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| Atiku and Buhari. |
Our attention has been
drawn to a personal statement by President Buhari himself wherein he claimed
that he would give his opponents in the 2019 elections the level playing ground
which the Peoples Democratic Party denied him.
Speaking to a
delegation from the International Republican Institute and National Democratic
Institute, President Muhammadu Buhari said, “I am prepared to give the
opposition the opportunities I was not given in the past.’’
Let us now factually
address that comment.
President Muhammadu
Buhari ran for the office of the President of Nigeria in 2003, 2007, 2011 and
2015 under the PDP. Not once during those intervening years was he arrested,
molested or persecuted in any way, shape or form.
As a matter of fact,
immediately after his experience with Boko Haram terrorists in Kaduna on July
24, 2014, the then PDP administration bought Mr. Buhari a $300,000 dollar
armoured and bombproof SUV for his protection. Mr. Buhari received the vehicle
which helped save his life.
Never were Muhammadu
Buhari or his relative’s accounts frozen by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission or any other government agencies under the PDP and never were his
running mates, children, friends and family targeted.
Muhammadu Buhari
participated in several protests and marches, including the Occupy Nigeria
movement and the 2014 APC march in Abuja and was not arrested or persecuted by
the PDP.
Furthermore, the PDP
ensured that the Independent National Electoral Commission was independent and
appointed disinterested individuals to its board including Prof. Attahiru Jega,
who then President Jonathan had never met before his appointment.
The PDP also ensured
that vital government agencies like the National Bureau of Statistics were not
politicised, whether or not their reports favoured the government.
However, since coming
to office, President Muhammadu has refused to reciprocate the good treatment
meted out to him by the PDP and has instead persecuted, harassed and attempted
to intimidate his likely opponents, even before they became candidates.
Their businesses have
been affected with the government either pulling out of or attempting to pull
out of commercial contractual agreements freely entered into between government
agencies and businesses owned or partly owned by perceived presidential
opponents.
Also, in a bid to
intimidate the Presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar’s plane was
invaded by a crack combined military team on November 11, 2018. That was
unprecedented in Nigeria’s history and never occurred even under military rule.
Opposition
presidential candidates who participated in peaceful marches have been arrested
and are currently facing trial. Others were set up by government agencies
including the Code of Conduct Tribunal and were tried until the government’s
case collapsed at the Supreme Court.
The account of the
Vice Presidential candidate of the PDP was frozen even as opposition
Presidential candidates were falsely accused of involvement in armed robbery
and when the government’s case was falling apart, their main suspect
suspiciously and suddenly died in police custody.
An opposition
candidate on the verge of winning an election was strangely charged for
examinations malpractices and his win was overturned.
Sadly, on Monday the
17th of December 2018, in a Freudian slip during a live TV interview, Garba
Shehu, the President’s spokesman, revealed that President Buhari had ordered
the National Bureau of Statistics to fudge the latest unemployment numbers
seeing as they do not favour the government so close to an election.
This is even as the President
has refused to sign the amended Electoral Act knowing that the Act would
prevent the government from rigging the elections.
But the most telling
action by the President was his attempt to foist his own biological niece as
the Chairman of INEC but for the uproar of the opposition backed by the
international community.
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