by Bayo Oluwasanmi

Before I’m mauled by angry Buhari apologists and censors and willing agents of secrecy and repression, hear me out. So don’t shoot me yet.

At last, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) approved the registration of All Progressives Congress (APC) after so much Hip-hop, Juju, and Highlife with some comedy that dwarfs Baba Sala’s “Orun Moru.”

Great footage is the key to any good documentary. It is impossible to make historical films without it. Wole Soyinka’s article “The Crimes of Buhari” is a gold mine of documentary footage of the sins of Buhari why he’s not a good presidential material for 2015.

The character analysis of Buhari in his days as head of state by WS proves hypnotic. It gives us a rare snapshot of the man who wants to be president. As we approach 2015 we should be cautious of Buhari who was described by a friend of mine as “Islamist Jihadist masquerade as a democrat.”

We should also be leery of plugging obsolete political flash drive into 2015 presidential hardware – old wine in new bottle.

Since the formation of APC, political offices have been farmed out across the geo-political-ethnic spectrum. The two juiciest posts are the presidential candidate and the chair of the party. Of course the most coveted is the presidential slot.

It has been widely reported that APC heavily favors a northerner as the presidential candidate. Muhammed Buhari and Theophilus Danjuma are the two names being considered. Every Nigerian has the right to compete for any elective position as long as he or she meets the constitutional requirements.

However, I have problem with a northerner as APC’s flag bearer. Before I’m mauled by angry Buhari apologists and censors and willing agents of secrecy and repression, hear me out. So don’t shoot me yet.

The northerners have always succeeded in manipulating and dividing Yorubas to achieve their selfish political ambitions and to realize their self-fulfilling prophecy that they are born to rule Nigeria forever. “The North on the basis of one man one vote can keep power indefinitely in the present Nigeria state…,” so stated Ango Abdullahi. “The demography,” continued Abdullahi, “shows that the North can keep power as long as it wants because it will always win elections,” said Abdullahi.

They know that without the participation or collaboration or cooperation of the Yorubas, any Hausa/Fulani oligarchy would not stand. They need the Yorubas more than the Yorubas need them

Once upon a time one Yoruba Akindanidani (dunce) was appointed an interim president by   Hausa tooth-gap buffoon to deny another Yoruba the presidency the fact that the Yoruba won the election that was adjudged as the fairest election in Nigeria.

Long time ago, a revered Yoruba was brought before Yoruba Akindanidani judge. In spite of overwhelming evidence that the Yoruba was not guilty as charged, the Yoruba Akindanidani judge confessed “My hands are tied” obviously by a northerner who headed the federal government at that time. The Yoruba was sentenced to 10 years behind bars.

At another time, very long time ago, another Yoruba Akindanidani was appointed chair of the National Census Board which certified the north as the region with the largest population in Nigeria the fact notwithstanding that cows, goats, dogs, ducks, donkeys, monkeys, and other living and non-living things were counted as human beings.

Examples of Yoruba Akindanidanis being used as pawns by northerners to con, divide and pit Yorubas against Yorubas abound. I can go on, and on, and on.

Why do we – Yorubas – always settle for and satisfy with a subservient position? What’s wrong with some Yoruba Akindanidanis? Why is it that these Akindanidanis always betray their own because of a cup of gari or a platter of amala? Why the traitors among us always have the last word? How long will it take us to heed Hubert Ogunde’s warning – “Yoruba Ronu”?

Here we go again in 2013 … some Yoruba Akindanidanis are rooting for a northerner as presidential candidate for the newly minted APC in order to secure their personal plum positions within the party. With Alatenuje (glutton) and Akindanidani Yoruba politicians, Yorubas usually end up with the sticks instead of carrots. Yorubas fittingly symbolized a house divided against itself.

