Our President Has Gone 'Mad' Again By Erasmus Ikhide

It's glaring that Buhari has murdered democracy; adopted rule of the thumb, aborted her own electoral promises, introduced primitive nepotism and archaic bigotry and authoritarianism.

The arrest of human rights activist and pro-democracy campaigner, Omoyele Sowore, by operatives of the Department of State Services as ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari, further explains the former military general’s oppressive and tyrannical nature against free press and constructive criticism. Strictly speaking, the President has gone mad again! 

We have been here before under Buhari's inhuman government as Head of State. Then, Buhari ruled the country with maximum brutality against dissenting voices with the obnoxious, infamous and draconian ‘Decree Four’ that forbids journalists and media houses to report or publish anything negative about his military regime. Now, Buhari, in a democracy, has abandoned the nation's constitution that accommodates free speech and association, hunting citizens who are insisting and demanding for governance with human face.  

It's never that Nigerians ever believe that Buhari, who ruled the nation with iron fist as a military dictator between 1983 and 1985, would ever change his colour. Nigerians know that Buhari's ethnic proclivities and religious extremism can never change. They only assumed that having serially lost elections, he could at least fight the endemic corruption as witnessed under President Goodluck Jonathan's administration. 

But Nigerians did not take into account the fact that a nation cannot have proper democracy with a leader like Buhari. Many did not know that for democracy to flourish, the principle of the rule of law must never be compromised. 

The DSS invasion of Sowore’s apartment in the early hours of Saturday with four trucks, seizing his phones and other electronic gadgets, is President Buhari’s desperate and calculated attempt to muffle legitimate and authentic voices of the Nigerian masses, who are at the receiving end of their directionlessness. It's now clear to many people that his administration has pushed the nation to the edge.

How did Sowore's arrest help the cause of Buhari's deceptive government that thrives on propaganda and disinformation? Where did Sowore offend the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for spearheading nationwide demonstrations to protest against bad governance in Nigeria under Buhari's failed government? Is it wrong to call for redirection in a failed government via national and international campaign when such government has virtually collapsed?

It's glaring that Buhari has murdered democracy; adopted rule of the thumb, aborted her own electoral promises, introduced primitive nepotism and archaic bigotry and authoritarianism.

From the outset, President Buhari never showed determination to fix Nigerian's unresolved financial misdemeanour. He refused to truthfully tell Nigerians what happened to the report on the $43m discovered in an apartment at Osbourne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos. He couldn't tell Nigerians what happened to the allegation of award of $25bn contracts without following due process made against Dr Maikanti Baru, the Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) by former Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu.

Presently, Nigeria is sinking on account of insecurity. Boko Haram has taken over the entire northern region of the country. Criminal gangs have taken over nearly all the 19 states in the north with 12 local government areas in ruins in Buhari's home state of Katsina. This is aside from Fulani gangs kidnapping, raping and slaughtering defenceless Nigerians on theirs farms, houses and on highways every day.

President Buhari’s claim that his government has lifted five million Nigerians out of poverty is laughable. Latest statistics shows that over 13 million Nigerian children are out of school, the highest in the world. President Buhari's government has refused to take pre-emptive action on the report that Nigeria would face hunger in a few years from now as a result of Fulani herders open declaration of war on farmer across the country. 

Buhari's pretences about national security is nothing more than regime security to protect and keep his ineptness, sectional and fraudulent government in power in his own personal interest and that of the entire northern Nigeria. Unfortunately, this is the basis for Nigeria’s unity so that northern Nigeria will keep pillaging and squandering southern oil wealth. Buhari and the desperate All Progressives Congress leadership are merely racing against time. Nigeria’s implosion is imminent, either now or later. 

Ikhide wrote in via ikhideerasmus@gmail.com