is nothing different between Muhammadu Buhari and Abubakar Shekau. They are both terrorists. The only difference is that one is a terror mastermind, while the other is just a terror bully who only used terror to get to power and then focused on regime security while national security suffered.
Reno Omokri is the author of bestselling book, ‘Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years’. He is pastor and social media influencer. He can be reached via Twitter @RenoOmokri.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
