An encounter with President Buhari

No matter how intensely one detests President Muhammadu Buhari, one thing distinguishes him. He does not have the capacity to hide his bitterness. I had a chance encounter with him in 2003. The picture he cut at the end of that brief encounter was that of an apoplectic character.  He had come to Benin City in consultation for his presidential ambition then. He was chaperoned by the late Prince Tony Momoh. As the Edo State correspondent for the Nigerian Tribune, I joined other journalists to interview him at the VIP Lounge of the Benin Airport, on his way out of the city. The interaction was going on smoothly until Oga Tony Osauzo asked if Buhari had any regret over Decree 4 of 1984. That was the most repressive press law in the history of mankind. Buhari’s gait changed. He managed to suppress his anger and mumbled an answer. I was not satisfied and I shouted “follow up”. Prince Momoh signaled I should fire the follow up question. Calmly, I said: “Sir, what my colleague asked is if you have any regret for enacting Decree 4 and if you are prepared to apologise to the press and the nation for such…”. General Buhari did not allow me to finish the question. He lost colour. He began to judder so badly one  could barely decipher what he was saying again. He was completely enveloped in such volcanic anger. He got up in that mad rage and practically walked out on us to the utter consternation of everyone.

Prince Momoh was equally angry, apparently in blind support for the product he was trying to sell to the nation. He came back to ask  which medium I represented. His tone was combative. I just told him “Tribune” and walked away. My colleague, Vincent Adekoye, then of the Champion quipped in Yoruba language: “Man yi o le change. Ti eleyi ba da president, ewon lo ma ko gbogbo wa si” (This man cannot change. If this one becomes the president, he will jail all of us). That was in 2003. Twelve years later, Nigerians handed over the presidency to him.

What Nigeria is experiencing right now, especially in the last four days, after the banning of the microblogging platform, Twitter, by the Presidency is typical of the way an insupportable leader behaves. And Buhari is one; in fact an epitome of intolerability in its raw element. The events were in quick succession. Thursday, June 3, an online media platform, Peoples Gazette, published a “secret memo”, allegedly written by the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami to General Buhari. Malami, in the “secret memo”, was said to have urged Buhari to suspend the constitution, alleging alarming insecurity. He was said to have asked the retired General to declare a state of emergency, aka Martial Law. “The essence of the declaration is to allow for suspension of constitutional and legal bureaucratic bottlenecks pertaining to matters of National Security with particular regards to fundamental rights guaranteed under Chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution and processes and procedures relating to procurements, among others”, Peoples Gazatte claimed. Same day, Malami issued a rebuttal through his Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations, Dr Umar Gwandu, asking the general public to disregard the reports as “fabrications of anti-constitutional democratic stability in Nigeria”. Malami  swore to democratic credentials as “a true democrat who believes in rules of law and tenets of democracy and constitutional order”.

While that was going on, Twitter, in its wisdom, deleted the genocidal tweet by Buhari, who, had made a reference to the killings of the Ndigbo during the unfortunate Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970. Buhari, who participated fully in the civil war had threatened to treat the Igbo people in “the language they understand”. Twitter considered such a statement outrageous and against its own rule of engagement. It deleted the tweet. That was all Buhari and his presidency needed. Within hours after the tweet was deleted, Lai Mohammed, the nation’s Minister of Information and Culture, issued an indefinite suspension of the platform. He gave, as usual, another low excuse typical of everything the Buhari presidency, that Twitter had been used persistently “for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”. The government also ordered all telecommunications service providers in the country to deactivate access to  the platform and Malami took a step further to order for the prosecution of any Nigerian found using the platform. All these happened between Thursday and Saturday last week.

Malami was on Friday described as “a true democrat who believes in rules of law and tenets of democracy and constitutional order”. On Saturday, he ordered for the arrest and prosecution of Nigerians who use Twitter after the draconian ban. He could not wait for Buhari to sign the martial law before he acted. Juxtapose his “arrest and prosecute” with his theory of the Igbo spare parts sellers in the North and killer herdsmen in the South.

If he arrests all Nigerians on Twitter after the inglorious ban, where does Malami plan to keep them? After arrest, where will he prosecute when all the courts are under lock and keys, courtesy of JUSUN strike? How do you know those who have Twitter applications on their phones without violating their rights to privacy? The AGF does not know all of these; or he is simply blinded  by the spirit of the martial law that he is prompting Buhari to impose on all of us? His denial of the “secret memo” and his directive for arrest and prosecution have carved him as a person who places little premium on self-worth. In a span of 24 hours, Malami issued two self-contradictory statements. A “democrat” who hates freedom of speech!

Malami’s conjoined twin brother in this perfidy for the suspension of our rights and the constitution is Lai Mohammed. For Mohammed, in his heydays as the publicity secretary of the APC, during the Goodluck Jonathan administration, the social media was a veritable instrument of propaganda in the hands of the Oro-born politician. But like a compulsive executioner that he is, Mohammed cannot suffer to have anyone take an ordinary razor blade pass his head. Little wonder that he started having wet dreams about how to asphyxiate the social media immediately he was made a minister. This is the same platform he used to stultify Jonathan’s government out of existence. Six years down the line, Mohammed wants the platform dead. If Jonathan were to be like Mohammed and Malami, would Buhari have ever been president?

If anybody still has doubts about the intention of this government, such a person should wake up from the dream land. It is Twitter today. It will be other social media platforms tomorrow. The Buhari presidency does not brook opposition. The temperament of the retired General cannot accommodate any opposing view. To compound the problem, beyond wearing babariga and cap, there is nothing civil or civilian in the president. Lai Mohammed has justified the banning of Twitter with his dull excuse of it being used “for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”. Buhari has an alibi that he fought a civil war to “Keep Nigeria One”. People like Mohammed are not in short supply in this government. They will find further excuses for Buhari to deactivate other platforms. The statements by the international community mean nothing to an administration that is deaf intentionally. Nigerians should prepare for the night of the long knives.

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