Founder of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), and national chairman of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Frederick Fasheun has called on the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen Muhammadu Buhari (retd) to present himself for medical assessment and declare his true health status.
During a press conference held December 31, 2014 in Lagos, he said Buhari owes the country a duty to declare his true health status to put paid to the speculation that he suffers a terminal illness.
He said: “We challenge Buhari to declare the true state of his health. What ailment is he nursing in his vital organs? To prevent history repeating itself, to the frustration of his zone and his kinsmen, Nigerians should ask this General to subject himself to an independent medical assessment.
“General Buhari has often been painted as the messiah Nigerians have been waiting for. This is turning truth and logic on the head. For the avoidance of doubt, he is not the saviour Nigeria has been waiting for. The truth is that under Buhari’s “Holier-Than-Thou” facade lurks a smelly throat of evil.
“What economic credentials can Buhari flaunt today? What industry has he engaged in since he retired from the Army 29 years ago, to show that he has experience to manage men and enterprises?
Even in politics, his most visible pastime, what amount of success has he recorded? He had unsuccessfully contested the presidency three times already and failed in 2003, 2007 and 2011. He failed against fellow retired General Olusegun Obasanjo from the South-West, against Alhaji Umar Yar’Adua a Northerner like himself, and against Dr. Goodluck Jonathan from the South-South.
“His hypocrisy was recently demonstrated and exposed at the National Convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Feigning incorruptibility, he willingly became a beneficiary of the bribe that his supporters, APC governors and businessmen, doled out to delegates to secure his victory.
“Have Nigerians forgotten that in 1983 General Muhammadu Buhari overthrew the democratically-elected government under President Shehu Shagari, and unduly dissolved all political parties and democratic structures? Nigeria has never recovered from that brazen Military intervention.
“If we have forgotten, let us remind Nigerians that this same Buhari that Promulgated the draconian Decree 4 of 1983, where it became an offence to publish the truth, a situation that effectively gagged the Press and resulted in the unjust jailing of Messrs Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor of The Guardian newspapers. He jailed the Afro Beat Musician, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, for alleged currency trafficking, yet he allowed 53 suitcases of currency belonging to an Emir to pass through the eye of the Nigerian needle at the Ikeja Airport, Lagos.
“Have Nigerians forgotten that Buhari showed disdain for the traditional institution by the shoddy treatment and banishment his regime handed down to the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, and the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade?
“He displayed unrepentant ethnic bigotry and tribal jingoism, jailing Southern politicians like Ambrose Ali, Bisi Onabanjo, Jim Nwobodo and Adekunle Ajasin, while allowing their Northern counterparts liberty to roam free.
“He held in prison the Vice President Dr. Alex Ekwueme, while allowing the President great liberty in a token house arrest. The bottom line is that President Goodluck Jonathan is not a saint, and neither is Buhari.”
