If there was any doubt about the motive behind some actions of President Muhammadu Buhari, it was cleared in the recent interview he granted Arise Television. In that interview, he made his undiluted love for his people abundantly clear. In the light of this, therefore, I wish to make a special appeal to the Fulani people of Nigeria. 
To understand the reasons for my appeal, it is imperative to first appreciate this statement: “I spoke to one French man and I had to tell him this. He spoke nonsense and I told him, Look, in 1885, you sat down and drew lines (boundaries). I said I have first cousins in Niger. There are Kanuris, there are Hausas, there are Fulanis in Niger Republic, just as there are Yorubas in Benin. You can’t absolutely cut them off.”
That was our President defending his decision to construct billions of dollars-worth of railways and roads extending into Niger Republic.
The roads and railways will most likely complement the porous border through which some criminal herdsmen enter our country. These herdsmen have dealt a terrible blow to our farmers such that serious food scarcity looms. They have dealt with travellers such that most people now dread to travel by road. They have made banditry a very lucrative business and some forests their veritable abode.
Buhari’s expression of love for his people did not start today. The media is agog with his past statements, which depict that strong bond. For instance, in 2000, he reportedly led a delegation to ex-Governor Lam Adesina of Oyo State to protest against the alleged killing of some herdsmen in Oke Ogun area of the state. The angry Buhari was said to have accused Lam and the government of Oyo State of complicity in the alleged killings. It later turned out during the meeting that it was even the Fulani that were killing the natives the more. In the words of a former chief press secretary to Lam, Kehinde Olaosebikan, “Buhari and his team did not wait for any refreshments. They came in angry and left bewildered.”
In 2013, Buhari was also reported to have faulted the Federal Government’s clampdown on Boko Haram. He accused the then government of killing the insurgents while giving the Niger Delta militants special treatment. In July last year, over 600 of these repentant Boko Haram terrorists were reintegrated into society. They were even given some N20,000 stipend each and some basic equipment to practise their vocations.
Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong for one to love one’s people. After all, charity, they say, begins at home. But everything is wrong when that love inflicts injuries, physical or psychological, on other people. A leader in a multi-ethnic country like Nigeria must weigh his words and actions to avoid creating unnecessary tension. He needs to show some balance in appointments to achieve equity, fairness, unity and peace in the polity. The framers of the Nigerian Constitution recognize this fact, and this prompted them to insert such clauses as the federal character principle in the constitution.
Has Buhari respected this principle? He believes he has and claims his appointments are based on merit and in accordance with the Constitution. But he violated Section 217 (3) of the Constitution, which provides that the composition of the officer corps and other ranks of the armed forces of the federation shall reflect the federal character of Nigeria. According to him, he appointed the new Chief of Army Staff, Major-General Farouk Yahaha, because of his experience in fighting Boko Haram. Does this now mean that only the North-East and North-West, which largely control the top echelon of Nigeria’s security architecture, have experienced generals? Does it mean that none of the scores of generals who are senior to Yahaya is competent to hold the position? Does it also mean that the South-East region does not have the capacity to produce competent generals who will go beyond being spokesmen of the army?
To further buttress his claims, Buhari reminded the southern governors, who banned open grazing recently, that there was a gazette, which made provisions for cattle routes and open grazing areas. His administration, he noted, would reinstate cattle routes and grazing areas across the country.
No doubt, the President’s utterances and actions depict someone who doesn’t care a hoot about the feelings of other ethnic nationalities. The Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, rightly described him as an unrepentant tribalist whose outbursts showed utter disrespect for ethnic nationalities and elected governors.
Look at the disdainful way he described Igbo people in his infamous interview. Some people say it was the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) that he addressed. Yes, he specifically mentioned IPOB. But note that words have connotative and denotative meanings. Connotatively, Mr. President did not just refer to IPOB; he shot his arrows at the entire Igbo race. He couldn’t have meant just IPOB when he said the group was a dot in a circle that had no access to anywhere, that it’s “spread all over the country, having businesses and properties.”
Apparently to woo the South-South region, he said both the elderly people and youths of South-South had assured him that they would not be part of secession. Are these South-South youths not part of those he asked to behave themselves and make sure Nigeria was secured, if they wanted jobs?
In one of my recent interventions on this page, I did state that Buhari was rigid. I have since discovered that, no matter how loud we shout or wail, we are on our own. Now, the remaining two years of this administration appears too far. Let’s pray we survive it.
Nevertheless, most strong and rigid men have their weak points. With all his strength and braggadocio, the biblical Sampson fell into the hands of a woman, Delilah. I am not sure Aisha can tame her husband in the other room. But this is where the entire Fulani, especially the ones from Niger Republic, come in.
