During Muhammadu Buhari’s military regime, in 1983, the popular War Against Indiscipline (WAI) was launched as a ‘solution’ to the corruption that was integral in the society. While WAI was a good initiative, it was infamous in the country, primarily because of unreasonable penalties. Military officials would dish out strokes of cane and other types of humiliating punishments for coming late to work or jumping queues.
In order to justify these demeaning punishments, General Buhari and his deputy, Tunde Idiagbon described Nigerians as “useless, senseless, and indisciplined.”
Buhari’s humiliating comments spurred Fela’s hit song – ‘Beasts of No Nation’ which was released in 1989. Fela, upon his release from the prison in 1986, (after serving two years out of the five year term he was sentenced to in 1984), reasoned that only in a ‘craze’ world, could the government make degrading comments about its citizens. He expressed his shock, “I never hear dat before- oh. Make Government talk, ee-oh. My people are us-e-less, My people are sens-i-less, My people are indiscipline.”
These antecedents underscore that Buhari has a history of tarnishing the image of Nigerian citizens and even though he is no longer a military leader, his pattern of behavior continues. On February 4th, 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari in an interview with The Telegraph, warned Nigerians to stay back in their own country, because they are already well known abroad for their reputation for crime.
In the interview, Buhari said that “some Nigerians claim is that life is too difficult back home, but they have also made it difficult for Europeans and Americans to accept them because of the number of Nigerians in prisons all over the world accused of drug trafficking or human trafficking.” Although the President’s latest unflattering comment about has sparked outrage amongst Nigerians, we need to go beyond trading of words and demand a proper apology from the leader we voted into office.
To mark the 55th anniversary of Nigeria’s independence in 2015, President Buhari delivered a commemoratory speech from the UK. In his speech, he enjoined Nigerians to take part in bringing about the change he so desires in the country. “We must change our lawless habits.We must change our unruly behavior. To bring about change, we must change ourselves,” the president said. Almost immediately, the international media raised questions, wondering how Nigerians would react to the President’s comments. Mail & Guardian said“there would normally be an outcry if a country’s president called his compatriots unruly,” However, Buhari showed that he could call his countrymen unruly without being apologetic.
This time, Buhari needs to apologize to all Nigerians because he also has been unruly in the past. Buhari, as a general in the army became the president in 1984 only because he staged a coup and when he assumed power, he immediately suspended the constitution of the country. Was Buhari not acting ruthlessly when he established decrees two and four, which gave the Nigerian army the authority to the power to detain, without charges, individuals deemed to be a security risk to the state? Was it not also Buhari as the head of state that ordered the kidnap of Umaru Dikko from the UK? If that is not a display of unruliness, then what is?
During the aftermath of the 2011 presidential elections, President Buhari also portrayed bad manners in speech and action. In 2011, Buhari was the presidential candidate for the Congress for Progressive Change. During that year’s election where he contested with Goodluck Jonathan and others for the third time, he lost again. While addressing the media that year. The current president said “If what happened in 2011 (alleged rigging) should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.’’
Could Buhari be defaming Nigeria in order to be favoured by the UK?
In his book, “There Was A Country”, Chinua Achebe briefly touched on the affinity of the UK with the most conservative region in Nigeria, the North. While talking about the events that led to the appointment of the first Nigerian prime minister, Tafawa Balewa, he said “It is now widely known that Sir James Robertson played an important role in overseeing the elections (or lack thereof) at independence, throwing his weight behind Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, who had been tapped to become Nigeria’s first prime minister.”
From Chinua Achebe’s account, the Northerners did not support independence like the Eastern and Western region did and even fought for. Apparently, the British were not ready to stop the control of the the country, therefore, they rigged the elections in order to allow their “compliant friends in the North win power, dominate the country and serve British interests after independence.”
I’d suggest that Achebe’s account, places Buhari’s comments in a lineage of Northern allegiance to the United Kingdom.
Way forward
Dear Mr. President, instead of downgrading your country in the international community, why not spend more time strategizing on how best to make it enviable? If the government provided good road channels, well-organized public transportation systems, health care and other basic needs, would people have to travel out of the country?
North-East Nigeria has been under the Boko Haram siege since 2005, and there is still no solution in sight. Over 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped from Chibok, a town in the North, and their whereabouts are not known till date. So why wouldn’t people seek asylum in other countries, which are more secure?
Mr. President has been on an anti-corruption war since 2015, but how many ‘regular’ Nigerians have been found guilty of embezzling public funds? Buhari cannot and should not generalize that all Nigerians are criminals, when those who have been arrested are just a few selected corrupt officials.
Nigerians deserve an unreserved apology for defamation by a president who was elected by them to serve them. We are Nigerians, not criminals!
