Buhari’s War Against Political Opponents And His Crucifixion Of UK Telegraph, By @StJudeNdukwe
In a story published in the UK Telegraph on April 12, 2016, titled, Nigeria using UK aid to persecute president’s political foes rather to fight Boko Haram, it was revealed that government official of the United States and United Kingdom believe that Nigeria’s president, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), is using foreign aid meant to fight Boko Haram insurgents to persecute his political opponents.
The report, written by the newspaper’s defence editor, Con Coughlin has obviously unsettled Nigeria’s presidency. Mallam Garba Shehu, a spokesman for Buhari, has since put up a spirited but lame defence for the president.
No matter how the presidency sees Mr. Coughlin’s report, a majority of Nigerians agree with him. In fact, there is nothing new in what he wrote except to say that he only emphasized what many already know. The fruitless attempt by Garba Shehu to debunk the facts of that piece is unnecessarily laborious and needless as the president’s media aide had himself also confirmed Coughlin’s report in the past.
In his article titled “#BuhariGate: As the Limit of Obstructionist Politics” that appeared in many newspapers including the Vanguard of December 27, 2015, Mallam Shehu had opened the essay and declared with impetuous alacrity thus: “As the war on corruption heightens, the political battle-line between the governing All Progressives Congress, APC and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has sharply been drawn”.
This is an eloquent testimony to the fact that the much mouthed war on corruption is nothing but a properly planned and well orchestrated ploy to not only silence the opposition and its members but to also intimidate, harass, hound and totally decimate all those that are perceived as Buhari’s political opponents so that the dictatorial and tyrannical tendencies of the president and members of his ruling party can continue unchecked.
Apart from this, it is also widely believed by discerning Nigerians that certain individuals have been particularly marked out for destruction using the pretentious instrument of fight against corruption to pursue a vengeful mission and vendetta against these individuals. Garba Shehu inferred this much in his article quoted earlier.
Nigerians, and indeed the world, are also very much aware of the fact that the anti-corruption war of the current administration is one-sided as basically only members of the opposition have so far been arrested and persecuted. One of Muhammadu Buhari’s close allies, Jafaru Isa, was let go after he reportedly refunded N100m which was from what was suspected to be slush funds. But up till now, Jafaru, who is said to be a very close associate of Buhari and a chieftain of the ruling APC, has not been arrested let alone face trial.
The only reason why the Senate President, Olubukola Saraki, who is also a member of APC, is being persecuted today is simply because he emerged senate president against the anointed candidate of the ruling party. Since then, the government has thrown in everything to see to his downfall using the Code of Conduct Tribunal as a willing horse to achieve a sinister and ulterior motive enrobed in a fabric of deceitful nobility.
Garba Shehu tried to confuse his readers by referring to the persecution being faced by Buhari’s victims as trial when in actual fact it is far from such. This is particularly where Mr Coughlin got it all right. A situation where the federal government uses its power and access to the media to convict corruption suspects in the court of public opinion and repeatedly deny them bails granted by courts of competent jurisdiction, held hostage in their homes by security agents and clamped into detention at the whims and caprices of the security agents, is not trial but persecution.
Can Garba Shehu count how many times the courts have granted members of the opposition bail, given judicial orders, and how many of such orders were obeyed by the executive just because such orders did not suit their despotic scripts?
In the course of Nnamdi Kanu’s case, Justice Ahmed Mohammed withdrew from the case against the leader of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) on the grounds that government had not obeyed previous court rulings made in the case. This was after Kanu himself had said he preferred to remain in detention than subject himself to a trial which outcome would not be obeyed by government as previous rulings had either been abused or neglected by the executive.
The list of government persecution of individuals seen to oppose the president is nearly endless. And rather than put up a lame fight for the president, Garba Shehu should be thankful to people like Con Coughlin of the UK Telegraph for drawing the attention of our government to its journey of national catastrophe and self-destruct before it is too late.
Jude Ndukwe is a political analyst who lives and works in Abuja, Nigeria. He is a member of The Trent’s Elite Columnists. His column is published every Friday. He tweets from@stjudendukwe.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
Leave a Comment
To leave a comment anonymously, simple write your thoughts in the comments box below and click the ‘post comment’ button.
Buhari is a failure, and a fraud. These are things we know. God bless Con Conghlin and the UK Telegraph for further exposing Buhari and demystifying him.
– Pope Francis urges acceptance Of gays, lesbians, and
nontraditional families
– He obliged priests to be more accepting of gay men,
lesbians and divorced catholics
– Francis says everyone should be accommodated in
God’s family
– An Anglican Bishop has claimed that gay-marriages is
the root cause of so many problems in the world
Pope Francis has asked the Catholic Church to shove open
the doors a little wider, as to accommodate, gays, lesbians
and nontraditional families.
Francis made a statement on Friday, April 8, calling for the
church to be more tolerant in practice, while not changing
any official doctrines.
He urged priests around the world to be more accepting of
gay men and lesbians, divorced Catholics and other people
living in what the church considers “irregular” situations.
Pope Francis
READ ALSO: Touching! See how Pope Francis blessed
little girl on the verge of blindness (pics, video)
“A pastor cannot feel that it is enough simply to apply
moral laws … as if they were stones to throw at people’s
lives,” Francis writes in a sweeping paper outlining his
stance on family matters.
