When he seized power, Buhari put Shagari, the
Northern head of state he overthrew, under house
arrest. But then he jailed Alex Ekwueme, the
Southern vice-president. You may well ask what
makes Shagari less culpable for the misdeeds of
the Second Republic than his number-two man.
The simple fact was that Buhari was Fulani as was
Shagari; but Ekwueme was Igbo.
IMPOLITIC WORDS
At the height of the Sharia debate during the
Obasanjo administration, Buhari declared that
Muslims should vote only for fellow Muslims. This
was politically suicidal for a man seeking national
office. He became an advocate for implementation
of Sharia all over Nigeria. He protested to the Oyo
State governor, in the context of a dispute between
Fulani herdsmen and indigenous farmers in the
state, that “your people are killing my people.” This
turned out to be unfounded and perhaps the
reverse.
His threats during the campaign for the 2011
elections incited widespread violence in the North
after he lost. His supporters went on a rampage;
looting and killing; in spite of the fact that, by all
accounts, the elections were adjudged the most free
and fair in the history of Nigeria’s current
democratic experiment. By the time the mayhem
had subsided, over 1000 people had been
slaughtered in cold blood and some 65,000
displaced.
Posted: at 15-10-2014 09:04 PM (10 years ago) | Gistmaniac |
|