Must northerners always be the president of Nigeria? What special qualities or talents or skills do they possess that Igbos or Yorubas lack? They have no special leadership qualities or talents or skills which should give them advantage over the other two major ethnic groups. I’m not oblivious of the fact that Nigeria has not feared better under a Yoruba or Ijaw president. However, the records of northerners as presidents of Nigeria are as clear as they are compelling.

The political wreckage train of Nigeria was designed, manufactured, operated, and crashed by either a northern Prime Minister, President, or Head of State. The administrations of two demonic northerners plunged Nigeria into unprecedented political darkness and tortuous economic abyss Nigeria ever witnessed. We’re still smoldering under the inferno. You know the brutes I’m talking about.

Now some publicists and propagandists have literally taken over the social media selling their political toxic nonsense by promoting Buhari as the only best candidate that could rescue Nigeria from the threatening imminent implosion.

There is nothing wrong serving as paid propagandists. But when such propagandists become autocratic, dictatorial, abusive, liars, and fabricators then there is problem. They totally resent and reject any criticism, debate, or discussion that would probe the suitability or otherwise of their candidate Buhari.

They are not only promoting Buhari, they are trying to shovel the man down our throats. Those of us with different opinions about Buhari have been called names and labeled as “tribalist,” “traitors,” and “lazy.” What could be more amusing, they see us as either unrepentant majority or rebellious minority.

2015 provides a marvelous case study of leadership amidst a difficult situation. For a moment, let those who aspire to rule the country in 2015 step into the sandals of poverty ravaged Nigerians and experience what they face on daily basis.

The present crop of candidates is selfishly addicted for looking out for themselves. They have failed to cast or catch any vision for leadership.

The history of these people wanting to be presidents points the opposite direction of what leadership is all about: service and sacrifice. How many of them can boast of “I die daily” like the hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down poor Nigerians they want to lead?

Consider this: Danjuma was quoted as saying he didn’t know what to do with $500 million he made from the sale of oil bloc gift from thieves who divided our commonwealth (oil) among themselves. What kind of leadership do you expect from Danjuma?

In 2015, Nigeria need a leader with patience and perceptivity to look into a troubled situation, discern the problem, and then do whatever it takes to correct the difficulty. In short, 2015 Nigeria needs troubleshooters not problem manufacturers in order to grow, develop, and be a prosperous healthy nation. A leader that recognizes that suffering and opposition come with the territory.

We need a leader who will hold up rather than fold up. A leader who will face and work through trials and difficulties. A leader who knows what kind of “workout” he needs in order to turn Nigeria around. And trials and the seemingly insurmountable problems facing Nigeria may well be part of the “workout.”

How long are we going to endure with abnormal patience the ragtag veterans known for their demented faculty of foresight? We need leaders with connected brains!

Visions make leaders passionate, thorns keep them authentic. Buhari, what’s your vision? What’s your passion? And where is your thorn?

The purpose of redemptive suffering is tied to leadership by sacrifice. Who can better help someone going through bankruptcy than someone who went through a bankruptcy? Who can better help somebody struggling with an addiction than somebody who struggled with an addiction? Who can better help parents of a special needs child than parents of a special needs child?  Redemptive suffering is when you go through a problem or a pain for the benefit of others.

Buhari and his military intruders caused so much grief and graft. They still do. Nigerians should be reminded of the familiar evil schemes of the Buharis of this world who are staging a comeback so that they will not outsmart us.

“The Crimes of Buhari” penned by WS detailed gems of sacred truth about the true Buhari many of us don’t know, are too stunning and too breathtaking to be ignored.

“The grounds on which General Buhari is being promoted as the alternative choice are not only shaky, but pitifully naïve,” WS reminds us. “History matters. Records are not kept simply to assist the weakness of memory, but to operate as guides to the future,” warns WS.

To Buhari’s apologists who are quick and vocal to argue that Buhari is a changed man, WS cautions them: “Of course, we know that human beings change. What the claims of personality change or transformation impose on us is a rigorous inspection of the evidence, not wishful speculation or behind-the-scenes assurances,” says WS. “Public offence, crimes against a polity,” continues WS, “must be answered in the public space, not in caucuses of bargaining.”

