There are several other links. My final question is how many litigation will end the menace of BOKO HARAM?
Sir,
Accusing my man Muhammadu Buhari of being a major supporter of Boko Haram is patently absurd, even as a political ploy by which one would- be- president or even a supporter of an incumbent president demonises his rival by saying that his rival is a sponsor of terrorism. It’s as patently absurd as accusing a former president of the United States of supporting al- Qaeda (although the US is currently supporting al-Qaeda elements in Syria...
Equally disingenuous is the absurd question, ”how many litigations will end the menace of BOKO HARAM?” – by which I suppose you mean how will Muhammadu Buhari taking legal measures (defamation of character, libel and slander) those who accuse him of sponsoring Boko Haram – bring an end to the carnage in Northern Nigeria? Brother Buhari should be at liberty to salvage his good reputation from the vilifiers and preferably by legal means...
“However, Buhari has denied making inciting utterances, saying that the panel and the Federal Government were executing a pre-determined agenda since the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and President Goodluck Jonathan had earlier accused the CPC of being responsible for the mayhem even before the panel was raised.” And there you have it – unless you can show us the specific utterances, we are merely being abstract, even nebulous....
In the midst of the media hysteria and the gathering North-South political maelstroms in which the vociferous South (East and West) is so dominant, for balance, I am a frequent visitor to the pages of Aliyu U. Tilde a reasonable media representative of moderate Northern views. Without that kind of balance one is liable to become an extremist, albeit unwittingly so...
Our greatest concern ought to be how to bring peace and prosperity to Nigeria, to all Nigerians, since there is only one Nigeria and that Nigeria is non-negotiable they say, and even the National conference says that the dissolution of “the Lugardist experiment” is non-starter is not and cannot be on the agenda.
What is most clear is that the enemies of Nigeria would like to further their divide and rule agenda along the ethnic, regional and religious fault lines. How better to exacerbate the pre-Biafra tensions, the North-South divide than to have a terrorist movement called Boko Haram that has been on the rampage for several years now, indiscriminately slaughtering Muslims and Christians alike, locking in prayerful congregations in their churches and torching them alive, slaughtering Muslim children in their boarding school houses.
And the trigger-happy and inept Nigerian Military on their genocidal missions, indiscriminately killing civilians and whoever they identify as Boko Haramies – if it is a war, taking no prisoners of war, since the extermination of their perceived enemy is their sole mission.
Should Boko Haram move South, what they will Goodluck Jonathan do? Bomb the North/” Northern hideouts”? Will there come a time when all Muslims will be suspected of being Boko Hara or Boko Haram sympathisers?
Brother Muhammadu Buhari is one of the stalwarts of contemporary Nigeria that I most admire. I was in Nigeria on 31st December 1983 when the Buhari- Idiabgon duo rescued the nation in that bloodless military takeover. The looters were not and are still not happy when they hear the name of the honest general being mentioned. You know the whole story and I know the whole story too, we could tell the story in different ways, so please save your breath and let me hold my peace.
My admiration for the man is based on the evidence available to us both in deed and word and I’m thinking of this interview in particular in which he decries the plague of pernicious corruption that blooms like grass in Nigeria and talks about the importance of education - including Western Education which is said to be anathema to the Boko Haram philosophy .
We are to assume that former President Muhammadu Buhari is a nationalist and that he also loves Nigeria and would therefore like to have equal justice for all – all Nigerians.
To charge Brother Muhammadu Buhari with the heinous crime of being a major supporter of Boko Haram without any evidence to support such a charge, is in itself a heinous crime.
To quote half of the comments that Punch attributed to Muhammadu Buhari in 2011 is also not telling the whole story and we all know that Boko Haram activities have escalated since then. Here’s is the rest of what Punch wrote then - in essence what Muhammadu Buhari is quoted as saying in that Punch article is true for all to see – and this was Niger Delta militants hitting at the heart of Nigeria’s lifeblood in the Niger Delta.
You present this Human Rights Watch report which is a synoptic view the spontaneous post-election violence that erupted in twelve of the Northern states of Nigeria in April 2011 in reaction to Goodluck Jonathan being elected president and the same Goodluck Jonathan setting up a Commission to look into the causes of this violence. I don’t know to what extent the Commission thus set up was an independent Commission - and even from this distance I assume that some of the findings would be a foregone conclusion - and that the causes of similar acts of violence that will be unleashed after the next presidential elections, are also foregone conclusions, when the root causes have not been addressed nor the grievances ( Northern grievances been given due attention at a time when the North is aggrieved about perceived injustice /s. Didn’t North governors / council of Northern elders suggest that one way forward is addressing the socioeconomic needs ( poverty ) of the North?
The ball is thus in the court of the president of all Nigerians.
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Sir Godfrey,
I don’t want to get embroiled in the twaddle and the tittle-tattle of the usual debate.
My man Muhammadu Buhari has made himself clear. His silence about the matter would be disgraceful and would only lead to his envious and corrupt detractors cooing that silence means consent and in his case, an admission of guilt. Muhammadu Buhari loves Nigeria and has also made good contributions to the nation known as Nigeria and his good name which has never been associated with corruption should not now be tarnished by any vile and insane accusations that he is a godfather or the godfather of the notorious Boko Haram.
We’ve been halfway down the slippery slope before.
The greatest woe that could befall us would be a Nigeria in which
Sincerely said,
Cornelius