He urges more common sense and less unthinking
following of rules — what he calls “discernment.”
“By thinking that everything is black and white, we
sometimes close off the way of grace and growth,” he
writes.
CNN reports that the paper has much to please both
liberals and conservatives, though it may not go far
enough for either group within the church.
“I understand those who prefer a more rigorous pastoral
care which leaves no room for confusion. But I sincerely
believe that Jesus wants a Church attentive to the
goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of
human weakness,” he writes.
The statements come in a highly anticipated paper called
“On Love in the Family,” or “Amoris Laetitia” in Latin.
Running more than 260 pages, it comes after Francis
summoned the world’s Catholic bishops twice to discuss
the issues in conferences known as synods.
The first was in October 2014, and the second was a year
later.
Francis has been working on the document since then.
For those paying attention to Francis since he became
pope three years ago, the opinions in the paper are unlikely
to come as a surprise.
This is, after all, the pope who said, “Who am I to judge?”
when asked about homosexuality.
But Friday’s paper is not simply a remark made in an
interview.
It’s what’s called an “apostolic exhortation.”
That means it is an official statement from the Pope on
how Catholics should live their lives. It’s the second
exhortation Francis has issued since taking the throne of
St. Peter, and the first based entirely on synods he
summoned himself.
His aim “is to help families — in fact, everyone —
experience God’s love and know that they are welcome
members of the church,” said the Rev James Martin, a
Jesuit priest and writer who called the paper a
“groundbreaking new document.”
On divorced Catholics, whose religious lives Francis has
made it a priority to ease, he writes: “The divorced who
have entered a new union should be made to feel part of
the Church.”
“It can no longer simply be said that all those living in any
‘irregular situation’ are living in a state of mortal sin,” he
writes.
Regarding the divorced Catholics, whose religious lives
Francis has made it a priority to ease, he writes: “The
divorced who have entered a new union should be made to
feel part of the Church.”
Francis has pushed to make it easier for Catholic couples
to get an annulment of their marriages if they break up.
That allows them to continue to participate fully in church
life if they remarry, including taking the sacrament of
Communion.
He does not say explicitly in Friday’s paper that divorced
Catholics should be allowed to take Communion, Martin
observed.
“The reception of Communion is not spelled out here, but
that is a traditional aspect of ‘participation’ in church life,”
said Martin.
The Pope does not change Catholic doctrine on
homosexuality, marriage, birth control or abortion in the
paper.
In fact, he reiterates that marriage between a man and a
woman remains the Catholic ideal, superior to other forms
of union.
“In order to avoid all misunderstanding, I would point out
that in no way must the Church desist from proposing the
full idea of marriage,” he writes.
A “great variety of family situations … can offer a certain
stability, but de facto or same-sex unions, for example,
may not simply be equated with marriage,” he says.
And he holds the line against artificial birth control,
rejecting the phrase “safe sex.”
The very wording, he says, operates as if “an eventual
child were an enemy to be protected against.”
But he calls much more for tolerance and mercy than for
judgment in the paper.
“There is no stereotype of the ideal family, but rather a
challenging mosaic made up of many different realities,
with all their joys, hopes and problems,” he writes.
“Every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be
respected in his or her dignity and treated with
consideration.”
There are about 1.2 billion Roman Catholics around the
world, the Vatican calculates. That’s just over half the
world’s Christians, according to the Pew Research Center,
a think tank in Washington, D.C.
The Catholic population in the so-called global South is
growing in influence. Pope Francis himself is a reflection of
that trend — he’s from Argentina, making him the first
Pope from the region.
The Pope tells priests that they should made decisions
appropriate to their local conditions.
“Each country or region … can seek solutions better suited
to its culture and sensitive to its traditions and local
needs,” he writes, in a possible effort to satisfy both
liberals and conservatives by decentralizing authority.
READ ALSO: Pope Francis’ heavily pregnant secretary
found dead
He tries to take the heat out of the culture wars by
admitting a measure of Catholic responsibility for them.
“At times the way we present our Christian beliefs and
treat other people has helped to contribute to today’s
problematic situation,” he writes.
In addition to the many sections of the paper that will be
seen as statements of Vatican policy, the paper also
explores the practical problems that married couples face,
and advises them to work through them together.
And Francis allows a little poetry to seep into the
document, too, writing: “Young love needs to keep dancing
towards the future with immense hope.”
Meanwhile, Bishop Emanuel Kanamani of the Anglican
Diocese of Maiduguri on Friday said gay marriages were
responsible for so many problems in the world.
Kanamani stated this during the 2016 Synod of the diocese
in Maiduguri. The Bishop, who described the act as
“madness of the highest order”, regretted that those who
reject gay marriage were regarded as primitive people.
“If men marry men and women marry women then who
will give birth to the next generation.
“They said it is freedom, but I assure you it will render
negative effect to the entire society,’’ said the clergyman.
Obviously this writer is a goon, but let me say,this is his opinion on buhari,let me say,this foolish sheik Elzazaky,has the believe that Government must seek for his permission on matters of the land,who the hell is he? Does he knw the ratification of his foolish blind arrogant ignorance?dnt ve time for this,but the likes of dasuki who ate money meant for warfare are supposed to be in hell by now#rubbish