MOST COMMON LIES ABOUT GENERAL BUHARI - Bello El-Rufai

General Muhammadu Buhari is inarguably the most politically maligned, falsely accused man in sub-Saharan Africa’s contemporary politics. I will give some background on the most famous propaganda against the enigma that is General Buhari before categorically stating the most common lies about him.

The assault on General Buhari’s character is mainly achieved through decades long of rapid non-stop propaganda that is being force-fed into an easily deceived, gullible public.

The man’s character has suffered from incessant attack endorsed by Nigeria’s powerful top forces that have always sponsored fabrications against Buhari for the sole reason of the risk of loss they face on having such a world-renowned, principled and morally inflexible man managing and properly leading their possession – Nigeria. The saying “if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth” by the fascist Nazi minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, has been confirmed by a majority of our gullible citizens because the evil forces that are hell-bent on destroying Buhari’s credibility and everything he has stood for, have achieved mightily in their mission. A lot of the people have been completely brainwashed regarding the real nature of General Buhari, that character he possesses which many unbiased officials including his opponents attest and testify to.

One of the reasons that was given by one of his most ardent defenders, a former Petroleum Minister and Chief Executive of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Prof Tam David-West, for the public misunderstanding and negatively influenced view on General Buhari is mainly due to the public’s “lazy scepticism” rather than “rational or virtuous skepticism.” They feed on the propaganda without digging deep and researching on the misinformation that’s aggressively and consistently being spread, which results into the public’s peril in lack of virtuous and competent leadership. On the other hand, I believe the main reason for a part of the public’s strong opposition and disdain towards Buhari is mainly due to negative stereotype entrenched in all groups and parts of our societies, the stereotype that leads to the unfortunate hatred and prejudice which Nigerian societies are embarrassingly known to express towards each other. All that stereotyping is known to be fuelled by evil agents upon the ignorant and “semi-literate” masses that the rulers have intentionally refused to educate properly, therefore, the masses are kept unaware and in darkness not realising the hate being promoted amongst each other is never in their interest, but rather in the interest of those seeking to hold onto power forever, while they usurp the country’s heavenly blessed gifts and satisfy their insatiable greed of worldliness through controlling the Giant of Africa.

These facts lead me to ponder over what kind of man General Buhari is to lay back and witness this sort of continuous assault without really countering the damaging lies towards him. I wonder if it is all part of his simplicity or he is just simply too aloof; he allows rubbish aimed at him to simply pass by. It is no secret that he is not the best of politicians out there especially when compared to the political vultures we have in Nigeria. He is primarily a patriot bold enough to dream and attempt of fixing Nigeria’s broken and corrupted system. He is a man with a will to save Nigeria from its leadership failure and immoral rot on every sector of governance that has led to the enslavement and impoverishment of our people. 

Here are the 10 most common lies about General Buhari:

He’s a Sponsor of Boko Haram: This lie is perhaps the most insensitive of them all. It disrespects the victims of the ongoing insurgency in the Country. The current administration is notorious for politicising the most serious national matters. This administration is known for pointing fingers and resorting to blame game instead of accepting their responsibilities. Olisa Metuh, spokesperson of the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), published a statement ridden with baseless libelous allegations against a proven innocent man; on the March 22, 2014. He released a statement that reflected their typical character of attacking people rather than addressing our vital issues. Metuh said: “When we accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of being behind insurgency, we did not speak in vain and when we summarised the manifesto of the party (APC) as a product of Janjaweed ideology, we have verifiable reasons.” After this baseless proclamation, Metuh went on to state an untruthful reason, saying the Sheikh Lemu Committee that was set up by the federal government to investigate the violence that broke out after the 2011 elections, made General Buhari culpable in the post election crisis. There is no such statement in the report. The propaganda machines of our treacherous rulers must really underestimate Nigerians to go to the extent of releasing blatant lies. Is Metuh really ignorant of what Sheikh Lemu said regarding the question of General Buhari’s role in the post 2011 election crisis or is he acting out what he claims and accuses others of doing by him being extremely inciteful? 


This is the real response of Sheikh Lemu regarding General Buhari’s role in the crisis on British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Radio Service: “If you take a look at our report, what we said cleared Buhari of any complicity. Because we showed that he was not the only one who asked the people to protect their votes. There were other prominent politicians who also asked the people to protect their votes. And we said that statement was misconstrued to mean a call to violence; and they did. It was discovered that the Buhari himself was a victim of the violence and of the destruction of his property, the photographs of which were presented to the panel.”

