By Femi Fani-Kayode<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I received the news of the apology offered to the Nigerian people by my<\/p>\n
friend and brother Prince Uche Secondus, the National Chairman of the PDP,<\/p>\n
with mixed feelings.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For goodness sake what is the apology for? Is it the great achievements of<\/p>\n
President Olusegun Obasanjo or the commendable strides of President<\/p>\n
Goodluck Jonathan?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In my view Secondus’ apology was ill-conceived and unecessary.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And if PDP must apologise for its 16 years in power then on its own part<\/p>\n
the Buhari administration and each and every one of the APC leaders must<\/p>\n
be compelled to pull out a loaded gun, point it at their own temples and<\/p>\n
blow out their own brains.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is either that or they must be compelled to take some lethal poison and<\/p>\n
die a slow and terrible death for the corruption, hardship, penury,<\/p>\n
bloodshed and evil that they have foisted and inflicted on the Nigerian<\/p>\n
people over the last three years.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I proudly served in President Obasanjo’s government, which was a PDP<\/p>\n
government, for four years and his achievements were legion.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He inspired and encouraged our people and made them proud to be Nigerians<\/p>\n
again and he paid off our foreign debt, stabilised the country and pulled<\/p>\n
us back from the brink of war.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He treated every Nigerian fairly regardless of faith or tribe and he left<\/p>\n
a total of $64 billion USD in our foreign reserves.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He strengthed the economy and ensured that Nigeria was readmitted into the<\/p>\n
comity of civilised nations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He boosted agricultural growth, fought an effective and non-selective war<\/p>\n
against corruption and ushered massive foreign and local investment into<\/p>\n
the country.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He built up local industries and assisted the manufacturing sector to<\/p>\n
prosper and thrive and caused the Stock Exchange to flourish.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He strengthened our Armed Forces, reformed the education sector, improved<\/p>\n
the health sector, encouraged freedom of speech and ensured that not one<\/p>\n
journalist, dissident or opposition figure was locked up for expressing<\/p>\n
his or her views.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He also managed the sharia crisis well and avoided a civil war, pulled us<\/p>\n
back from the brink of war with the Camerouns, brokered a successful peace<\/p>\n
deal in Liberia, quelled a military coup d’etat in Sao Tome and Principe<\/p>\n
and so much more. Is that what we are apologising for?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Anyone may say whatever they like about Obasanjo, and I do not for one<\/p>\n
minute suggest that he is an angel or that he is infallible, but one thing<\/p>\n
you can never take away from him is the fact that he remains probably the<\/p>\n
most patriotic, dedicated and effective leader that Nigeria has ever had<\/p>\n
and one of the greatest that the African continent has ever been blessed<\/p>\n
with.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Frankly we need to be careful what we say as a party and we should stop<\/p>\n
accepting and feeding into the deceitful and mendacious narrative that is<\/p>\n
being encouraged and fuelled by the Buhari administration and our<\/p>\n
collective enemies which asserts that we were all hopelessly corrupt and<\/p>\n
that we never achieved anything at all!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When we say that we are apologising it simply means that we have accepted<\/p>\n
that false narrative and that is not only a grave error but it is also<\/p>\n
unacceptable simply because such a narrative has no basis in reality,<\/p>\n
rationality, reason or truth.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It also does a great disservice to all the former PDP Governments and<\/p>\n
Presidents over the 16 years that we \u00a0were in power.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We may have made a few mistakes here and there and we may not have scored<\/p>\n
100 per cent on all fronts but to suggest that we are guilty of some<\/p>\n
heinous crime for which we are now constrained to apologise is not only<\/p>\n
inappropiate but also unwise.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Worst still in the coming months we may be forced to pay a heavy price for<\/p>\n
it as we become the subject of ridicule and opprobium.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The only thing PDP needs to apologise for is allowing a bunch of<\/p>\n
incompetent fools, unlettered rogues and uncivilised sociopaths and<\/p>\n
sadists like the APC to take power in 2015.<\/p>\n
That is what we must ask God and the Nigerian people to forgive us for and<\/p>\n
nothing else.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My friend and brother Donald Duke, the former Governor of Cross Rivers<\/p>\n
state, and others have suggested that we must reach out to other political<\/p>\n
parties and form a broad-based coalition to confront and defeat the APC in<\/p>\n
next years presidential election.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That is a duty that is incumbent on each and everyone one of us and if we<\/p>\n
fail in discharging it God will judge us and deal with us ever so<\/p>\n
severley. Worst still, if we fail and Buhari returns to power next year,<\/p>\n
as Obasanjo has said, Nigeria will collapse.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If anyone needs to be reminded about just how inept and degenerate<\/p>\n
