Yesterday, Femi Adeshina was appointed as Buhari's spokesperson...well, here's one of his articles that we stumbled upon...it was written in January and was titled
Buhari - but they said he couldn't remeber his phone number. Read below:
Perhaps the only thing that hasn’t been thrown at Gen Muhammadu Buhari, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is the kitchen sink. Every other missile has been hurled in his direction, either to incapacitate, damage him morally and physically, and get him out of next month’s election. Why are they so afraid of this man? Mortally afraid.
He is sick. He has prostate cancer. Really? Who is wholly sound and 100% healthy in this world? Let the person step forward. And then, who is not sick in Nigeria today? Only the enemies of the country are not. I am sick and tired of news coming from Baga, Mubi, Gwoza, Chibok, Bunin Yadi, Yobe, Nyanya, Madalla, Abuja, Gombe, Kano, Kaduna, and many others. And I am tired of being sick and tired. I want another kind of music. Not the booms of bombs, and the rat-tat-tat and ricochets of bullets. Each time the death toll is announced, I get sick and tired. For how long?
He is 72 years old, and too near to his grave. He does not have what it takes to rule a country like Nigeria, because he’s too old. Who says it is only old people that must die before the young? Well, radical lawyer, Festus Keyamo has put the answer in perspective. Did you read that angry but insightful press statement he issued earlier this week? Well, here’s what he said on the politics of age:
“The orchestration of the age of Buhari is just another mischief, symptomatic of the weaker side the president’s team find themselves in the argument. Agility and strength and good health is not exactly a function of age. Yar’Adua did not die in power because he was an old man. Abacha did not die in power because he was an old man. Obasanjo ruled until he was seventy (70) years and it is the same set of PDP big wigs that are now criticizing the age of Buhari that were promoting and supporting the third-term bid of Obasanjo that would have taken him to, perhaps, seventy-eight (78) years as President. Today, Obasanjo still jumps about at nearly eighty (80) years, or perhaps more. Professor Wole Soyinka, at over eighty (80) years, still travels everywhere, delivering lectures.
The relevant question here is that, is the age more important than the character or the character more important than the age? For those who are Christians, remember that the Bible says in Proverbs 16:31 that grey-headedness is a crown of beauty if found in the ways of righteousness. It is idiotic to deride an elderly person who is still agile and upright in character, instead of us praying that we live up to that age and we are blessed with such strength at such an age. During the Second Republic, the South-West and South-East massively voted for Awolowo and Azikiwe respectively who were both over seventy (70) years old, yet nobody raised an eyebrow.”
The sum of N25 billion was misappropriated under his watch at the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), they also allege. Well, Olusegun Obasanjo, the man who set up the probe panel that came up with the report says the findings are fake, false, and not worth the paper on which it was written. Knowing Obasanjo as we do in this country, do you think he could have got a report worth its weight in gold against Buhari, and he would not uphold it? He would have done so with relish! But for me, I trust the ramrod straight General from Daura any day, because he has earned that trust. I don’t know about you. Hear the confidential report written about his character and personality as far back as 1975, when he attended the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. The report was signed by HW Kulkarni, Chief Instructor of the College:
“Tall, slim and well turned-out, Buhari is a quiet, unassuming and honest individual, with a mature and balanced outlook. Subdued by nature, he is not assertive. A friendly and co-operative individual. He does his best for his team. Accepts criticism willingly. He is polite and somewhat shy. However, he mixes quite well. Physically, he is quite fit.”
Quiet, unassuming and honest individual! My head swells to bursting point when I read things like this about any individual. Even in 1975, exactly 40 years ago, Buhari was declared as honest, from a foreign land. And that is the testimony that trails him wherever he has served: governor, oil minister, head of state, PTF chairman. I feel like shouting in joy. Why won’t I believe in someone like this? That is who Nigeria has been looking for since the beginning of creation!
Oh, he is anachronistic, a man of yesterday, who doesn’t even know the number of his cell phone. Really? Did you watch Buhari on Wednesday, when he addressed the press on the phantom certificate saga, which his political adversaries had whipped up simply because they are both idle and afraid? “We sat for the University of Cambridge/WASCE examination in 1961, the year we graduated. My examination number was 8200002, and I passed the examination in the Second Division.” Oh-la-la. That was an exam taken 53 years ago! And the man can recall his number. I took the same exam 35 years ago. Please, don’t ask for my examination number, except you want to mock me. I don’t have the foggiest recollection of it. Yet they say Buhari doesn’t even remember his telephone number. Now, we know the truth.
He is a tyrant, who ruled Nigeria with an iron fist as military head of state. He will do it again, if voted into office. Hear this testimonial by the man’s school principal in 1961:
“A fine boy of honest and open disposition. A trifle gentle in dealing with his juniors. Loyal. Polite. Well mannered.” Is this the same person some Nigerians have demonized as Dracula? They have called him every negative name under the sun! I tell you, some people will not get to Heaven, unless they repent.
Hear SP Malhotra, a Major General and Commandant of Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, when Buhari attended from January 22 to November 24, 1975:
“Of average intelligence, Buhari is sober and balanced. Straight, forward, simple and mature. He expresses his views freely when asked. Keen to learn. Sociable, though somewhat shy. Pleasant and cordial.”
And here in Nigeria, the only thing his political opponents have not thrown at him yet is the kitchen sink. Weep, weep for a land that consumes its best hands, and elevates mediocrities.
Now that the storm in a teacup called certificate scandal has blown over, how do the anti-Buhari people feel? Are they contrite, ashamed, humbled, and sober? I wish they were. But knowing them, they won’t retreat or surrender. Till the elections are concluded next month, (on FeBuhari 14), they will continue to rake muck, throw mud, trying to see whether it would stick on the white robe of the Mai Gaskiya (the honest man). Old sins, they say, have long shadows.
Will any old sin come from the past to cast any shadow on Buhari’s reputation? I doubt. While the certificate issue lasted, somebody said if all that he could produce were his NEPA bills, he would still vote for him. Another said if all that Buhari brought was the label of Agege bread, he has his vote. What confidence! May God give us leaders we can fully trust in this country. Amen, somebody!
