“Some of us were old enough to know what transpired under Buhari as a military dictator. It’s easy to revise history to suit certain partisan ends…”
Frank Adeoti
It is quite amazing and amusing how some pitiable characters are hell-bent in perverting our history. And they are doing it with all the warped strength in them.
They are strenuously subverting our past for the miserable porridge they are currently savouring with greedy relish. They want to justify their actions and inactions by destroying our yesterday.
This hot exchange between Senator Babafemi Ojudu and his unnamed friend picked from a forum in the social media is aptly handy here. Ojudu is Special Assistant, Political Affairs, to the President.
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Excerpts from Ojudu’ piece, Fifth columnists in our recent history:
“Once upon a time a General took over the reigns of power in Nigeria. He was determined to straighten Nigeria and instill discipline. He introduced economic nationalism, frowned at corruption, and said loud and clear that trafficking in drug was anathema to our national goals.
“Some fellow Generals who were in power with him but whose visions were diametrically opposed to his could not tolerate his stubbornness. They plotted against him. They found accomplices in the media, the traditional institution, among politicians and in the business community. Some foreign interests too were wooed.
“They came up with a script. This man is too popular. We need to make him unpopular, tag him a dictator, high-handed and uncompromising.
“Yes the Yoruba bought into his vision and they loved him. What do they do to give him a bad name before they strike to institute their regime of locusts? They hired a band of boys within the security to proceed to the house of the revered leader of the Yoruba, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
“In the middle of the night the boys sacked the house, forced their way into his bedroom, ransacked everywhere and broke down his wardrobe. They claimed they were sent by the then Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, to go look for some confidential documents acquired illegally by the chief. The Yoruba and other sympathizers of Buhari were outraged. That was the end of the romance between the anti-corruption duo of Buhari and Idiagbon and the people.
“They didn’t stop at that, they sent another band of marauders to Kaduna. Destination was the home of the Islamic cleric, Alhaji Gumi. Their goal: embarrass the much- respected cleric and set the Muslims against the regime. They succeeded at this as well.
“A couple of months thereafter when they struck and overthrew the regime, these were listed among the offenses committed by Gen. Buhari. The people having been deceived applauded them and Buhari adjudged high- handed, brutal and a dictator.
“When a couple of days ago Senator Bukola Saraki visited the gap-tooted General in Minna, I interpreted it as going to ask ‘Oga I hope I am doing well?’
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“Nigerians should be vigilant. The children of yesterday’s tricksters are adults and are adopting the tricks of their fathers.
“From the shenanigans at the Benue House of Assembly, to the siege on National Assembly, the attack on judges’ homes in the night, the so-called barricade of the Senate President’s house, the laughable kidnap of Boy Dino and ‘his 11 hours on a tree’, the freezing of Benue and Akwa Ibom accounts all are scripted, produced and acted by Oloye Productions.
“May God save us from these power mongers.”
Ojudu’s unidentified friend responded.
This is a poor attempt at spinning history.
Excerpts:
“Some of us were old enough to know what really transpired under Buhari as a military dictator. It’s easy to cherry pick facts and revise history to suit certain partisan ends.
“But not everyone lacks the sense of critical thinking not to have seen through your revisionism.
“Senator Ojudu needs to refresh his memory of history to get the facts of the situation right if this write-up by him is not a propaganda material to deflect attention from the missteps of this dysfunctional administration.
“The NSO headed by the now late Amb. Mohammed Lawal Rafindadi was given enormous powers under the Buhari dictatorship to aid that junta’s anti-graft war.
“It was in furtherance of that wide powers Buhari promulgated Decree 2 of 1984 that allowed for the ‘illegal’ detention of people. Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor, two frontline The Guardian journalists, were famous victims of that decree.
“The raid on Awolowo’s home and a similar one on Gumi’s were in tandem of the exercise of the wide powers given to Rafindadi, and not at the instigation of any fifth columnist as Ojudu is trying to tell us.
“Let’s even for the sake of argument concede that distorted historical narration about the raids on Awolowo and Gumi, is he telling us the fifth columnists were also behind the detention of Thompson and Irabor to incite the media and the international community against the Buhari junta and other atrocities committed under Buhari’s watch?
“Or why is it only under him that fifth columnists are left to go on the rampage as if he’s the first and only leader of Nigeria?
“Ojudu’s revisionism fits into the ongoing agenda to demonise the sacked DSS DG, Lawal Daura, for the siege on the National Assembly over which Buhari can’t escape censure.
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“However, if Ojudu is to be believed, then he has just confirmed what Nigerians had largely suspected: Buhari is grossly inefficient and unfit for the office he is occupying.
“I also see that Ojudu has deliberately suppressed the fact that Buhari and APC leaders visited Babangida in 2015 to hide the gross defect in his logic on which this his write-up is anchored on.
“It’s now evident why the Buhari presidency is so shambolic given the quality of thoughts of top officials surrounding him.
“I’m sure this piece and a similar one written by NAN MD, Bayo Onanuga, were aimed at burnishing the image of the president.
“However, anyone with modicum of sense and disrobed of partisanship will see that they validate the belief that the president is incompetent, no matter how erroneous that belief may be perceived.
“Or how else would a man vested with the powers of an imperial president surround himself with agents of fifth columnists and he’s so clueless not to notice or so helpless not to fire them?
“The alternative then is that Buhari isn’t in control of his administration and has abdicated his responsibility to the so-called cabal. They should have gone for the lower risk option by abandoning this reckless propaganda that makes their principal looks like a gross incompetent president.”