Buhari’s government is I urge them to kindly consider the events of the<\/p>\n
last few days and weeks which prove beyond any reasonable doubt that they<\/p>\n
are nothing but a government of unconsciable liars, professional<\/p>\n
propagandists, \u00a0disinformation merchants and first class scammers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
First came the Dapchi scam. Then came the Martin Luther King award scam.<\/p>\n
Then came the Lagos bus terminal scam in which Lagos, the largest city in<\/p>\n
Africa, was put under lockdown and all its roads were blocked simply<\/p>\n
because Buhari was coming to open a glorified bus stop and attend a<\/p>\n
colloquim for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s 66th birthday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For the last few days it has been one merry little photo-shoot and<\/p>\n
disingenious scam after the other but two events which struck me more than<\/p>\n
any of the others were the following.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At the colloquim Vice President Yemi Osinbajo \u00a0reiterated his view that<\/p>\n
the PDP were corrupt and a party of looters and that the looting under<\/p>\n
President Goodluck Jonathan’s government and in the 5 years before Buhari<\/p>\n
came to power had destroyed the Nigerian economy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This is a lie from the pit of hell. Osinbajo is not only a disgrace to his<\/p>\n
country but also a traitor to his Christian faith and Yoruba race.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He is hopelessly corrupt and he is a pernicious liar. All he ever does,<\/p>\n
apart from being the resident slave and proverbial Uncle Tom in the<\/p>\n
Presidential Villa, is accuse the PDP and other members of the opposition<\/p>\n
of looting and corruption yet the government that he heads with Buhari has<\/p>\n
indulged in MORE corruption in 3 years than the PDP did in 16.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Worst still they delight in wasting their enemies, \u00a0shedding innocent<\/p>\n
blood, locking up their adversaries and encouraging and supporting their<\/p>\n
friends and associates to indulge in mass murder, genocide and ethnic<\/p>\n
cleansing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The second event was the release of the list of names of those who have<\/p>\n
been described as “looters” by the Federal Government even though not one<\/p>\n
person has been convicted by a court of law of looting amongst all those<\/p>\n
whose names were listed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is simply ridiculous when a government of murderous slanderers,<\/p>\n
heartless disinformation agents and vicious scammers says and does things<\/p>\n
like this.<\/p>\n
Simply put it is a clear case of the pot calling the kettle black. Yet<\/p>\n
before I go into that permit me to touch on an aside.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
During the festivities they wheeled out an undoubtedly beautiful black<\/p>\n
British super-model called Naomi Cambell to pose in pictures with Buhari<\/p>\n
during his visit to Eko Atlantic whilst he was in Lagos.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Quite what the point of this exercise was I have not been able to grasp or<\/p>\n
fathom but it is interesting to note that the last African Head of State<\/p>\n
that this “pretty babe” took a picture with ended up being convicted for<\/p>\n
crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court at the Hague.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
His name was Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia. I wonder<\/p>\n
whether history will repeat itself and Buhari will end up in the same<\/p>\n
place ? I guess that remains to be seen.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It was the day after the pose with Naomi that the Buhari government came<\/p>\n
up with their list of so-called “looters” which did not have the name of<\/p>\n
Rotimi “Oloriburuku” Amaechi or any other APC leader or government<\/p>\n
official on it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yet the truth is that no list of looters is complete without the names of<\/p>\n
Muhammadu Buhari, Yemi Osinbajo, Rotimi Amaechi, Babachir Lawal, Babatunde<\/p>\n
Raji Fashola, Abdulrasheed Maina, Maikanti Baru, Abdulrahman Dambazzau,<\/p>\n
Abdullahi Adamu, Mohammed Burutai and all the other APC leaders and<\/p>\n
Federal Government officials on it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
They are not only thieves but they literally invented the art of<\/p>\n
corruption and they are experts in it. They are corrupt in body, spirit<\/p>\n
and soul. They have stolen and misappropiated vast sums of money from the<\/p>\n
Nigerian state, diverted billions of naira from state government funds for<\/p>\n
their 2015 presidential campaign and they have snuffed out and destroyed<\/p>\n
more innocent lives than any other government in the history of Nigeria<\/p>\n
outside of the civil war.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When, God-willing, we get them out of power and take over we will open the<\/p>\n
books, expose them for what they are and each and everyone of them will<\/p>\n
suffer the consequences of their unprecedented graft and monstrous<\/p>\n
larceny.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One day Nigerians will discover that Buhari is not an angel but a devil<\/p>\n
and that his entire government and team is infested with demons and<\/p>\n
incorrigible rogues.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A couple of weeks ago I wrote the following in one of my essays:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“President Buhari forgets that our system of government is meant to be a<\/p>\n
modern-day democracy where the rule of law prevails, where dissent and a<\/p>\n
plurality of views and opinion is tolerated and where freedom of<\/p>\n
