The Mask Is Off: Buhari Is Corrupt, Factional, Lacks Integrity
Peregrino Brimah
Where is the integrity in a man who stubbornly shields cabal accused of looting millions of dollars meant for the upkeep of victims of Boko Haram terror? Does such a person have integrity? Can a person who continued to employ and now fights to protect a former corrupt regime security chief found to have $43 million stashed in an apartment his wife bought be said to be against corruption?
How do you defend a president who promoted officials in the NNPC who were all part of the former corrupt regime’s top staff when looting of billions of dollars was happening under Diezani and Jonathan? How do you claim integrity for such a ruler who after his minister of state complains about such person and accuses him of misappropriations to the tune of $25 billion, only forces a gag to save personal face?
Is dealing with corruption and protecting the future of the Nigerian masses more important to Buhari or is saving his name and his cabal cronies his top priority?
They say, show me your friends and I will tell you who you are. Whose friends are Abba Kyari and Maman Daura? Are they your friends or are they not Buhari’s friends? How do you extract Buhari from the corrupt cabal at the presidency who he appointed, employed or handed Nigeria over to? Even if he made a mistake at first, how do you defend him for keeping them around him till the end of his tenure? How do you explain how Buhari has failed to lock up a single corrupt cabal and has never seen the need to fire a single of his cabinet members, in spite of all sorts of allegations? Were they all perfect? Obasanjo sacked ministers and locked up his police chief. And Obasanjo is no one to write home about.
How do you explain the alleged embezzlement at Aso rock clinic and Buhari’s exorbitant medical tours? How do you explain the presidential jet unnecessarily parked abroad at a cost of millions of tax-payer dollars? Integrity? While thousands of Nigerians are dying from hunger? How do you explain the Emefiele-run FOREX subsidy scam, as bad as Jonathan’s fuel subsidy scam, that had Buhari making new billionaires and feeding the established cabal billions as Emir Sanusi lamented and Reuters reported in its article captioned “Africa’s richest man got a fistful of dollars in Nigerian currency squeeze.”
How do you regard a ruler who participated in nepotism with CBN and FIRS jobs and who turned the other way and failed to investigate when his army chief was accused of possessing millions of dollars worth of property in Dubai? How do you describe a ruler who refused to investigate persons like Saraki and Dangote listed in the Panama Papers damning expose?
What can we say of a president who goes all out to protect Dasuki by never bringing him to court? A man accused of looting billions of dollars, and leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of Nigerians?
And then, what legacy does a man who aims to tear Nigeria to pieces with his factional and sectional policies, leave behind? A man who has struggled to introduce Sunni – Shia open and deadly enmity in Nigeria, never before heard of in our nation? A man who tore apart his very own north and whose regime stands accused of massacring and secretly burying hundreds of Shia Muslim minorities in the middle of the night?
How do you regard a man who sent the army to massacre secessionist pro-Biafrans on several occasions but who defends rampaging militant Fulani herders who have actually raised down dozens of towns and villages and who murder an average of 1000 Nigerians every year?
As early as a month after Buhari was sworn in, I recognized how self-centered Buhari was. I wrote an article in July of 2015 that went viral on LindaIkeji, captioned “Buhari Changes Personal Security But leaves Nation Under Risk – by Perry Brimah.” Yes, while Buhari had invited me to his inauguration, that did not stop me from quickly realizing that the Buhari who was just sworn in was not the Buhari we had prognosticated. This was another person, a “Jibrin.”
Some had quickly detected who Buhari was…the minute he gave his infamous 97-5% sectional speech in the US. However it took longer for the mask to come off for others to see who Buhari was and who he was not. But today, most can see. Buhari is no man of integrity; he is no man who detests corruption. Buhari is a chip of the old block. A PDP man. A colonial-minded cabal, detached from the masses. A slave driver and cabal defender.
Unfortunately the APC regime is no different from the PDP regimes before it, both in person and principle. Like the Bible said, some come to steal, kill and destroy and some come to give life. Even fanatic Nigerians are beginning to determine what this government has come to give. The mask is off. The sheep’s skin has fallen.