Sheikh Lemu went on further to state the real discovered reasons for the breakout violence as stated in the committee’s report: “The first and probably most important cause is the failure on the part of the previous successive regimes since the military handover of power in 1999, to implement the recommendations of various committees, commissions and panels that had taken place in our nation. That failure facilitated the wide spread sense of impunity in the culprits and perpetrators of crimes and violence in the Nigerian society. The second major cause of the recent electoral violence was the existing widespread desire for change as a result of frustration and disappointment of many members of the general public regarding the inability of the successive past regimes to solve the problems of electricity, power failure nationwide, deplorable state of federal government roads throughout the nation, bribery and corruption, which have virtually been legitimised in all affairs of our nation.”

All manufactured fabrications against the General have a similar attribute of being shamefully weak. Similarly to the counter  facts available against Metuh’s invention, all fabrications on General Buhari have a strong counter defense of actual form of events that occurred, only when a little effort is given to discovering the truth behind the propaganda. It would have made matters better if the General himself challenged this grievous lies against him squarely from the beginning but as they say; better late than never because recently, General Buhari has began handling things properly. He dragged an aide of the president, Reuben Abati, to court for publishing a scathing and libelous article on Guardian Newspaper titled “For the Attention of General Buhari” on April 22, 2011.  In the article, Abati attributed the 2011 post election violence to a statement made by General Buhari to his supporters, the same type of statement that is commonly being made by all aspirants, that is – telling voters to protect their votes during elections. General Buhari sued the Guardian Newspaper and Reuben Abati for One billion Naira in the filed libel suit. This unexpected action taken by a man they have gotten so used to of allowing lies against him and behaving in style of Matthew 5:39 doctrine – through turning his other cheek for them to assault, rattled the presidency. His legal suit against Abati and the Guardian Newspaper eventually lead to the presidency’s plea with General Buhari to settle the case out of court, in which the forgiving General agreed to. The Terms of settlement are as follows:

“The claimant and defendants have agreed and resolved that the retraction and apology shall take the following form and contents: ‘Re: For the attention of General Buhari’- On April 22, 2011, The Guardian Newspaper published an article on Page 51 titled ‘For the attention of General Buhari’ where certain allegations were made against General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), GCFR, concerning the 2011 election and General Buhari’s alleged role in the violence emanating from the elections. The publication was based on information, which we believed to be reliable at that time. Since the publication, however, we now have reason to believe that certain parts of the story were not verified to be correct before the publication. We assure General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), GCFR, of our highest esteem and regret any distress or embarrassment which the said publication may have caused him.”

Below is the identical apology as stated in the legal terms of settlement for Guardian Newspaper to write General Buhari. 

“GUARDIAN Re: For the attention of General Buhari”

Thursday, 11 July 2013   

SIR: “On April 22, 2011, The Guardian Newspaper published an article on page 51 titled “For the attention of General Buhari” wherein certain allegations were made against General Muhammadu Buhari’s alleged role in the violence emanating from the elections. The publication was based on information, which we believed to be reliable at that time. Since the publication, however, we now have reason to believe that certain parts of the story were not verified to be correct before the publication. We assure General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) GCFR of our highest esteem and regret any distress or embarrassment which the said publication may have caused him.”

He’s a religious fundamentalist: I didn’t know this certain propaganda has eaten deep into the psyche of the Nigerian public until the 2011 election season. After I succeeded in persuading my fellow copper to vote for General Buhari, she came back to me before the presidential polls saying she will not vote him any longer because she learned some terrible things about him. She went on to state the most ridiculous fabricated allegations towards him. I was so disappointed and my first thought was how someone could believe such nonsense. But that was only because I was conscious of the truth and many have been deceived. Even though General Buhari has published several rebuttals on this harmful accusation and still continues to defend himself against this sensitive and heinous lie, certain people are still adamant on believing what is being pushed across an overly sentimental society. It all started with an incidence where General Buhari counseled people to only vote for God-fearing men and women to serve the nation. As usual, the remark he made was twisted and given different harmful meanings. The General is known not to shy away from telling the truth to the public, unlike other typical politicians that always measure the consequences and put their ambition above being honest with the public he never shies away from telling the truth. As far back as February 1998, at the 4^th annual Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Lecture, General Buhari said the following on the role of religion in our society: 
 

