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Buhari: Four Unforgivable Sins

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Dele Jegede In Conversation With Prince Yemisi Shyllon
Prof. Toyin Falola

By Toyin Falola
Life and everything within it are transient, including power and authority. What started with hopes and high expectations in 2015 has come to an end, bringing with it lessons and leaving the people less animated and less hopeful than they were eight years ago — little wonder that Buhari’s successor will ride in on the wings of a Renewed Hope campaign. Bola Ahmed Tinubu said he would hit the ground running from Day 1, continue running on Day 2, and not relent on Day 3. As Nigerians at home and in the diaspora will strive to pick up pace in this new run, this piece marks my second and last comment on the Buhari government.

Accountability in Nigeria is comatose. What makes it not dead yet are the little efforts by concerned columnists and journalists that keep to the work of critiquing the government and holding those in power accountable, although knowing that there might be little to nothing to show for their efforts. President Muhammadu Buhari gave his farewell speech — a 38-point speech with aspects that further solidify the defiance of those in power to the truth and transparency with citizens in a we-can-do-as-we-wish move. In response, or more befittingly, as a way of signing off on writings about the past administration, I chose to write two pieces. The first focused on the most prominent promises that Buhari failed to fulfill — the promises that were the highlight of his campaign and the major reason people voted for him.

These past few days, there have been audacious claims by the government — claims of leaving Nigeria in a better state than in 2015 and fulfilling all promises made during the 2015 campaign, among other claims. In the past eight years, I have interacted with many Nigerians from different age groups and societal classes — professors, businessmen, politicians, young students; you name them. And no matter how you choose to review the Buhari government’s years in office — whether by benchmarking them against his campaign promises or comparing Nigeria in 2023 to Nigeria in 2015 — the most important way of gauging this government will be in the overall well-being of Nigerians.

The last eight years have been taxing in one way or the other for every Nigerian I have engaged during the period, and this is only a testament to the fact that the government did not succeed in making its citizens’ lives better. A lot has been said by many; a lot has been written about the achievements and failures of this government. It is why I have chosen this second piece on the unforgivable sins of the Buhari government — that is, the things that, if summed up, pushed Nigeria into the current state that it is in, regardless of whether the 2nd Niger Bridge and some railway lines have been constructed or some money paid out through the TraderMoni scheme.

The Sin of Contemptible Complacency

Complacency is perhaps the biggest sin of the Buhari government. It set the tone for the spiral and reared its head often during the two tenures of the now ex-President of Nigeria. First, it was complacency in appointing his cabinet members in 2015. For someone who rode into power on lofty promises to the people and a lot of goodwill and expectations of change, Muhammadu Buhari was slow to appoint his team members — as the swearing-in dragged on to his 6th month in office, thus adversely affecting the goodwill of foreign investors, the stock market, and the economy in general. Perhaps Buhari took his campaign mantra of “focusing on security, while Prof. Osinbajo focuses on the economy” too far, forgetting that running a government cannot be the function of just one person. This same complacency came into action in Buhari’s self-appointment as the Minister of Petroleum, a move that spelled little good for Nigeria’s petroleum affairs, as ridiculous expenditure continued in the oil sector right under the president’s nostrils.

The Sin of Deplorable Impunity

From the leadership point of view, impunity is one of the strongest problems militating against the country’s success. Under Muhammadu Buhari, impunity was displayed by the direct people in power and their family members — from the president to Mrs. Aisha Buhari, to the wife of the DSS Chief, to the APC Majority Leader from Kano State. The audacity to do as one wishes among elected officials in the country reached never-before-seen heights under Buhari. It was perhaps because the ex-president was complacent and largely unconcerned — so much so that the people knew they could get away with their deeds — thus having the perfect motivation for their impunity.

Impunity is devilish in a democracy; it goes against the foundational concepts of democracy and laughs them to scorn. It is unforgivable for those in whom the people had placed their belief and mandate to emerge as leaders and then begin to see themselves as more worthy and in an untouchable position than the electorate. The power belongs to the people in a democracy, and impunity says otherwise. The impunity under the Buhari government spilled over to his other sins — the sins of failed promises, violating court orders, and implementing policies that only made the country bleed.

