Article by Femi Fani-Kayode
''Aside the 105 soldiers killed by Boko Haram, additional 34 soldiers were killed 2 days ago but it wasn't in the news''- Deji Adeyanju. I concur with Mr. Deji Adeyanju. The most heartless and reprehensible thing that our government could have done is to cover-up the fact that 105 of our soldiers were killed by Boko Haram a few days ago. To do such a thing is simply evil.
A
soldier ought to be honored in death and this is especially so if he
dies in the course of doing his duty and fighting for his nation.
The
government has not only dishonored them by not acknowledging their
sacrifice but they have also buried them in the wilderness like rabid
dogs.
This
is wickedness of the highest order and President Buhari, his Chief of
Army Staff and his Minister of Defense should bury their heads in shame.
Anyone
that buys the lie and propaganda that the 105 soldiers never died and
that they are still alive is a compound fool or village idiot.
Will
the military also deny the fact that a few days ago 34 of our soldiers
were killed by Boko Haram? These boys died for their country. Why deny
them?
I
am outraged by the fact that a soldier will sacrifice his life for his
country yet the citizens and authorities of that country don't even
appreciate it.
Pictures
of the dead bodies were posted on social media. Everyone in the
military knows that those soldiers are dead. It is an open secret. Yet
because government denies it so many people just choose to believe them.
The
truth is that Boko Haram must have used chemical weapons in the
attack.When you look at the pictures of the dead bodies this is obvious.
It was probably mustard gas.
All we want from the military is the truth. If 105 soldiers were not killed then how many actually were?
The whole episode happened last week in Borno state and the military authorities are denying it. I am sickened by that.
If
others cannot appreciate the importance of honoring our dead soldiers, I
can. I will not be intimidated and I will not remain silent.
Tell
us where our boys are buried and if you refuse to do so we will keep
asking. There must be accountability and respect for those that have
made the supreme sacrifice just to keep the rest of us safe. Our
soldiers deserve that much.
Finally
let it be said loud and clear that since President Buhari came to power
he has not bought one bullet for the military. Considering the fact
that we are in the middle of a protracted and very bloody war I believe
that this is utterly shameful. If you say you want to fight and defeat
Boko Haram then why are you not buying arms for your troops?
This brings me to other matters and raises other questions about our President's sincerity of purposes and commitment.
You
say that you are fighting Boko Haram yet you are travelling the world
drinking tea with world leaders whilst your soldiers are secretly being
slaughtered.
You
say you are fighting Boko Haram yet you were nominated as their
spokesman and chief negotiator 2 years ago in proposed peace talks with
the Federal Government.
You
say you are fighting Boko Haram but the man you appointed as your
National Security Adviser was retired from the army a few years ago for
ordering the release of Boko Haram terrorists under suspicious
circumstances.
You
say you are fighting Boko Haram but the first thing you did when u came
to power was to remove military checkpoints.This guaranteed Boko Haram
free movement and access to the entire country.
You say you are fighting Boko Haram yet last year you told the world that an attack on Boko Haram is an attack on the north.
You
say you are fighting terror yet since you came to power Boko Haram has
grown in strength, has regained lost territory and has been declared the
''worlds number one most deadly terror group'' by the Global Terror
Index.
You
say you are fighting terror yet since you came to power Nigeria,
according to the Global Terror Index, has been declared as not just
having ''the first most deadly terror group in the world'' which is Boko
Haram but also of having ''the fourth most deadly terror group in the
world'' which is a group that the Index describe as the ''Fulani
militants'' and that we call the Fulani herdsmen.
You
say you are fighting Boko Haram yet since you came to power Nigeria has
been declared the world's ''third most terrorised country'' by the
Global Terror Index after Iraq and Afghanistan which were declared first
and second respectively whilst Syria and Pakistan were declared fourth
and fifth.
You
say you are a ''born again democrat'' yet you voted against the
protection of human rights at the United Nations alongside Iran,
Zimbabwe and North Korea.
You
say you respect human rights yet you barricade Colonel Sambo Dasuki,
the former National Security Adviser, in his home, endanger his life,
deny him medical attention, flout court orders and make him critically
ill.
You
say you respect human rights yet you arrest Governor Boni Haruna simply
for standing as surety for Dasuki and you try to force him to abandon
his friend.
You
say you respect human rights yet you raid Governor Attahiru Bafarawa's
home and arrest and detain his son simply because he is friends with
Dasuki.
