The Banality Of Celebrating Buhari 

By Akin Osuntokun 

First a recall of a personal encounter with Chief Femi Adesina in his capacity as the media and publicity interlocutor to President Muhammadu Buhari and a remorseless witness of falsehood. Here he goes, “Akin Oshuntokun appeared on Channels television today and made the false claim that a bomb blast had gone off earlier in the day, killing about 88 people in Maiduguri… Apparently, enemies of peace and progress had expected a return to the infamous past, thus Osuntokun appeared on television with his bag of lies”- This was a press statement he issued on a programme I participated on Channels in which I spoke in English not Portuguese. I was taken aback. I could not recall saying anything about a bomb blast. So I double checked with Channels. They were equally flustered that such falsehood could emanate from Adesina within hours of the appearance in contention. 

Significantly, Adesina had thus set me up for the malicious attention of the heavily compromised and politicised Nigerian military. Rather than prioritise the confrontation with their Boko Haram nemesis, they were looking to get me to come and clarify the allegation of bomb blast in Maiduguri that only existed in the fevered imagination of the Buhari press Secretary. It was on account of this falsehood that another aide to Buhari would cite me as “making his dislike of Buhari a profession”. 

Eight years of the ruinous presidency to the bargain, it is a citation I should wear as a vindication and badge of honour. With the increasingly alarming revelations of a spectacularly failed presidency, it is impossible to overstate the existential menace Buhari posed to Nigeria.You do not even need to scratch beneath the surface to get a surfeit of scandalous materials on Adesina’s demigod. They stare you right in the face. 

Setting the ball rolling was the thumbs down salute (of his successor, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu), that for him, the transition from Buhari amounted to “moving from darkness to a glorious dawn”. This qualification was seconded by his National Security Adviser, NSA, Nuhu Ribadu who substantiated the idiom of his principal with the clarification that “We have inherited a very difficult country, a bankrupt country”. A recurring decimal of this bankruptcy is the instructive report that President Buhari moved Nigeria’s debt profile from N42tn to N77tn. 

Contrary to the norm of the buck stops at my table leadership responsibility, Buhari thrives on distancing himself from responsibility. His constant refrain and ablution is “I’m not aware” -purporting to lose his sense of smell right inside his pit latrine reeking of the suffocating stench of sleaze and corruption wafting over him. Did he not deny the PTF responsibility as well, attributing all the financial misdeeds to Salihijo Ahmad and the Afri projects consortium? And rather conveniently, the guy took leave of this world soon thereafter. 

Thus Buhari is only being consistent when he elevated the mantra “I’m not aware” to the status of an ideology in the new found circumstances of his presidency. Contemporaneously, did the president approved or not approved the currency redesign policy? With any President other than Buhari, such suggestions would have been unthinkable. Reported the special Investigator appointed by President Tinubu to audit the affairs of the central bank in recent memory, Jim Obazee. He recalled that”On October 6, 2022, Emefiele wrote to Buhari that he wanted to redesign and reconfigure the N1000, N500, and N200 notes. The former president tagged along but did not approve the redesign as required by law. Buhari merely approved that the currency be printed in Nigeria”.

So, according to Adesina, there was a human angle to the Buhari story, but so was there one to the Idi Amins, the Sani Abachas, to Josef Stalin, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. I can put the phenomenon no better than the celebrated political philosopher, Hannah Arendt (who suffered the holocaust on account of her Jewish identity) in her ”Report on the Banality of Evil”. She had “followed the Eichmann trial for war crimes and highlighted how this brutal criminal was an absolutely “normal” person in everyday and family life. Is it possible, asked Arendt, that apparently normal individuals, can in particular circumstances become heinous criminals without the slightest sense of guilt?” Was Hitler actually a nice guy in person? As gruesome as it sounds, the answer is yes. 

