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Godwin Etakibuebu
President Muhammadu Buhari, being a man with distinguished military career; a career that saw him in many battles and probably in one war, should know much about how to terminate lives – using gun and bullet. Obviously, if his rumoured exploits in war matters were properly reported he would have killed a few number of people [enemies anyway] in the past. And he would have carried out the killing with gun and bullet. This means that the retired two-star General knows that sticks don’t kill people but gun does.
On Monday, April 30, President Buhari told President Donald Trump in the White House that “Nigerian herdsmen don’t carry AK 47s”, adding that “they only use sticks”. He explained further. “The problem of herders in Nigeria is a very long historical thing. The Nigerian herders don’t carry anything more than a stick and occasionally a matchet [cutlass] to cut down foliage and give it to their animals, these ones are carrying AK-47,”
He said this in reply to a stern warning the American President gave to him about the uncontrollable killing of Christians in Nigeria by Fulani herdsmen. Though the Yankee did not mention Fulani Herdsmen, he had said: “We’ve had serious problems with Christians who have been murdered, killed in Nigeria. We’re going to work on that problem and work on that problem very, very hard, because we can’t allow that to happen”.
In the first place, President Trump did not accuse Fulani for killing Christians in Nigeria neither did he mention Herdsmen of doing the dirty work. All he said was that killing of Christians in Nigeria must stop henceforth because he categorized it as unacceptable situation. “We’re going to work on that problem and work on that problem very, very hard, because we can’t allow that to happen”, he emphasized.
We can now see that the word “Herdsmen” that came into the discussion; without mentioning Fulani though was President Buhari’s creation. This not to say that President Trump did not know that Fulani Herdsmen are behind the massive killing of Christians in Nigeria in order to bring to accomplishment a Jihad agenda. Of course, he knows but perfect display of the game of diplomacy stopped him from mentioning the killers as Fulani Herdsmen. President Buhari however completed the assignment by bringing the name of his brothers; the herdsmen [without mentioning Fulani anyway but that does not make much difference] in.
We shall first of all look at his defense of the Nigerian Fulani Herdsmen when he said vehemently and categorically that “the Nigerian herders don’t carry anything more than a stick and matchet to cut down foliage and give it to their animals and they don’t carry AK 47” in order to know how economical with the truth our President can become when he finds himself in a very tight corner like the one he found himself when he was with Donald Trump in America. We shall thereafter look at the regimented character of Buhari who would never defend Nigerians under any circumstances, youths inclusive, but suddenly seen defending the Fulani herdsmen pathologically. We need to know what made the difference in this manner.
“Don’t allow Christians to be killed anymore in Nigeria” was all Donald Trump seemed to have told Muhammadu Buhari. In reply to that simple admonition, Buhari launched into a monologue of inadvertently identifying the killers and defending them stoutly. Why would he do that? Exigency of hypocrisy places a demand on Mr President to do what he did for many reasons. We can only fathom but a few in this exercise.
One, it is not in the character of Buhari to defend Nigerians or say something good about them [Nigerians] whenever he travels outside the shore of this country. Each time he is out of Nigeria gives him opportunity to tell the world how corrupt Nigerians are. He would always announce to the world that Nigerians are thieves, rogues, scammers, unfaithful, unproductive, people that are dishonest and that Nigerians are all Master Degree holders in all vices of life and most importantly they [Nigerians] are people that are doomed to evil in the game of stealing.
Just a few days ago while attending the Common Wealth Conference in London, Buhari descended as far as saying that “Nigerian Youths are lazy, looking for cheapish oil money to enjoy”. That became the height of his character in bastardising Nigerians, presenting them as no good. For any person in the whole world; who knows Nigerian Youth’s enterprising spirit and resources, forgiving Buhari for the desperation of his country’s youth can never be issue for negotiation.
It is in the character of our President; Muhammadu Buhari, not to see anything good in Nigerians once the man is outside this country. He is so obsessed with this character that he; Muhammadu Buhari, is the only Nigerian that is not corrupt and therefore being the only living Saint waiting to be beautified or decorated by the Roman Catholic Pope. Let me quickly add here, though with a little deviation, that it is for this his character of not seeing anything good in Nigerians that he has succeeded scaring would-have-been-investors away from Nigeria. Come to think of it, who is that prosperous foreign businessman that wants to go to a country of thieves and corrupt to invest his money? Let us leave this topic for another day and place.
Then suddenly, this man with penchant habit of categorizing every Nigerian as evil and corrupt, rising vigorously in defense of “killers” of Nigerian Christians in Washington DC, during a discussion with that country’s president is suspect. Obviously, something suspiciously is fishing. I did not say “was” fishing but I said instead, “is fishing”. In the first place, President Trump spoke of the “ACT” and not the “ACTOR” but President Buhari instead defined the “ACTOR” without talking about the “ACT”. It is at this juncture that conspiracy of connivance and arrogance of ignorance collided. I will explain.
Buhari, having defended the Fulani herdsmen as not capable of carrying AK 47s, proceeded further to lecturing Donald Trump about what Muammar Gaddafie “was” doing in Nigeria through the deadly invasion with killer-guns of the AK 47 caliber, and what he [this terrible man from Libya] might still do in Nigeria in the nearest future. We should not forget that this was his line of presentation when he met with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Jusin Weiby, on Wednesday, April 11, 2018, in London.
He told Donald Trump the same story of a man [Muammar Gaddafie] who died 7 years ago, as being responsible for “killing of Christians” in Nigeria. Of course, our dear President, being the only one man on earth that believed the story, passed the test mark of ignorance. While President Buhari would have congratulated himself for a subject well-delivered [on this Muammar Gaddafi’s involvement in Nigeria] President Trump must have laughed his brain out for the same subject. Enough of this as we must move quickly to another point.
On the other hand, President Buhari knows that “sticks” don’t kill but gun does. I should be a faithful witness testifying to the fact that he [my President] has not seen any of those killed by the herdsmen; and nobody should accuse him of negligence on that because it is not the duty of presidents going about counting dead bodies, but he knew through the report he got that the victim of Fulani herdsmen all over Nigeria were killed by guns. He could only have feigned “ignorance” to Trump that he did not know that the killers are fully armed with AK 47 and enough ammunition to run a small country like Togo over in few hours. This is where conspiracy of connivance played out.
Lastly, by defending the herdsmen as not carrying AK 47, as astutely as President Buhari did in America, the message has been sent forward that the government of the day; which he leads, is not ready to put an end to the massacre and that the cleansing of a particular people remains a routine daily operation in Nigeria until God intervenes. That remains the sad fact this Buhari’s American tour revealed.
The Governor of Taraba State, Architect Darius Ishaku, while speaking in Abuja over the weekend saw the President presentation in America as misleading. Look at what he said: “It’s absolutely wrong for the President to say herdsmen don’t move around with guns. I mean, who then kills who? It couldn’t have been imaginary that people have been killed with AK-47 in the farmers-herdsmen clashes. We simply have to stand up to the truth and do something to stop the killings.” Did this comment not say it all?
Such ridiculous lie needs not to be told by President Buhari because his record as a befitting soldier that fought battles is there in America and President Trump has it at his disposal. That record is concrete enough to remain everlasting evidence that President Muhammadu Buhari is not yet ready to put an end to the killing in Nigeria hence his “fact presentation on STICKS as instrument of war in Nigeria as against AK 47”. The lie is not necessary Sir.
Godwin Etakibuebu, a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.