The Disgraceful Sin of Rights and Law Violations

During Buhari’s tenure, there were pockets of human rights violations — both by the federal government and some state governments — for which the president and his team were complicit in their inaction. A young Nigerian was arrested for tweeting in abuse of the then First Lady, Aisha Buhari. There were arrests of outspoken media people like Daddiyata, the arrest and detainment of Agba Jalingo, the ill-treatment of Omoyele Sowore while flouting court orders for his release, the refusal to follow court orders in the case of ASUU’s grievances, Jones Abiri’s arrest and detainment, and the bullying of media houses like Premium Times, Daily Trust, AIT, and AriseTV, among others. Closer to home was the arbitrary arrest of a prominent journalist. One of the biggest things that will forever dangle above the Buhari government is the October 20, 2020, incident at the Lekki Toll Gate. The sheer number of human rights violations, arbitrary arrests, and prolonged detainment of citizens against the provisions of the law is a body of sin that no level of atonement can wash off Buhari’s eight years in office.

The Outrageous Sin of Miscalculated Policies and Wrong Implementation

There is no denying that there were instances when the Buhari government meant well for the citizens and kicked some policies into place. However, many of those policies were moribund, as they lacked a lot of things — a proper assessment of the realities of the people and whether or not the policies would succeed and a lack of a proper timeline. First was the border closure policy, for which many Nigerians will continue to blame Buhari. No matter how well-meaning the government could have been with this policy, refusing to gauge how impactful it was on the people and the need to relax it — thereby leaving it for a prolonged and unnecessarily adverse period — was catastrophic for the economy. It is foolhardy to embark on an audacious and full closure of the country’s borders when the circumstances surrounding the in-country production of food have not been perfected.

The second prominent issue was the case of the cashless policy toward the end of the Buhari government. This policy was concocted on the corridors of power — heavily distant from the realities of the average Nigerian or their plight. While the people suffered and died due to a highly unnecessary and frustrating policy, the Buhari-led government was bent on prolonging the policy to make a statement to the people. TraderMoni and N-Power have been poster names for initiatives that have been fronted as the government’s means of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty, although the reality pales in comparison with that — the reality being the uneven disbursement of small and unsustainable funds to people.

In the closing days of the government, the official propaganda machine was full of the achievements of the Buhari government, especially in infrastructure. His media advisers and assistants tried to push out the scores of things that Buhari had done in eight years. Buhari himself spoke more in his last days. Some projects were the highlight of the government — after all, no matter how woefully a government has performed, it will have some things to its name.
However, in the context of where Nigeria is currently as compared to where it was or where it was headed as of 2015 (when it was adjudged one of the fastest-growing economies in the world), in the context of the promises that were made and what was eventually achieved, in the context of what Nigerians’ overall well-being is now as against 2015, in the context of how safe and secure Nigerians feel in their homes today as against 2015, in the context of how un-Nigerian Nigerians feel today as against 2015 — there is no applauding the Buhari-led government. For, it sinned. Its sins were many, and history will remember the past eight years for what they were. I am sure many readers will add to my list: the sin of corruption, the sin of insecurity, the sin of insensitivity.
When you sin, it must be followed by punishments. Buhari’s sins are reprehensible and shameful. Is the escape to Daura and onward to Niger an escape from punishment? Niger is a wise choice, with loving relations: sin-forgivers who have benefitted money from their Godfather in power. Niger is a unitary system where the president rules as a general, a fellow sinner. Farewell!

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Opinion

The Decay Of 2024

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Readers’ Showers Of Encouragement
Prof. Tony Afejuku

By Tony Afejuku

Two days ago, that is, on Wednesday, 1st of January, we entered a New Year – this year 2025. Indeed, in the mid-night of Tuesday, 31st December, 2024 that rolled to join the mid-morning of 1st January, 2025 we entered another year, this year! At 9:00 PM of Tuesday, 31st, December, 2024 I was in bed gazing so much into the generator of my un-deep and deep learning and what would soon emerge as that of a new sensation that would conduct me to a new experience. My gaze was not an ordinary one. It had the expression and dignity of the spiritual and of the mystical. I enjoyed what came to me. But I dozed off only to be woken up by the chime of my phone’s alarm at that nicely delicate mid-night/mid-morning hour. A new year, another new year, had gently, softly marched in, marched into my life (and into yours as well). The alarm ceaseless chime interrupted my elaborate and expensive spiritual revue. But what was revealed in my short early night nap was intellectually, mystically and spiritually invigorating. But for now, what must be held back, must be held back. And what must be said now must be said now – as a curious or as an intriguing introduction to 2025. (Happy Yunyen! Yunyen!!! Oh! I recollect, recall A Garden of Moods. Mine.).

