Some hard questions for the Buharists
By Femi Fani-Kayode
This is indeed the time for us to answer some hard questions and speak some home truths. It is a season that shall separate the men from the boys. It is a time that the holy and wholesome light of truth shall overwhelm and expose the evil darkness of doublespeak and deceit. It is a season that the enunciation and exposure of the ugly realities of the day must not be sacrificed or compromised on the altar of political expediency or on the table of fear. Thankfully, there are a few courageous and discerning voices that have risen to the occasion, made the relevant observations and asked the right questions. Amongst them are Mr Bayo Oladeji and Mr Opeyemi Agbaje. Permit me to begin with the former.
Oladeji, a seasoned and experienced journalist, who writes for the Leadership Newspaper in Nigeria, wrote the following on his Facebook page on 31st October 2014. “When Chief Femi Fani-Kayode came out to expose the plan of the APC chieftains to impose a Muslim/Muslim ticket on the party, their attack dogs were ordered to abuse him, using words picked from the gutter. They even told us he was never part of them! Chief Tom Ikimi came out and corroborated him and they said he was telling a moon tale. They then recalled his participation in the Abacha evil rule which murdered Ken Saro Wiwa as if their hero, Muhammadu Buhari, did not play same role in the same government. When I raised the issue here after confirming from those who were involved in the plan some who can never talk to their hero rose up ignorantly to fault me. But since president Olusegun Obasanjo did the same, their response remains a deafening silence! When I was growing up I was told that silence means consent. Meaning those who have been saying it are not wrong after all
“The Church has kept mum for so long and they are cornering all for themselves. For example, I have challenged the apologists of APC to publish the list of names and the religions of all their political appointees in the South-West, especially the following- the governors, SSGs, Speakers, finance commissioners in all the APC -controlled states in the southwest. Let us see how fair they are to the two religions in the country. If they could do this at the state level where they have someone who claims to be a Christian as deputy governor, we wonder what they would do when they have the president and the vice president from them. In the whole of the North, there is only one Christian in the National Executive Commitee and the National Working Commitee of the APC. His name Engineer Babachir David Lawal, from Adamawa State! And if you know the extent he went to get that seat, you would know what that party is up to. These are the issues. It goes beyond President Jonathan. If the party does not change, God spares our lives, come 2019, you will still find me doing the same. Until the rotten tooth is pulled out of the mouth, the mouth will continue eating with caution. It is a tragic irony that those who have come out to defend them are those who claim to be Christians.’’
Oladeji’s observations are indeed food for thought. To add to his concerns, permit me to point out the fact that in the APC-controlled Lagos State today, 80 per cent of the State House of Assembly members are Muslims, 80 per cent of Local Government Area Chairmen are muslim, 80 per cent of National Assembly members are Muslims and 80 per cent of commissioners and key government functionaries are Muslims.
All this in a state that has an overwhelming Christian majority. Are you surprised or alarmed? That is the APC for you. They implement their hidden agenda by guile, deceit and subtefuge and they prey on our sense of fair play, generosity and magnamosity. In short, they have taken us all for granted. Yet it gets worse and it doesn’t stop there. It is also a fact that every single state that is under the control of the APC in the South-West today is governed by a Muslim, whilst 90 per cent of APC governors throughout the federation are Muslims. If this does not paint a clear picture about what the overall agenda of the APC is and if it does not give a clear indication about what their intentions for our country really are, then nothing ever will.
Let us come to our second commentator. Agbaje, a banker, an economist and a lecturer at the Lagos Business School has made his own contribution to the debate by asking the following insightful questions on his Facebook page on 31st October, 2014 . He asks:
‘’How come the only debates we have in Nigeria are over a “Muslim-Muslim” ticket? How come the opposition party’s instincts are always in that direction-Nuhu Ribadu/Fola Adeola in 2011 and now all sorts of Muslim-Muslim permutations and possibilities? How come a discussion of a Christian-Christian presidential ticket is completely inconceivable and has not been countenanced by anyone? How come Buhari, who even in a military regime instituted a Muslim-Muslim/North-North ruling clique, along with Idiagbon and 8 or 9 out of 11 Supreme Military Council members, is now testing the ground again with another possible Muslim-Muslim pairing? Is it that we have a shortage of capable Christians in Nigeria?’’
I wonder if anyone can answer these questions. I believe that the Nigerians to hear the answers. The fact of the matter is that, even though many in our country are in deep denial and have buried their heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich, religion has not only become a factor in our politics today but it has actually become the factor.
This was never meant to be the case and it is a sad and unwelcome development but, sadly, that is the reality and we have no choice but to live with it. Those that dispute it ought to be reminded of the fact that these are the days of Boko Haram. They ought to be reminded of the fact that this is an age that has witnessed the unprecedented and meteoric rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the affairs of our nation.
They ought to be reminded of the fact that these are the days that have witnessed the advent of an opposition party that is hell bent on using religion as a major political weapon in an attempt to grab power at the centre regardless of the dangers of doing so. Given all this, only a fool would suggest that religion is not a major factor in the unfolding events in Nigeria’s political arena today.
There is no gainsaying that both Oladeji and Agbaje have raised some very pertinent issues and their deep concerns reflect the thinking of millions of Nigerian who are very worried about the unfolding agenda.
We await the response of anyone within the ranks of the Buharists and the Haramite hordes for an answer to these pertinent questions and observations that these two courageous and deeply patriotic Nigerians have raised.
Meanwhile, let us look at the unfolding events in the House of Representatives and the shenanigans of the Speaker of the House, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal. It is bad enough that the APC deprived the Yoruba the slot of Speaker of the House when Tambuwal emerged, but the latest exercise in perfidy is even worse.
A Speaker of the House changes party and yet refuses to resign as Speaker after the party on whose platform he used to get that position has asked him to do so. Can this be right? Just how shameless and devoid of morality or conscience can the APC be? Will these Buharists and Haramites ever know the meaning of decency? Do they have any honour? Can they be trusted with power?
Those that compare the case of Tambuwal to that of Governor Segun Mimiko of Ondo State and a number of others are uninformed.
Mimiko’s former party, the Labour Party, did not complain about his decamping to the PDP and neither did they ask for him to resign as governor. As a matter of fact, virtually the whole of the Labour Party in Ondo and the entire country decamped with him and went back to the PDP.
In the case of Tambuwal, the PDP, on whose platform he was elected to be Speaker, has formally asked for his resignation from that position. Instead of responding to that call and resigning honorably, the man has refused to resign and instead has adjourned the sitting of the House for at least one month.
I am not surprised and neither should anyone else be. That is style and manner of Nigeria’s opposition party. That is the APC way: lies, deceit, doublespeak, Byzantian manouverings, subterranean plots and hidden agenda are their stock-in-trade. They are nothing but darkness and only the light of God and the power of truth will expose them. May God deliver our nation from their ilk.
Credits: Tribune