Thank God that the arguments on whether President Muhammadu Buhari will seek a second term or not have been settled in the affirmative. He declared to the whole world last week at the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Executive Council (NEC) meeting that he will run for a second term in office. Now, we all know that Buhari may be a phenomenon that Nigeria will grapple with again from 2019 – 2024. Since it is a possibility, we all should guard our loins and be prepared for the eventualities – either positive or negative – of that decision.
Having completely known what Citizen Buhari stands for, judging by his actions and inactionetinyr scrus of the last three years or so, it becomes very easy to project what we will grapple with between 2019 and 2024. We do not have to visit necromancers or seers to tell us. God willing, next week, this column will try and go ahead of time into that pending administration and do a psycho analysis of what lies ahead of us.
However, on Wednesday last week, while meeting with Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, at the Abuja House in London, Buhari claimed that the marauding killer-herdsmen were trained by the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gadaffi.
That claim has elicited several commentaries, including uproar in the Senate. Since the herdsmen attack is a major issue to be interrogated in Nigeria today, the President’s comment cannot but be subjected to tougher scrutiny. Why did Buhari choose Gadaffi, a dead man who cannot reply, as object to demonize over the killings? Why choose a Libya which is a country without a government at the moment, to hang this governmental failure on? Didn’t government tell Nigerians early this year or so that ISIS had a hand in the herdsmen killing? Was Gaddafi also responsible for visible governmental failure to condemn the attacks? Did Gaddafi also get President Buhari to compare the dead in Taraba with the dead in Benue? Curious and curiouser, apologies to Olatunji Dare.