2024 was a wicked year; it was a very wicked year. Its wickedness in one instance we all saw in the hunger in the land – as the column drew concise attention to last Friday in its appearance in the gone year which mirrored the total decay of the country’s middle class. 2024 cruelly sent the middle classes comprising many retirees right from 2023 to a place where they would be eventually wiped out, if they do not resist frontally the decadent ones in political power and authority. How can they do this? Simple, I must say. But I won’t go the whole hog here – meaning that I won’t spell out what I meant and mean to say thoroughly and unreservedly. The little thing I want to give vent to here and now (as I am allowed to give vent to) is this: The Nigerian middle classes comprising our dons, bankers, oil and gas workers, senior civil servants and other professionals, including lawyers and journalists are no longer, under this democracy that is not really a democracy, morally committed to the aristocracy in power and authority. The listed middle classes and others not mentioned or listed here must realize as never before that they can no longer be dependent upon the aristocracy in the presidency, the national assembly and the judiciary as well. The middle classes really have nothing to lose because the ‘aristocracy,’ in actual fact, are subordinate to the middle classes – which are surprisingly giving acquiescence to the shenanigans of the ‘aristocracy’ which have gradually steadily been absorbing and destroying them through diverse stratagems. Things, from my observation, came to a head and to the acme in 2024, the year of decay.

As a matter of fact, our ‘aristocracy’ are a decadent aristocracy whose decadence especially in the just gone year is enabling me to label 2024 as the year of this country your country my country our country’s cheaply cheap and senselessly senseless decay.

President Ahmed Tinubu, our PAT’s first media chat (since his presidency) in the penultimate Monday of December 2024 clearly underscored this feeling in me, and I became more critical of him. PAT oozed confidence and spoke confidently throughout, but I did not give him a pat on the back when the media chat ended. Our distinguished PAT was all too meagre in his responses to the posers tendered before him. His confident mannerism did not translate to substance when he spoke his sentences of mostly substance-less ideas. I watched him long enough to come to the conclusion that the decay of 2024 will continue in 2025 if the middle classes merely posture themselves akimbo. And things will would be pretty, pretty bad for the lower classes or the down-trodden denizens and natives who still exist; but will cease to exist in no distant time if pretty President Tinubu the pretty dribbler continues with his pretty game. I swear! With what PAT has contrived and is still contriving – unless his own genie melts his heart – 2025 will be pretty, pretty horrible for them. They will dis-server themselves from the world – to deprive themselves of all interest in life – to vanish, to disappear, to give up their tiny places and meagre privileges that are really no privileges, without gaining admission to the portal of the dead. The down-trodden of this era of PAT’s civilization will be compelled to deprive themselves of all interest in existence. If PAT’s friend, as allegedly reported, has given up his five Rolls Royce for a secondhand Honda car, a Belgium-delivered one, and PAT relished telling us the story himself in his own Emilokan mannerism or artistic manner, you do not need this writer whose pen has no gramophone, to sound or re-sound the story with a thousand gramophones or loud-speakers to all and sundry. But know this very, very well: Tinubu is the president that has come to enjoy Nigeria, not the president for Nigeria to enjoy. And also note this capitally, even if you knew it before now: This president your president my president our president is cruising in a supremely expensive yacht, a customized state-of-the-art air-craft and cars upon cars whose costs must shockingly be out of the reach of our rich but poor clime as dictated by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the lords pretty, pretty Tinubu cannot defy, not because he cannot defy them but because he enjoys defying Nigerians. He has, against our wishes, allegedly, in his own words, “been travelling round the globe to campaign and sell Nigeria.” Phew!

What I have dwelt on so far is not a bed-time tale. The fate that 2025 will throw at us will more than very rapidly follow the example of the decadence of 2024 of supreme or high decay. Soon, very soon, the Ibadan, Abuja and Okija stampedes will ease themselves from your and their memories, but hunger that is hunger and that is also more hungerful than hunger will keep its direct contact with the people. PAT’s vision-less economic civilization will force it to keep on visiting us. But the middle and lower classes can separate themselves from its fatal embrace. How? Figuratively, by not standing akimbo – meaning? Answer: By not doing the akimbo gait, each and everyone. All hope, however, is not lost and cannot and can never be lost.

I have delivered this little delivery that the Supreme Spiritual Masters of Merit (SSMM) asked me to reveal when I, as a visitant, tip-toed to them in their conclave of conclaves.

Afejuku can be reached via 08055213059.