According to Thom Thibeault and Susanna Viljanen, Hitler had several redeeming qualities: He hated child abuse, abuse of women, etc, having himself been seriously abused. He hated porn and exploitation of women. He was deeply anti-elitist. He came from the deep ranks of the people, and he got much better along with the little people than the aristocrats or plutocrats. He hated vanity and the pompous lifestyle many Nazi bosses led. He was easy-going with children, and he was known as a matchmaker among the Nazi elites. He was a health fanatic, and he hated drugs and alcohol, and tobacco especially; yes, the paradox is obvious”

It was the turn of Adesina to introduce Buhari us “Buhari, the Kind-hearted Toughie at 81. From his days as an iron fisted military ruler, Muhammadu Buhari had cut the image of a brutal, no nonsense person, without a drop of milk of human kindness. Not so. People often condemn who or what they don’t understand”. Continues the narcissistic hero worshiper “I’ve written about how the president left all other things in 2013, flew into Lagos to attend a farewell service for my late mum. One of his longest serving aides told me there were not up to five people in the country Buhari could do such for. I felt, and still feel, eternally honored”.

“When my elder sister, a Professor of Dramatic Arts at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, died in a road crash in December 2015, the President placed a personal phone call to sympathize with me. He also extended the sympathy to the entire Adesina household”.

“In his speech, the General Overseer of the Foursquare Gospel Church thanked the President for appointing one of the members of the church as his Adviser on media and publicity. When the president responded, he said he was the one that should be thankful to me for coming to serve the government”

“I was on Sunday Politics on Channels Television one evening. The host, Seun Okinbaloye, was particularly combative that day. But yours truly can always hold his own. It was no quarter asked, and none given. The next morning, the President saw me in the office. He laughed, and said; “I watched you on television last night. I could see how fast your brain was working.Thank you for defending me always.”

At 81, former President Buhari is looking very fresh, well rested. I know, because I was with him in his Daura, Katsina State home last week. I wish him longer years, in peace and all that is good. He did his best for Nigeria” Which then begs the question. During his incumbency, was there a time he was not literally idling and sleeping away?

He was either in the United Kingdom receiving regenerative medicare and addressing us in Hausa language from his cushy sick bay; picking his teeth while Nigeria burns often at his passive or active instigation or globe trotting and luxuriating in his custom built presidential jet?. In agreement, the Financial Times noted “Under Buhari’s somnolent watch, he has overseen two terms of economic slump, rising debt and a calamitous increase in kidnapping and banditry — the one thing you might have thought a former general could control.” corroborated the Financial Times. 

Contrary to the jejune peregrinations of a presidential power besotted Adesina, here is what the bigoted politician had to say for himself “I will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the Sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria. God willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the Sharia in the country.” – Buhari (News24, August 27, 2001)

“If what happened in 2011 should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon will all be soaked in blood.” – Buhari (Vanguard May 15, 2012). “The declaration of state of emergency in three Northern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe is a grave injustice against the North.” – Buhari (Liberty Radio, June 2, 2013). “No no no, Abacha did not steal Nigeria’s money.” – Buhari (10th Anniversary of Abacha’s death)

“When the Niger Delta militants started their activities in the South-South, they were invited by the late President Umaru Yar’adua. An aircraft was sent to them and their leaders met with the late President in Aso Rock and discussed issues. They were given money and a training scheme was introduced for their members. But when the Boko Haram emerged in the north, members of the sect were killed”. – Buhari (Liberty Radio, Kaduna May 14 2012)

“Muslims should only vote those who will promote Islam. We are more than the Christians if you add our Muslim brothers in the West.”- Buhari (Liberty Radio Kaduna, 2003). “Why should Christians be concerned when Muslim cut off their limbs? After all, the limbs that are being cut off are Muslim ones and not Christian. So why should Christians bother about it?? – Buhari (Liberty Radio, Kaduna 2003)

 “If There Is a repeat of the Civil War again, I will kill more Igbos to save the country.” – Buhari (BBC Hausa Service, 2015) “I can die for the cause of Islam if necessary. We are prepared to fight another civil war. We cannot be blackmailed into killing Sharia.” – Muhammadu Buhari (Freedom House, 2000)

Adesina did not forget to tell us that “at 81, former President Buhari is looking very fresh, well rested. I know, because I was with him in his Daura, Katsina State home last week. I wish him longer years, in peace and all that is good. He did his best for Nigeria.” Despite himself, I also wish Buhari “peace and all that is good”. Both Buhari and his acolyte should however spare a thought for those Nigerians who can no longer enjoy “longer years, peace and all that is good” as a result of Buhari’s callous and dangerously incompetent leadership. For whatever it is worth.