My appeal to them is to intervene and ensure that Nigeria entrenches the ideal of an egalitarian society. I say this knowing that there are many good Fulani around. The late President Umaru Yar’Adua, for instance, was Fulani. But he brought peace to the then restive Niger Delta region through his nationalistic actions and policies.
Besides, no matter how rigid a father is, he cannot willingly give his beloved son scorpion if he asks for fish. The love Buhari has for his people will melt his heart, if they approach him and ask him to halt the killings and abductions in different parts of Nigeria and to consider other zones in his appointments for the sake of equity and peace. This appeal will bear more fruits if the firebrand national president of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Bello Bodejo, is among the delegation that will visit the President.
We shall overcome someday. Happy democracy holiday!
Re: Buhari’s Biafra/Twitter war
Dear Casmir, as President Buhari openly and clearly stated, it is possible that he did not know anything about the ban of Twitter in Nigeria, until Nigerians and the civilised world started hollering. Possibly, it was Lai Mohammed and Mallam Garba Shehu, who ostensibly see themselves and act as the “de-facto President of Nigeria”, that thought out, designed and announced the useless and ineffective ban on Twitter, thinking that the multinational organisation is part of their conquered Nigeria and Nigerians. Nigeria’s history is recording horrible things about the three “patriots” of Buhari, Lai Mohammed and Garba Shehu. We shall see.
-Dr. Chuka Nwosu, Port Harcourt, 08085914645.
President Buhari is saddened by Twitter’s rebuke of the use of its space for display of deep-seated animosity or hate speech. It is Buhari’s personal war which should not be used to foreclose others’ right of access to or receipt of information. Donald Trump gained an unusual notoriety through his belligerent tweets, and was similarly sanctioned by Twitter before he would plunge us into a Third World War. America now undergoes a rebuilding and healing process.
-Edet Essien, Cal. South, +2348037952470
You lbos are hypocrites. Where were you when the misguided element called Nnamdi Kalu and his boys are killing security agents, burning critical govt institutions? None of you condemned it. Now Buhari said he would teach the criminals in the language they understand (force), you are now complaining. Hypocrite! Any child that says his mother will not sleep, he will not sleep also.
-Anonymous, +2348082059403
Dear Cas, Buhari’s war with Twitter has exposed the low esteem of APC-led Federal Government. They wasted four years blaming Goodluck Jonathan and now they are blaming social media instead of facing governance and lifting over 80 million Nigerians they threw into poverty. The biggest enemy of this Government is Buhari himself. Malami, Lai Mohammed and Garuba Shehu are busy chocking the unity of this country. Lest they forget, nothing lasts forever. Eight years is all they got.
-Tobias Igbokwe, +2348064067302
Dear Casy, the situation in Nigeria under this dispensation can be likened to a polygamist with hatred against one of his wives. When the hatred attains a crescendo, it extends to the kids of the hated wife. Whatever the said kids do, no matter how reasonable, would be viewed with same hatred and subjected to maltreatment while the loved wife and kids have swell time. However, when Divinity takes strongly to the ill-treatment, He begins by ear-blocking the man with hubris or bloated ego like the biblical Pharaoh such that instead of retreating in response to the Divine drumbeat, he forges ahead with swagger, especially when goaded on by sycophants who service their stomach infrastructure by perching on him. Let the polygamist, hereinafter the President, delete the hatred from his subconscious, free himself from the grip thereof and make a good husband and father with equity.
-Steve Okoye, Awka, 08036630731
Twitter ban or suspension is not Nigeria’s problem. What Nigerians need today are security, good governance and food. They should not use twitter face-off to divert attention because things are not working as it’s supposed to be.
-Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia, +2348062887535
Dear Casy, Buhari’s Biafra, twitter war was misguided and mischievous. Now, who invited armed Fulani from Sahel region into Nigeria to kill other indigenous ethnic Nigerians and grab their ancestral lands? Today, all over 36 states the Fulani murderers have taken over their farmlands and villages. Buhari has fulanised the Nigerian government and the security forces.
-Eze Chima C. Lagos, +2347036225495
Casmir, APC-led government presided over by Buhari is a failure in every fair judgement. Infrastructure, human development, rule of law, international relations, job employment/job security, freedom of speech, freedom of movement and just recently freedom of information. Most of the officials are hypocrites who decide to tell the President the lies to intoxicate him. The president doesn’t want any opposition and to keep their juicy offices they prefer to play along with him. Buhari and his government are the problems of Nigeria.
-Pharm. Okwuchukwu Njike, +234 803 885 4922
Dear Casmir, a leader ought to be ready to be the most abused person in his constituency. Christ experienced that and same with the clergy and clerics of our time. According to Thomas Jefferson, “better have a press without government than government without press”.
– Cletus Frenchman, Enugu, +234 909 538 5215