expression, freedom of association, the right to life and the right to a<\/p>\n
fair hearing is held sacrosanct and is guaranteed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Worst still he believes in demonising and crushing all his enemies and<\/p>\n
holding on to power at all costs and through any means both fair and foul.<\/p>\n
If you doubt any of these things please ask Sambo Dasuki, Sheik El Zak<\/p>\n
Zaky, Nnamdi Kanu or countless others.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He leads a corrupt government which operates double standards and which<\/p>\n
turns a blind eye to the theft and graft that is being perpetrated by its<\/p>\n
officials and their friends whilst at the same time persecuting his<\/p>\n
perceived enemies and labelling them as being corrupt even though there is<\/p>\n
no real and tangible evidence of that so-called corruption.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And if anyone doubts that Buhari and his government are hopelessly corrupt<\/p>\n
then they should please read the latest Transparancy International report<\/p>\n
in which they said that corruption in Nigeria is “getting worse under<\/p>\n
Buhari”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Buhari is a tyrant and a genocidal maniac who believes in conquest and<\/p>\n
oppression and who has turned a blind eye whilst his subjects are<\/p>\n
butchered in their thousands by Fulani terrorists who call themselves<\/p>\n
herdsmen.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He has brought nothing but carnage, division, \u00a0destruction, death, poverty<\/p>\n
and evil to our nation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On several occassions he has watched silently and done nothing after his<\/p>\n
security agencies and Armed Forces killed thousands of his own citizens,<\/p>\n
whether they be Igbo youths that are members of IPOB or Shiite Muslims,<\/p>\n
after which they are buried in mass graves.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
These are crimes against humanity for which he should be charged at the<\/p>\n
Internation Criminal Court at the Hague.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Those that are not killed are thrown into prisons or horrific detention<\/p>\n
cells all over the country where they are tortured and left to rot without<\/p>\n
any form of due process and against court orders to release them.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If anyone has any doubts about that they should \u00a0please read the latest<\/p>\n
report by Amnesty International.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
To add to all these horrors poverty and hunger has ravaged the land. If<\/p>\n
anybody doubts that they should please read the latest IMF report where<\/p>\n
the International Monetary Fund claim that Nigerians are “hungrier today”<\/p>\n
than they have ever been and that more of our people are living below the<\/p>\n
poverty line than ever before.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The truth is that apart from being monumentally incompetent Buhari is also<\/p>\n
shallow, sectional, divisive and vindictive and he has proved that he is<\/p>\n
wholly unfit and undeserving to be the President of a complicated,<\/p>\n
multi-cultural, multi-relgious and multi-ethnic mega-nation like Nigeria<\/p>\n
which needs to be led and handled with sensitivity, caution and care”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I stand by every word that I wrote in that essay and frankly, as each day<\/p>\n
passes, things are getting worse for the Nigerian people under his watch.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Permit me to conclude this contribution with the following:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Like President Obasanjo’s devastating letter, President Goodluck<\/p>\n
Jonathan’s consistent criticism, President Ibrahim Babangida’s public<\/p>\n
admonition and Vice President Atiku Abubuakar’s pungent opposition,<\/p>\n
General T.Y. Danjuma’s bombshell, which was unleashed just few days ago<\/p>\n
against the Buhari government, was not only timely and courageous but also<\/p>\n
absolutely necessary.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He rightly alleged that our government, through its Armed Forces, are<\/p>\n
involved in ethnic cleansing and genocide and he boldly encouraged the<\/p>\n
people to defend thrmselves, defend their territory and defend Nigeria.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He has confirmed what yours truly and a handful of others have been saying<\/p>\n
for the last two years that the Buhari administration and their security<\/p>\n
forces collude with the Fulani herdsmen to slaughter and commit mass<\/p>\n
murder against our people.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This is unacceptable, it will never be forgotten and it will not go<\/p>\n
unavenged. It is only a matter of time before ALL those involved will<\/p>\n
suffer the consequences of their barbaric actions and be brought to<\/p>\n
justice.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Danjuma’s concerns, coupled with the admonitions of Bill Gates, the worlds<\/p>\n
richest man, who has criticised the Buhari government viciously both<\/p>\n
whilst he was in Nigeria and after he returned home to America, prove<\/p>\n
beyond any reasonable doubt that Nigeria is in danger and that the Buhari<\/p>\n
government has messed things up very badly. Like Nero, they are playing<\/p>\n
the fiddle whilst Rome is burning.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If anyone needs to apologise to the Nigerian people it is Buhari,<\/p>\n
Osinbanjo and their APC and cetainly not the PDP or indeed any of the<\/p>\n
other political parties.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Femi Fani-Kayode I received the news of the apology offered to the Nigerian people by my friend and brother Prince Uche Secondus, the National Chairman of the PDP,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n