“In Buhari, we have been offered no evidence of the sheerest prospect of change. On the contrary, all evidence suggests that this is one individual who remains convinced that this is one ex-ruler that the nation cannot call to order,” says WS.

On the rule of law, Buhari has no respect for the law. WS draws our attention to the fact that he was “…one of the generals who treated a Commission of Enquiry, the Oputal Panel, with unconcealed disdain.”  “Like Babangida and Abdusalami,” WS recalls, “he refused to put in appearance even though complaints that were tabled against him involved a career of gross abuses of power and blatant assault on the fundamental human rights of the Nigerian citizenry.”

On the sanctity of life, Buhari is controlled by impulse and blind rage to the extent that he became satanic in his cruelty. In fact he enjoys termination of people’s life so much that he carried out “…the judicial murder, execution of a citizen under a retroactive decree”

Again, WS provides us with the proof: “Does Decree 20 ring a bell? If no, then, perhaps the names of three youths – Lawal Ojuolape, (30), Bernard Ogedengbe (29) and Bartholomew Owoh (26) do. To put it quite plainly, one of those three Ogedengbe – was executed for a crime that did not carry a capital forfeit at the time it was committed.”

A leader must learn from his failure. Would Buhari change? No! “Since leaving office, he has declared in the most categorical terms that he had no regrets over this murder and would do so again,” WS reminds us.

You think democracy is bad under GEJ’s administration? Expect the end of democracy as we know it under Buhari’s presidency. For the entire Buhari administration, Ebenezer Babatope was permanently housed in detention for his article warning that Buhari “was an ambitious soldier who would bear watching through the lenses of a coup d’état.”

He turned down all appeals to allow Babatope to bury his father who died while he (Babatope) was in the cellar. For publishing the truth, Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor both journalists, were slammed into the gulag under Buhari’s obnoxious decree. “Tai (Solarin) was incarcerated by that regime and denied even the medication for his asthmatic condition…”

The septuagenarian Chief Adekunle Ajasin was arraigned by Buhari’s kangaroo tribunal. Chief Ajasin was acquitted. Not satisfied by the verdict, Buhari ordered his retrial. Again, Chief Ajasin was acquitted from all charges of corruption and abuse of office. Chief Ajasin’s offence was “winning an election and refusing to knuckle under Shagari’s reign of terror.”

WS calls to mind Buhari’s assault on freedom of expression: “Not content with hammering down the freedom of expression in general terms, Buhari specifically forbade all public discussion of a return to civilian rule. To deprive a people of volition in their own political direction is to turn a nation into a colony of slaves. Buhari enslaved the nation.”

Buhari would be a president who administers justice selectively. He would protect his own by all means necessary. Remember Buhari’s coup was staged to dislodge Shehu Shagari’s inept administration. Well, as WS explains “Shehu Shagari was kept in cozy house detention in Ikoyi while his powerless deputy, Alex Ekwueme was locked up in Kirikiri prisons.”

He let other political contrabands and purveyors of falsehood like Akinloye, Chairman of the NPN, and Richard Akinjide the electoral math wizard of two thirds of 12 states “strolled out coolly across the border.”

For poor Nigerians, the Buharis are a dreadful smell of death and doom. They are just like the rest of the hucksters who seek the presidency for personal profit as opposed to life-giving perfume. With the Buharis in power, it will mean Nigerians will continue under constant danger of death, penury, hopelessness, and doomed life.

I see a dramatic contrast between the vessel and the contents. We hardly need to question whether the container exists for the sake of the treasure. The answer is obvious.

Government exists for the common good. Government by job function must take care of everybody – to be sure that they have food, water, light, education, jobs, housing, and be safe, sound, and secure.

The mirage the Buharis put in front is not actually what goes on the surface. The Buharis cannot make Nigeria whole. They are after the windfall!

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.