“Somehow, unfortunately, despite the attachment of our people to the letter of their faith and their readiness to defend it with all their strength, there is no corresponding concern with its spirit. And consequently, this has not translated into Nigerians becoming their brothers’ keepers. And nowhere is this failure so glaring as in the way and manners officials treat matters entrusted to them by virtue of their public office. Yet, they are not shunned by religious leaders. Our ulamas and priests will pray for and bless every charlatan, bless every accursed occasion or deed so long as there is someone to foot their bill. Our society must reject this and quickly put these miscreants and pseudo-scholars out of business. More importantly, we must also forcefully resist those who wish to set our society on the path of religious conflict. The recent past was unfortunate, the present is not good enough and it is our duty to create a future that should become a model for all multi-religious societies. We must get together or we shall all get it together. Our principal religions share a heritage that ought to be used to forge links between Muslims and Christians. Both are revealed, monotheistic faiths that teach tolerance and peaceful co-existence. The recent visit of the Pope was a good sign of tolerance and mutual determination to put past mistrust aside. Christianity preaches love and is founded upon love and true belief in the one true God as the life of Jesus Christ symbolizes. Islam means peace and submission to the will of the same one true God.” – Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

The most recent self-defense by General Buhari against the religious fundamentalist label was given during an interview with “The Cable.” He said: “In 2003, I was given a ticket. Whom did I chose as my running mate? Chuba Okadigbo. He was brought up by Zik. And he was senate president and was a serving senator when he accepted to be my running mate. He was a Roman Catholic. He was an Igbo. In 2007, whom did I pick? Edwin Ume-Ezeoke. He was a Roman Catholic. He was an Igbo. And in 2010, I even chose a pastor, Pastor Tunde Bakare. Honestly, what do Nigerians want me to do? If they don’t believe I’m not a fundamentalist, what else can I do?

He further stated;

 “So if you go and kill children while they are sleeping, blow people up in churches, in mosques, in the market place, and motor park, you can’t say “Allahu Akbar”. Because “Allahu Akbar” means God is great. Now, if you believe God is great, he says you must not hurt the innocent. There must be a justice system, investigations… if you find people guilty, punish them. So, you either don’t believe that God is great, or you don’t know what you are saying. Is it for this that they attempted to blow me up? Or somebody else did it?” “In any case, who attempted to kill me? Is it Boko Haram or who? because I told them they were ungodly? Again I repeated it during my declaration that they are ungodly. Because no religion advocates hurting the innocent. No religion.”

 Furthermore, a religious fanatic can never take General Buhari’s stance on certain issues concerning religion in Nigeria such as his stand on the huge cost of religious pilgrimage to the country, and the corruption involved in the process, he boldly said pilgrimage should be a personal cost not a national one. It is also on record that Christians occupied majority of positions during his military regime, General Babangida was the only Muslim amongst his service chiefs, and majority of the Governors and Commissioners of the regime were Christians. Other facts refutable to the “religious fundamentalist” label and propaganda are the records of General Buhari’s unbiased measures taken as head of state, such as the demolition of Mosques constructed illegally and the arrest of prominent Islamic preachers on accounts of giving violent sermons. After all the counter facts stated here I know that some opinions can never be altered regarding General Buhari, people such as Dr.Phil Al Alaibo, a professor of political science, writer, political commenter have gone to the extreme level of saying; “It would not have even mattered if Jesus Christ were to be his running mate, the man has an indelible scar that has made him public enemy number one, so to speak, to Christians across the country.” This unfortunate statement is from an article published on April 22^nd 2011 titled “The sins of General Muhammadu Buhari”.

General Buhari has always had people defending him against the rapid propaganda aimed at damaging his image, most recent of them is the attestation given by Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers state saying: “Those who describe you as a religious bigot do not know you. Frankly, I used to think that way when I was in the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, but all that changed when I joined the APC and have the opportunity to relate with you very closely as a politician that is truly detribalized in the true sense of the word…The problem that you have in politics, which I have come to observe, is that those who managed your image in the past did not manage it properly. They allowed the erroneous label of you being a religious bigot to stick…”