Buhari, apologies and his identical twin brother (1)

It was with complete “sang froid” that President Muhammadu Buhari (Retired General) now the Commander-In-Chief of The Armed Forces of Nigeria faced down Prime Minister David Cameron (ex-Eton College and Oxford University) that he was not in London to collect an apology (whether or not one was on offer) regarding the slagging off of Nigeria as “fantastically corrupt” by Cameron in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with the Archbishop of Canterbury The Rt. Revd. Justin Welby as a witness who was sufficiently provoked to at least make an intercession.  In any case it was Julian Assange of Wikileaks and Edward Snowden who took up the gauntlet on our behalf:

Being in the presence of Her Majesty, the Queen and His Holiness, the Archbishop –perhaps, in obeisance to God, symbolised by the priest and country, embodied by the crown -the PM must have let down his guards and was therefore oblivious of the omnipresence of cameras.
We became outraged at the insolence as l believe our no-nonsense President, Muhammadu  Buhari, would have felt deeply embarrassed by such an undeserved  negative characterisation.

Although the affable archbishop managed to deflect a bit of the damage, by chipping in a few good words-that Buhari is not corrupt-what happened in the Buckingham Palace smacks of the typical British duplicity-a smiling face when you are looking and sneering behind your back.

How could the British PM  lump Nigeria, which is rated no 136 together with Afghanistan rated 166-just one step ahead of Somalia, a joint last, with North Korea, on the list of Transparency International corruption index?

It is simply because of the “fantastic” amounts of money claimed to have been stolen by the previous government, that the current rulers have been bandying around to score cheap political points, but to the detriment of Nigeria and Nigerians.

So, what Cameron simply did was to interchange Somalia which is at the bottom of the list with Nigeria, since Nigerian officials themselves, through glib talk, have been racking up muck and in the process rating their country worse than TI’s valuation.”

Unknown to the generality of the public both Julian Assange of Wikileaks and Edward Snowden (ex-CIA consultant) have been strutting up and down Oxford Street, London shopping madly disguised as Nigerians.

Both of them claim that it was the hostility of the British press, with “The Mail On Sunday” newspaper at the head of the pack that prompted them to weigh in on the side of President Buhari and Nigeria.

On its front page of 8th May 2016, the paper had carried the following headline:

“Luxurious mansions owned by some Nigerians, including those standing trial for corruption, in the United Kingdom, have been exposed.

In a report entitled: ‘Palaces of Corruption’, The Mail on Sunday, published pictures and locations of houses belonging to two late former governors, who faced graft charges in their lifetime.

They are Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who governed Bayelsa State between 1999 and 2005, and AbubakarAudu, two-term governor of Kogi State, who was seeking a return to the government house at the time of his death. Both men died in 2015.

The property of James Ibori, former Delta State governor, who is currently serving a jail term, was also included in the report, in addition to that of Jimoh Ibrahim, lawyer and billionaire businessman. Ibrahim, though not a politician and has never been investigated for corruption, is believed to be heavily indebted to the banks.

Nigerians were not the only ones listed in the report.

The children of Muammar Gaddafi, Libyan dictator; Omar Bongo, late president of Gabon; Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s leader; and Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Kyrgyzstan president, were also included.

“Properties bought with dirty money often sit empty for long periods. Those living nearby have no idea who their neighbours are, undermining any sense of community. Most importantly, those properties are taken off the market, further squeezing housing supply,” the report read.

Nigerians are known to have properties in choice locations across the world.”

Several media outlets also carried negative stories which claimed that the officials and people around the President are afraid of him and petrified to run afoul of his “body language”.  Consequently, he was being poorly served.

In an exclusive interview with Christine Amanpour, CNN’s senior international correspondent, President Buhari has spoken about the controversial comment. President Buhari said; “I think he (David Cameron) is being honest about it. He is talking about what he knows about the two of us, Afghanistan and Nigeria and by what we are doing in Nigeria by the day. I don’t think you can fault him. I hope he did not address the press. He said it privately and somehow we got to know it, ” he said, adding that his main focus is to fight corruption and not to merely talk about it.

Speaking on the missing Chibok girls, President Buhari said he had not seen the clip that was released by CNN last month that showed some of the girls in hiding. He added that even if he had seen the clip, he would not show it to the parents of the missing Chibok girls.

“How can we show it to them when we don’t know where they are? If we know where they are then we can organize to secure them. If they are divided into 5, 10 groups all over the region, there’s no way we can spontaneously and simultaneously attack all those locations. The important thing is to get them alive,” he said.

 

J.K. Randle