By Dele Alake
December 19, 2014 – The attention of the General Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation has been drawn to desperate and despicable attempts by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to denigrate the person and impugn the character of the highly revered Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2015 election.
This is an indication of the utter consternation and bewilderment of the PDP at the emergence of a politically and morally impregnable candidate like Buhari on a popular national platform like the APC.
During a courtesy visit to the corporate headquarters of The Vanguard newspaper in Lagos on Monday, the Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, sought most ridiculously to make a vice of General Muhammadu Buhari’s well- known and widely admired reputation as a man of modest means who lives within the limits of his legitimate income despite the numerous high and powerful offices he has held in the past.
In the absurd words of Okupe, “Buhari is trying to make poverty a virtue but poverty is not a virtue. The fact that Buhari has left office for so long and says he is so poor, is nothing to celebrate, it is indeed indolence and shameful. Is that a role model? Is that who you will want your child to be, a poor man?”.
This arrogant statement demonstrates the utter alienation of the Jonathan administration from the existential realities of the vast majority of Nigerians. Dr Okupe is grossly mistaken. He lives in a completely perverse and illusory world. General Buhari is immensely rich in character. He is affluent in integrity. He is prosperous in credibility. He is wealthy in honesty. He is bounteously blessed in self -discipline, self- control and contentment. Those are greater and more valuable assets than all the material acquisition in the world.
General Buhari is a proud and honourable pensioner after a lifetime of selfless service to his fatherland. He owns a house in Daura his hometown and another in Kaduna. He manages a modest farm. He has enough to meet his needs. He has not exploited and abused the privilege of holding public office to loot the public treasury so as to feed his greed.
This remarkable and incomparable patriot was a former governor of the then North Central state (Borno, Yobe and Adamawa), General Officer Commanding (GOC) the third Division of the Nigerian army, former Petroleum Minister, former Chairman of the Board of NNPC, former Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) and former Head of State. Despite occupying these high profile positions, he owns no property in Lagos, Abuja or outside the country. This is a most rare virtue in corruption-ridden contemporary Nigeria. It is why millions of Nigerians passionately admire and adore the austere General.
It is unfortunate that Okupe does not see the glaring relationship between the fabulous wealth of the minority of Nigerians who have utilised public office to enrich themselves and the plight of millions of our people immersed in poverty in spite of Nigeria’s abundant resource-endowment. We can thus understand why corruption has festered so badly under the Jonathan presidency to the detriment of national development. There is absolutely no doubt that, given his sterling antecedents, General Buhari has the qualities to offer the kind of leadership that can sanitise Nigeria morally, tame corruption and help realize the country’s potentials.
The PDP has also sponsored hack writers and dubious intellectuals who claim that General Buhari threatened to make Nigeria ungovernable if he lost the 2011 election. There is not the slightest scintilla of evidence to back this wicked falsehood.
Those who make the allegation believe that a lie repeated often enough will ultimately acquire the status of truth. Unable to taint the General’s unimpeachable integrity, they seek to portray him as a lawless and violent man. The baseless allegations cannot stick. Nigerians are more sophisticated and discerning than these peddlers of lies think.
Indeed, the Special Adviser to President Jonathan on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, had made the same insinuation in a column he published on page 51 of The Guardian newspaper of April 22, 2011 titled “For the attention of General Buhari’.
Faced with a N1 billion legal suit by the General for this defamation of his character and reputation, The Guardian published the following retraction in its edition of 11th July, 2013: “On April 22, 2011, The Guardian Newspaper published an article on page 51 titled “For the attention of General Buhari” wherein certain allegations were made against General Muhammadu Buhari’s alleged role in the violence emanating from the elections. The publication was based on information which we believed to be reliable at that time. Since the publication, however, we now have reason to believe certain parts of the story were not verified to be correct before the publication. We assure General Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) of our highest esteem and regret any distress or embarrassment which the said publication may have caused him – Editor”.
General Buhari is a law abiding patriot who has devoted his life to peace, stability, progress, discipline and good governance in Nigeria. Each time he has been robbed of victory in flawed elections, he has sought redress in the court of law and abided by the judicial decision. That is not the profile of a man who resorts to self- help and has disdain for the rule of law.
We can understand the utter confusion and consternation in which the PDP is engulfed. The APC and General Buhari today symbolise the hope of the vast majority of our country men and women for liberation from the despondency of the present and the possibility of a glorious future. It is too late for the PDP to stop the momentum of change through falsehood and cheap abuse.
SIGNED
MR DELE ALAKE
DIRECTOR, COMMUNICATIONS,
BUHARI CAMPAIGN ORGANIZATION
THURSDAY, 18TH DECEMBER, 2014
