What Is Buhari Saying?

Comfort Obi

After the peaceful presidential elections, my plan was to celebrate Nigeria, and the Nigerian spirit. I planned to salute the courageous young woman from the North who put to bed, and a couple of hours later, went out to cast her vote. I planned to celebrate the over – a century old woman in Rivers state, and the 92 year old man in Lagos, who sat for hours in order to vote, and the blind old man who insisted on going out to vote. And many more. The voters in Maidugui, Suleja and Kaduna who defied bombs hurled at them to still go out and vote; the Youth Corpers who went beyond the call of duty to serve their fatherland. I wanted to salute them for believing in the Nigeria vision, for believing in transformation. And I wanted to celebrate INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, for redeeming his image after a disturbing false start. I also wanted to congratulate President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for his pan-Nigeria mandate.
Jonathan neither won on tribal, nor on religious sentiments. He didn’t even win because of his party, the PDP. He won because he is Jonathan. He won because most Nigerians trusted him with their destiny. We should be celeberating. But see what we got in our hands.
The Presidential election which has been adjudged by national and international observers as free, fair, and the best so far in Nigeria, has been marred by unprovoked violence. Blood, tears, death and sorrow have been inflicted on us. Nigerians, especially those from the South, and Youth Corpers, are being killed in their hundreds in the North. Properties worth billions of Naira have been destroyed. Churches are being burnt. Anybody suspected of having sympathy for Jonathan is either killed, maimed, or their properties burnt. They include governors, emirs, politicians and many more. Youths and children have been mobilised by God-cursed politicians to wreak havoc on our country. They say their preferred candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, ought to have won. And my question is how?
For the records, Jonathan garnered 22,495,187 millions votes. And won over 25 per cent in 31 states, plus the FCT. Meaning that he won seven states more than the mandatory constitutional requirement of 24 states. Those who are presenting his victory as divisive, as if he won only in the Southern states, and lost in the Northern states, are simply being mischievous. When did Adamawa, Nasarawa, Plateau, Benue, Taraba, Kwara, Kogi, where Jonathan won outrightly, and all those other states in the North where he won more than the mandatory constitutional requirement of 25 per cent, become Southern Nigeria?
The stage for this violence was set before the elections. Buhari and Adamu Ciroma had promised fire and brimstone if he did not win, if a Northener does not become the president. Their utterances prepared the Northern mob for this havoc wreaked on Nigerians. They promised Nigeria will be set ablaze. It has come to pass. Where were security agents? Whatever happened to intelligence gathering?
A day before the presidential election, Buhari continued with his incitement of the mob. He alleged that Jonathan had already rigged the election. He said that airforce aircraft were used to air-lift already thumb-printed ballot papers to Kano, Kaduna and Katsina in favour of Mr. President. But the contradiction. When the results were released, Buhari won those states massively. Were the ballot papers thumb-printed by Jonathan in favour of Buhari? The mob believed him. Even before the elections took place, Buhari’s mob had began rioting. As the results were being announced, it worsened. And then, Buhari decided to pour petrol on a raging fire by insisting that INEC computers were deliberately configured to rig him out. This is mischief at its worst. INEC conducted the elections manually, counted the votes manually, and collated the votes manually. No computers were used. So, what is Buhari talking about?
Truth is, Buhari is a bad loser. He has always been. The violence in the North is a consequence of the utterances of Buhari and co. On what basis would Buhari win the presidential elections? The thought of it defies commonsense and logic. Where are his structures? Buhari knew from the onset that he was going to lose. His running mate has no electoral value. Buhari does not have a national appeal. He is popular only in the North west. And we know why. He did not campaign in the South east. An incurable dictator, his past preceeds him. In Enugu, the Owoh family was waiting for him to ask him about their son, Bartholomew Owoh, who he killed using a retroactive law.
Buhari ought to be happy that his party did well in the presidential election. CPC is only about nine months old, but it already has six Senators. Buhari got over 12 million votes, and won 25 per cent in 17 states. That is a feat an older ANPP was not able to accomplish. Its presidential candidate, Ibrahim Shekarau, won no state, including Kano where he is governor! He got less that one million votes nationwide.
When the result of the National Assembly elections were released, Buhari knew he was never going to be President. With only six Senators, how could CPC win the presidency? He finally lost it when he botched the CPC /ACN merger, with him as the Presidential candidate. He denied ACN the Vice Presidential slot. If that had happened, Buhari, probably, would have pulled off a run-off. But his famed rigidity was at play. When Buhari wept in Abuja, while rounding off his campaign, he was weeping for the hopelessness of his ambition, and not for Nigeria. As a Head of State, I can hardly put a finger to his achievements. As the PTF boss during the Abacha regime, his zone, the North west, was favoured most. The South east got nothing, almost.
Expectedly, Buhari has washed his hands off the violence, and appealed for calm. But these come too late. The harm has already been done. Nigerians should rise and condemn this atrocity by Buhari sympathisers. What will Buhari tell the families of the scores of Youth Corpers slaughtered by his mob? What is Buhari's running mate, Pastor Tunde Bakare, saying about the dozens of churches razed down? Has his quest for power turned him deaf and dumb? What about the underaged children being used to kill, maim and destroy? What do they know about Buhari's cause?
Let those behind this violence know that no zone has the exclusive of violence. Others keep quiet because of God, and the unity of Nigeria. It should not be taken for granted. What is it?