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Opinion

Extravagant Cost Of Funerals And Wretchedness Of Mourning Traditions 

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Witch Burning, Impunity And Abuses Linked to Witchcraft Beliefs In Benue State
Dr Leo Igwe

By Leo Igwe

A recent Facebook post by a Danish woman, Anja Ringgren Loven, was a brutal reminder of the debauched mourning traditions in some parts of Nigeria. In the post, Anja noted how she and her team saw a “lot of children living alone in a house with the corpse of their mother”. According to her, it is common for many families in Akwa Ibom to keep the corpses of their relatives in a room because “they don´t have money to pay for a funeral”. This is deeply embarrassing. She further pointed out the troubling trend of abandonment of loved ones whose bodies remain in morgues, “driven by rising costs and societal expectations surrounding extravagant funerals”. Yes, extravagant funerals. I mean, why should funerals be wasteful? Why should bereaved families go through or be made to suffer this additional pain and loss?

Anja’s observation is apt and applies not only to communities in Akwa Ibom but also to other places in South-South and Southeastern Nigeria. When someone dies, people are twice as bereaved. They grieve not only because of the person who passed but also because of the cost of the funeral. This is shameful and needs to be addressed. I am from Imo State and moved to the Southwest in 1994. For over two decades, I had limited contact with relatives and seldom participated in their traditional rites and ceremonies. I heard people complain about the costs of funerals but I thought it was all self-inflicted and something that one could easily avoid or do away with. But it was in 2021 when my father passed away that I realized how profligate these funeral traditions are and could be. I came face to face with the lunacy and viciousness of self- styled custodians of ‘traditions’. It has been difficult to get over the pain and disappointment over the decadent funeral culture in my community.

Look, when people pass away, relatives should grieve but they cannot, because they are not allowed to. The bereaved are unable to mourn because of what Anja noted in her post as ‘costs of funerals and societal expectations”. In many cases, funeral traditions push families into debt. The funerals are more traumatizing than the death of relatives. If there is something a grieving person or family needs, it is not to be subjected to a grueling funeral tradition, to extortion at every turn in the name of Omenala (tradition). In my case, after the death of my father, relatives whom I never knew or could barely recognize started emerging from nowhere. They started calling and dictating various funeral traditions to be observed and fulfilled. For them, these traditions were sacrosanct and must be upheld. My father was sick and bedridden for years. Many of these relatives never cared. Some despised him. But as soon as he passed, they started making various demands, wanting and pressuring the family to do the omenala (tradition). If one takes a critical look at what they identify as the Omenala, it is all their fabrication; things that they made up and called traditions. At some point, I wondered “If my father was buried soon after he died in Ibadan or at his village, without these stupid and encumbering traditions, what would happen? Would heaven fall?”

Soon after the death of my father was announced, relatives from different sides of the family started sending me lists of things to do and buy including goats, chicken, cartons of beer, tubers of yam, coolers of rice, fufu, and assorted soup, etc. I noticed that funeral traditions were only devices to extort money from the bereaved. Funeral traditions were not really about mourning and grieving. The funeral was about eating, drinking, and merry-making at the expense of people who are grieving. I found this way of ‘mourning the dead’ disgusting and outrageous. Let me cite two instances that revealed the wretched and bankrupt nature of funeral traditions during my late father’s burial. When my father passed we needed to inform his maternal relatives. I informed them by phone that my father had died. I did this because I was not living in Imo State. But they said that it was not the ‘tradition’, and that I needed to come physically to inform them. Think about it. Is that not stupid?

This tradition started before cell phones were invented; when people traveled on foot to inform relatives about deaths and births in families. Why can’t we change this ‘tradition’ so that people can phone to inform relatives about the death of a family member? By the way, these same relatives accept monies electronically transferred into their accounts. They do not invoke tradition to reject such transactions.

I later traveled to my father’s maternal home to inform them about his passing. They told me that I should advance some funds; they gave me a long list of what to buy and bring along the day I would come to ‘properly’ inform them that my father had died. Imagine that. I was deeply embarrassed. These relatives conducted themselves with straight faces. Some said they were lenient and did not bill my family enough.

Fast forward to the funeral day, my father’s maternal relatives arrived and demanded a cow because they saw some cows in the compound. There was no cow in the list that they gave us. I told them that a cow would not be given to them because there was no cow on the list that they gave and they angrily left. I ignored them. Two days after the funeral, they messaged that my family should go ahead and fulfill the tradition as contained in the original list. And we reluctantly did.

In the end, after subjecting us to all the stress, I curiously asked them what they had for the family. One of them said, prayers and blessings. I said What! Prayer and blessing? From who? For what? I could not get my mind around this utterly pointless and senseless response. I thought they were joking. Later in the day, two ‘elders’ came and again asked for ‘hot drinks’. They said they wanted to pray for the family. I declined to participate in the prayer. My immediate younger brother accepted and they prayed and left. I could not believe that all that they had for the family in return was “prayer”. Look, the funeral tradition is not a scam. It is an extortion device. When I came home to prepare for the funeral, a relative told me that people were expecting a lot from my family. I deemed that a senseless remark because I could not fathom how those people came about their high expectations. And why we were obliged to fulfill them.

