Doyin Okupe is about the oldest person in the Nigerian presidency. He is older than President Goodluck Jonathan, he is older than Vice President Muhammed Namadi Sambo and he is older than more than a dozen of the Ministers. But he remains the most vulgar and less tempered of all. Until recently you may say.
Less we forget, Okupe it was who opened the floodgate of abusive language by his insistence that he should be called a bastard if the alliance that resulted in the formation of All Progressive Congress (APC) lasted beyond 6 months. The alliance has not only survive beyond that, the party has become a formidable force to be reckoned with. Still we don’t know if Okupe would love an appendage of “bastard” to his name.
Since that pronouncement, so much inventive and tantrums has been thrown around. From the Okupes to the Fani-Kayodes to the Makuns, from the “Kindagaten President” to the “half literate jackboot” to all sorts of name callings, warts and all.
This name callings especially with the beginning of campaigns as against issues prompted respected elder statesmen, media editorials and commentaries to ask for the signing of a peace pact referred to by some as “Abuja Accord” among and between candidates.
But since the signing of that accord, you can accuse APC supporters on the street and on the social media of not doing much to respect the pact. But definitely not the party bigwigs, officials and candidates. This much, unfortunately can’t be said about the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
While the President has called a senior citizen a ‘motor park tout’, some within his campaign group down to party bigwigs and official have respected the pact more in breach. From General Muhammadu Buhari’s certificate brouhaha as if he is contesting for the same position the first time, to a fake medical report allegedly from Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Zaria. While Buhari has denied visiting ABUTH in the last five years, the hospital authorities have also denied the fake report and the writer.
But you would have thought it may end there. How would elders and people in leadership positions tout a 72 year old man to lace his boot and go run round a stadium to prove how healthy he is. It so petty and many would say it smacks of desperation on the path of the ruling party. This is in addition to buying pages of newspapers to place adverts of campaigns of calumny that are full of negative messages.
If the preceding ones were just hates messages directed at Buhari and meant to win votes for Jonathan, the opposite is so far being achieved because for any allegation raised against the General, torrents of facts and figures are supplied by other Nigerians and aliens to rubbish the allegations. But instead of discouraging these foot soldiers of fortune or misfortune, they seem to have re-girdled their efforts to throw dark paints on not just General Buhari but the most populous state in Nigeria, the political region with the highest number of registered voters, the north and by extension incite the whole nation to political violence.
If this is not the motive, how does one explain the rational behind the death wish for General Buhari by a sitting Governor of a state like Ekiti that boasts of Professors in virtually every household and published by no less national dailies like the Punch, Guardian among other Newspapers strategically on its most prominent page; the cover.
The provocative and inciting “campaign for Jonathan” by Governor Ayo Fayose took the wind out of the sail for many a Jonathan hounds by practically wishing death on General Muhammad Buhari while at the same time placing the pictures of late Generals Murtala Muhammed, Sani Abacha, Umaru Musa Yar’adua who all died in office and that of Buhari with a question mark. It was titled “Nigerians Be Warned” and started with a quote from the book of Deuteronomy in the Bible talking about life and death.
All the three former Nigerian Head of States listed by Fayose were from the Northwestern part of Nigeria, who have died tragically in office; Murtala and Abacha from Kano and Yar’adua from Katsina State.
This advert like I said earlier followed several moves by the people around President Jonathan to concoct a prostrate cancer diagnosis on Buhari. They went as far as concocting a laboratory report claiming Buhari had been diagnosed with prostate cancer at the ABUTH. The hospital as so far denied the report and the writer.
Many, including Buhari has called the moves desperation on the part of the President and his handlers. Reacting through his official twitter handle @ThisIsBuhari, the General said he has never made refference to Jonathan’s family, health, academic records but rather issues that affect Nigerians and on the records of their (Buhari and Jonathan) times in office.
But many may see it as a means of inciting Nigerians to political violence by Fayose, especially Northerners and specifically North Westerners. Otherwise why exclude General Aguiyi Ironsi who died in office in a similar circumstance with Murtala? Does it have anything to do with the fact that the North West has the highest number of registered voters? Or is it a ploy to also instigate the Yorubas who are Murtala’s in-laws and who still have lot of Murtalas in their genes by the fact that some of Murtala’s children are married to Yorubas?
Does Fayose and his ilk plan to re-visit the gruesome pain northerners nay Nigerians were made to endure by the gruesome murder of Murtala, the slow but painful death of Yar’adua or the Abacha family to re-play the suspicious circumstance of their patriarch’s death?
Of cause like the Murtalas, the Abachas have a spread to the Shuwa Arabs, Kanuris and Baburs of the North East. Is it another ploy to worsen their situation there by instigating them to violence?
The same Jonathan who Fayose made this obnoxious publication in support of, would not even have been where he is today if late Yar’adua had not agreed to tagged him along as a running mate in 2007. So if Yar’adua had not died in office, today there would not have been a Jonathan for Fayose to sponsor such callous and inhuman publication in support of. So does Yar’adua’s memory need to be ridiculed in such manner or respected by the same Jonathan supporters?
And to cap it up, Murtala’s son Abba is not just a card carrying member of the same PDP, same with Abacha’s son Muhammed. But they have been aspirants and active members of the party. Talk less of Yar’adua who died as a President on the platform of the party. Yet, it doesn’t occur to Fayose that ridiculing these people is ridiculing the PDP.
Such acts as this often call to question if the likes of Fayose are fit to be leaders even at family level. Talk less of at community, Local government, state or national level. How rational and psychologically sound is anyone who would think of ridiculing national leaders who paid the supreme price in the service of their fatherland?
Above all, does Fayose know something about the deaths of these leaders that we are not aware of? Is Fayose saying if and when Buhari wins and gets to office, the General will die in office? What will kill him and through what circumstance? The security agents will do Nigerians a great deal of good to ensure Fayose provides answers to these questions.
Nigeria is greater than any individual or group. And politicians without national outlook, who could barely see beyond their noses should not be allowed to draw us down to their incongruous ways and far below par mannerism. Let the altruism of some people not be taken for stupidity. Men of goodwill across the nation should reign in Fayose fast, ensure he does not infects the nation with his crude and lethal form of Ado Ekiti politics in the interest of majority of Nigerians.
Death and life is in the hands of the maker. Same with health and sickness. Only God knows who will bear what and when; not the desperate political Fayoses of this clime. It is time for President Jonathan to call his hounds such as Fayose et al to order. For, there will be Nigeria and many more Nigerians long after Jonathan. God save us from enemies of Nigeria masquerading as leaders.
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