You
say you respect freedom of speech and human rights yet you lock up
Nnamdi Kanu indefinitely and your security agents shoot two unarmed and
harmless pro-Biafra youths to death in Enugu simply because they were
involved in a peaceful demonstration.
You
say that you are a believer in the rule of law yet you ordered your
secret police to storm a sitting governors official home in Akwa Ibom
knowing that he enjoys immunity from such matters.
You
say you love Nigeria yet a bomb goes off in Kano killing over 21 people
and instead of coming back home to mourn with your people you continue
junketing around the world.
You
say you know how to run Nigeria but according to Paul Wallace and
Michael Cohen of the United States magazine known as Bloomberg Business
your ''bounce has become bust'', your ''policies irk investors'', you
have ''destroyed Nigeria's economy'' and you ''do not have the capacity
to move the country forward''.
You
say that you know how to manage the economy yet stocks and shares have
crashed, small businesses are folding up, our foreign currency has dried
up, industries are collapsing, agricultural output has decreased, our
foreign reserves have been spent and the value of the naira has
depreciated since you came to power and it continues to fall.
You
say you know what you are doing and how to manage Nigeria's affairs yet
the U.S,-based Washington Times newspaper says that you lied to America
about your so-called good intentions for Nigeria and that you have
''duped the United States of America'' with your false promises and
empty words.
You
say that you are fighting poverty yet according to the Business Day
Newspaper Nigerians are ''getting poorer for the first time since
1999''.
You
say that you will restore our countries fortunes yet the fuel queues
are back and the prices of food, transport and basic commodities are
soaring by the day.
You
say that you are a man of your word and after you were declared winner
of the election you promised not to malign, persecute, witchunt,
demonize, disrespect or go after President Goodluck Jonathan and members
of his administration unless you had concrete evidence of wrongdoing
yet when you came to power you did precisely that.
You
say you are fair-minded, true to your friends, loyal to your supporters
and always reasonable yet you did not concede even one ministerial slot
or approve one ministerial nominee of the two men that helped you more
than any others to win the presidential election, namely President
Olusegun Obasanjo and Governor Bola Tinubu.
You
say that you want the country to change, that you believe in fairness
and equity, that you are a progressive, that you believe in a
generational powershift and that you want the country to move forward
yet you are trying to destroy Governor Bukola Saraki simply because he
won an election and became Senate President.
You
say that you are fighting corruption yet no-one has been made to face
the music or brought to book over the 25 billion naira REMITA and
Systemspecs scandal and neither has the matter been clarified or
resolved even though it has been established that the whole deal was
struck under your watch.
You
say you love Nigeria and all Nigerians yet your Fulani kinsmen, under
the guise of herding cattle, are slaughtering thousands of innocent
people all over the south and Middle Belt, yet you remain their Grand
Patron and you refuse to utter to a word of condemnation for their
actions.
You
say you respect Nigerians yet every time you travel out of the country
you spend your time telling foreigners and the foreign media how
useless, rotten and corrupt your people are and how you are the only
saint in Nigeria.
In
view of all this I am constrained to ask whether President Muhammadu
Buhari has a conscience or is it that he has just lost touch with
reality? Everything that I said about him during the Presidential
campaign has been confirmed and in just six months he has betrayed the
trust and squandered the goodwill that the Nigerian people bestowed upon
him in the March presidential elections. I have to say that I am not
surprised by this because his ''change'' mantra was just an illusion.
May
God enable him to find the courage to retrace his steps before it is
too late and may the Lord deliver Nigeria from those that are around him
that fail to tell him the truth.
What
he and his APC failed to disclose to the Nigerian people during the
campaign is that what he meant by ''change'' was a change from light to
darkness. Sadly our people trusted him and now he has plunged our nation
into that darkness
I
gather that they call those of us that oppose President Buhari and that
are PDP supporters the ''wailing wailers''. That is an interesting
expression because by the time Buhari finishes with Nigeria I have
little doubt that the entire country will be wailing.
The
truth is that I would rather be a ''wailing wailer'' that posterity
vindicates than a ''lying liar'' or a ''howling howler'' who has lost
his way and who continues to have confidence in a man like Buhari and a
party like the APC that is hell bent on destroying our country and our
cherished democratic institutions with their Rambo-like insensitivity
and total ineptitude.
All
those ''lying liars'' and ''howling howlers'' that voted for President
Buhari should clap for themselves for the terrible mess our country is
now in. We will remember them in our prayers too.
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