Indeed social expectation and pressure drive mourners into debt and bankruptcy. Many people borrow money or sell family property such as land to bury a family member. Just imagine that. There have been instances where people in the community lend money or buy some property of bereaved families at giveaway prices. Now the bereaved families spend the money fulfilling funeral traditions in the same community. I mean, people are so callous and insensitive.

Having said that I also noticed that some family members contribute to this problem because some use funerals to further some selfish goals and interests. Some family members see funerals as a business, as a way to raise money. Some people use funerals as opportunities to show off their wealth, status, and success, to let the world know that they have arrived. In my case, my father’s funeral was an opportunity for one of my siblings to advertise and launch his political ambitions, and invite and feast his political friends and allies.

For him, our late father’s funeral was a strategic opportunity to make a political statement. In addition, the funeral provided a platform to compete and know who would outspend others. So at the funeral, beneath the plastic smiles were microaggression, tension, vendetta, rivalry, and intraspecific squabbles. Whilst publicly the funeral was framed as honoring the dead, giving a befitting burial to the relative and protecting some family pride. And all the unnecessary, ‘extravagant’, and uncalled-for expenses were presented as efforts to ensure the family was not disgraced!

We need to change this wretched funeral culture and tradition. It is disgraceful and destructive. This funeral orientation hurts and harms people. We need to end a practice that continues to impoverish those who mourn. Funerals should be conducted in ways that allow people to grieve and come to terms with the loss of their loved ones. They should not be opportunities to rub shoulders, oppress, extort or exploit others. Funerals should not be avenue to display wealth and affluence. Funerals should be what funerals are supposed to be: ceremonies to honour and bury the dead. So a funeral should be a private affair and should take place at little or no cost to the relatives of the dead. There should be no need for families to sleep with corpses of relatives at home or abandon them in morgues for weeks, months, and years due to the costs of funerals and social expectations.

This cultural show of shame must stop. Let us end this costly and extravagant funeral tradition now!

Igwe, PhD , is a humanist and lives in Ibadan

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Opinion

Withdraw The Charge  And Free Arrested ‘Witchdoctors’

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Witch Burning, Impunity And Abuses Linked to Witchcraft Beliefs In Benue State

Hakainde Hichilema
President of Zambia
State House, Lusaka, Zambia

Your Excellency,

Withdraw The Charge  And Free Arrested ‘Witchdoctors’

My name is Leo Igwe from the Advocacy for Alleged Witches. We campaign against witchcraft accusations, witch persecution and witch hunting in Africa. We aim to end witch hunts in Africa by 2030. I am writing to inform you that the news reported by the BBC, Suspected ‘witchdoctors’ arrested over attempt to ‘bewitch’ Zambia’s president, has been so embarrassing to us all. The report is a setback to our vision to end witch hunting in the region. Your Excellency, do you really believe in witchcraft and in the potency of charm?

If you take a critical look at the report, it is the police that broke the law by arresting the so called ‘witch doctors’. It is the police that broke the law by imputing that what was in their possession was some charm that they intended to use in harming you. So I urge you to withdraw this bizarre charge which is making Zambia a laughing stock in the international scene.

As I have noted in this blogpost, how would the police prove that what was in their possession was some charm? How would they prove that beyond reasonable doubt as required by law? How do you prove that they intended to use that to harm you? Even if by any stretch of imagination they so confessed, how does it make any legal or criminal sense to you, Mr. president?

In addition this arrest is a waste of police and legislative resources of Zambia. The country is grappling with serious socioeconomic problems, so this arrest is a distraction. It is a deflation of attention from urgent pressing national issues. There is no evidence that anyone could kill or harm another person through witchcraft or charms. Such a claim has no basis in law, science or reality. It is a mistake to charge the ‘witchdoctors’ under Zambia’s Witchcraft Act. It is a misreading, misinterpretation and misunderstanding of that criminal provision.

Once again I implore you to withdraw the charge and free the arrested ‘witchdoctors’.

End witchcraft accusation in Zambia

End witch persecution in Zambia!

End witch hunts in Zambia!!

Sincerely,

Leo Igwe, PhD, Director, Advocacy for Alleged Witches.

https://advocacyforallegedwitches.com/

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