By Jide Ajani and Henry Umoru
It was a festival of attacks, even mud-slinging; pure and simple.

The week has been a very busy one but not in the sense of national re-birth or national development.  It was a mélange involving former head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari, the presidency, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, also jumped into the fray, while the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Buhari’s political party chose not to be left out.

Buhari was not unmindful of the weight of his statement when members of CPC from Niger State paid him a courtesy visit in Kaduna last Monday.  Buhari, who spoke in Hausa language, gave a deconstruction of the Jamaatu Ahlil Sunna Lidawati wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram.  Buhari, also known as GMB, said the Federal Government of Nigeria tops the list in the understanding and characterization of the group, followed by those he described as criminals who steal and kill Nigerians in the name of religion, with the third group as the original one led by late Muhammed Yusufu.

President Goodluck Jonathan and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd)

“God willing”, GMB said, “by 2015, something will happen. They either conduct a free and fair election or they go a very disgraceful way.

“If what happened in 2011 (alleged rigging) should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.”

“I will like to quote Professor Ango Abdullahi that said there are three Boko Harams including the original one led by Muhammed Yusufu who was killed and his supporters tried to take revenge by attacking the law enforcement agencies and politicians. There is another developed Boko Haram of criminals who steal and kill… while the biggest Boko Haram is the Federal Government.”

It was this statement by Buhari that opened a floodgate of mudslinging last week.

It provoked both the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the presidency.  The PDP through its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, fired the first salvo.

Metuh, at the Press Conference held at the PDP Conference Hall, Wadata Plaza, Abuja, noted that it was regretful that Buhari would again incite Nigerians to violence after allegedly causing the mayhem that followed the 2011 presidential election.

“The PDP calls on well-meaning Nigerians, especially the Northern elders to call Buhari to order and ask him to spare the nation his thirst for blood. We need to remind ourselves that on April 21, 2012, Buhari was reported in the media as predicting a bloody revolution in 2015. The reports in the national dailies today quoting the same retired General as repeating that blood will flow in 2015 is another build-up to Buhari’s relish of funeral train. While PDP cherishes freedom of speech, assembly and association as the custodian of Nigeria’s democracy, we at the same time know that such freedom goes with immense responsibilities. We condemn in no uncertain terms this shameful call for the spill of blood of innocent Nigerians to acquire political power.

“We appreciate Buhari’s frustration and antagonism towards the PDP. He has lost three times at the polls. But is Buhari really a democrat? Why is the blood of innocent Nigerians the only thing sufficient to quench his thirst for power? What Nigeria needs right now is ‘evolution’ in the true spirit of democracy.”

The tongue lashing of the Daura-born General was not left to the PDP alone as the Presidency in a scathing dismissal said that the former Head of State had, through his assertions, reduced himself to a regional leader.

Reacting through the Special Adviser to the President on Media, Dr. Reuben Abati, the presidency noted that Buhari even as a presidential candidate consistently showed himself as a divisive person who did not even campaign in the south, adding,

But perhaps the most unfortunate part of the statement was the portion in which Buhari said that, “Since the leaders now don’t listen to anybody but do whatever they wish, there is nothing the north can do”. We find it very sad that an elder statesman who once presided over the entirety of Nigeria can reduce himself to a regional leader who speaks for only a part of Nigeria.

“Come to think of it, as the CPC presidential candidate in the 2011 election, how many states in the Federation did he visit to campaign for votes? Buhari never bothered to campaign in the southern part of the country and consistently played up the North-South divide to the chagrin of patriotic and well-meaning Nigerians. As the results revealed, Nigerians will never vote for anyone who wants to divide the country. Is Buhari going to continue to be a sectional leader?”

On Buhari’s allegation that the Jonathan administration is the biggest Boko Haram, the Presidential spokesperson said, “The Federal Government led by President Jonathan is not Boko Haram.”

In a chat with the presidential spokesman, Sunday Vanguard was made to understand that the matter has been “pushed behind us.  We are focused on the development and the stability of this nation and not with people making provocative statements”.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that part of the reasons why the former head of state has not been arrested “is because there are security reports suggesting that part of the grand agenda is to provoke the presidency to cause him to be arrested based on his inflammatory statements and then provoke further violence in the country, particularly in the North.  That would never be”, a source inside Aso Rock Presidential Villa disclosed.

The Festival of attacks was not left for those who were not on the side of Buhari as he also got support from his party.

Responding to attacks from the PDP and the Presidency, CPC immediately threw its weight behind Buhari, with the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Engr. Rotimi Fashakin, insisting that General Buhari was only reiterating what many Nigerians had been saying for long, adding, “they are merely talking balderdash; what General Buhari has said is what many Nigerians have expressed . Remember Professor Wole Soyinka had said election rigging is violence against people and that they have the right to confront violence with greater violence”.

Fashakin who alleged that the PDP connived with INEC to rig the 2011 general election said it would not be business as usual in 2015.  “There must be sanctity of votes of Nigerian electorate. What Buhari was trying to say is that, it would not be business as usual. So, only the guilty should be afraid of retribution. It is certain that retribution is coming. So, why should PDP be afraid”?

Support also came from the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, where the National Publicity Secretary, Anthony A.Z. Sani said that Buhari’s comments were nothing new against the backdrop that many eminent Nigerians including former President Olusegun Obasanjo had also inferred as such.

According to him, “Buhari has not said anything that has not been said before. What people are saying is that he should not have said it because he has mass appeal among the people.”

For the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, the call from Buhari was only for the enthronement of a transparent election process.

According to CNPP’s Publicity Secretary, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, “The problem on ground now is due to the fact that many of those holding elective positions were not elected by the people, in actual fact. Therefore they don’t have any sense of accountability and responsibility towards the people.”

Buhari also got the support of Action Congress of Nigeria, CAN, which chided the Jonathan administration for launching a personal attack on the former Head of state for simply giving a valid warning against election rigging.

According to the ACN, attacks against Buhari were reflective of the determination of the ruling administration to use the instrument of power to return itself to power come 2015.

But a new twist was to be introduced when Buhari dared President Jonathan to arrest him if he could.

Buhari, speaking through his close political associate and National Secretary of the CPC, Alhaji Buba Galadima, said even former President Olusegun Obasanjo dared not arrest him.  “Let them go and pick him as their mentors are now advising them to”, he said, adding: “If Obasanjo cannot arrest Buhari, I want Jonathan to do it if he can try it because they are hiring people all over the North to be talking for them because they can pay them money.

They are picking on the General because it is him they are afraid of and because once you take away rigging, they are gone; but they have forgotten that their master, Obasanjo was the first to talk of do or die, do or die means blood, if you don’t do what I want I will kill you, that is what he said.  The issue is very simple, if you are not a thief why should you be afraid if they say whoever steals should be killed? That is why they are afraid.”