by Uwem Inyang
In the first of the 5-day series of my analysis of the Muhammadu Buhari candidacy, I chose the campaign slogan they are bugging everybody with. This “Change” mantra… It’s no secret that APC are copycats and they nicked this from Obama’s campaign team of 2008.
While Barack Obama wowed Americans with his oratory brilliance, he was never afraid to speak and sell his dreams to his people. Anywhere, anytime, Barack was ready and that is what sound minds do. He debated so wilfully and I vividly remember two key selling points of his. His plans for Obamacare, and his roadmap for a new improved American foreign policy. Has Buhari told anybody anything yet?
You can read the previous editorial in this series, For A Former Army General, Buhari Comes Very Short On His Views On Security (READ), Why General Buhari’s ‘Integrity’ Image Is The Fraud Of The Century (READ), Dear Nigerians, General Buhari’s Sketchy Economic Policies Will Tank Nigeria (READ), and Opinion: Dear Nigerians, The Moment Of Decision Is Here (READ).
I mean, has he debated or spoken for up to 2hrs throughout his nationwide campaigns?
Yesterday again, this unintelligent and uneducated President wannabe ducked the open session where other candidates bravely showed up. This dismissive and disdainful attitude shown by Buhari and APC would be a HUGE turn off in so many other climes. It shows lack of respect and regard for the masses. Or does anyone actually understand what this change they have been bragging about means?
Let me say this and quite lucidly too. The “change” APC are reverberating on this planet remains one of the biggest political scams in our democratic history. It is also complete fibs. It is indeed a fraud.
Have a good look at their so-called agents of change and what do you see? I mean, Buhari, Tinubu, Amaechi, Saraki, Fashola and the rest? What change is Buhari and when did he change? By wearing diverse costumes in every State he visited? By visiting Churches and never debunking his grand desire to see Nigeria engulfed with Sharia? I mean, did he not make that statement in 2001? We are talking of an ex coup plotter, military dictator and someone with blood on his hands here. This is our moment of truth…
Politics is also about advertisement and the best advert for any product is the product itself. I have watched Buhari in 3 different TV interviews and learnt nothing. Just nothing… To be candid, he was mostly inaudible and incoherent. And all I see is a man who has no remorse whatsoever for his sordid past that includes 20months of brutal reign.
All I see is a man who has not mentioned even ONCE, the 800 dead in the riots after he lost the elections in 2011.
All I see is a man who has not updated himself in any way, shape or form in preparation for democratic leadership. All I see is a man with no pragmatic ideas on how to move Nigeria forward. Zilch!
Most of all, all I see is a man who has become so afraid to speak to the people he wants to rule. I am not talking of prepared speeches or town hall addresses; I am talking of facing the people, answering their questions and being in touch with a digital age of understanding.
What actually has CHANGED about Muhammadu Buhari is his lifestyle and the sudden availability of lots of money at his disposal. I mean, courtesy of the very corrupt likes of Rotimi Amaechi (who has left Rivers State to be governed by its default settings) and Emperor Bola Tinubu. Buhari lately has been junketing (almost to space and back) in private jets bought with the people’s money.
Buhari has been receiving looted and stolen money in this his ambition to rule us again. How can this same man ever fight corruption? Did he not say that the late Abacha he served was never corrupt? What exactly are his modalities for fighting corruption if it’s actually his job as President to do? Last time around (which was 30 years ago); he just went about jailing people with little or no substantial evidence. Another fallacy is Buhari soaking himself in the jacuzzi of being Mr Integrity. That on its own is an insultive paradox to our collective intelligence… Anyway, that itself is a topic I have earmarked for another day.
I have waited for weeks and months to understand what change APC and Buhari have been mumbling about and I find nothing. All I see are aggrieved people seeking power by all means necessary. Buhari is NOT change! At his age, he will NOT change! He does NOT even know the meaning of change!
The deficiencies, inabilities, incapacities, hypocrisies, melancholies and assumed policies of the Buhari candidacy are so obvious. You don’t need a soothsayer to decipher or decode them. His history is there and it’s still open season. And they are awful to add…
His desperation for power has nothing to do with national integration, economic salvation or territorial reconciliation. It’s a latent agenda that can only set a very dangerous precedent and above all, take us backward.
This is a man who said that any war against Boko Haram is a war against the North. His comment was one of the many that stifled a full blown war on the mob then. The same man now turns around and blames the Government for not being able to crush the terrorists. Is that not inconsistent and suspicious? Ask yourself, why did Buhari start going to Churches? In 2011, he went to watch Nigeria play a football game pretending to be a football fan. Has he ever been back there since then? Can you not spot the gimmicks and pretences of this desperate man?
Sule Lamido said it so aptly that Buhari preaches religion in the North and then speaks of unity down South. Is that the man to trust?
The persistent cover-ups, muscling and muzzling of Buhari to rule Nigeria has to be resisted. The mannerism of it all remains dubious, spurious and devoid of meticulous thinking. It’s a candidacy built on anger, spite, myopia, false hope, intimidation, aggression and power wrestling than patriotism or realism. There is no aura to it and that includes the funny Prof Osinbajo brought in to add “colour” to a colourless Buhari.
This Saturday is the day to vote AGAINST these machinations and manipulations by some disgruntled Nigerians whose hidden plans are best known to them. They have been hiding Buhari from verbal, educational and professional public scrutiny. Does anyone really hide a good thing? They do have ulterior motives and it’s all about them. Not us! Think about this too…
Buhari’s memory or intelligence ability is very suspect. Or is Edo State (that he has visited) in South East Nigeria? Does he give you any confidence whatsoever that he can hold his own in the midst of global and powerful leaders? Simply put, Muhammadu Buhari does not have the acumen to lead a country like Nigeria in the 21st century.
The series continues tomorrow with another interesting topic called Integrity. And then I will discuss the Economy, Security and others consecutively. Please do stay tuned and let’s reason this together…
Lest I forget, vote Goodluck Jonathan for President! I really didn’t see the need to sell GEJ on this topic. He has been silently changing things.
Uwem Inyang is an engineer and a political analyst. He is on Facebook.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
