It is now barely a few days before President Muhammdau Buhari’s maladministration finally gets to shamefully bow out of office. While Buhari himself now struggles to comprehend the powerful stings of the ephemerality of power and the transient nature of power becomes his daily reality, he could still be reminded one more time that perhaps they are a few actions that he could take to reduce the moral burden he will face post the 29th of May and one of them is ensuring the release of the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
Before President Buhari came to office, Kanu was almost unknown and there was no way he could boast of 10 percent of the popularity he now enjoys. The well-orchestrated policy of marginalisation against the South East which his government embarked on was all Kanu needed to rise from relative obscurity to public consciousness. Again, Kanu will have continued to make his claims and wide calls from the fringes not until Buhari decided to give him popularity and ensure he goes mainstream when he decided to use the media regulator to jam Kanu’s signals. The day the radio frequency of Kanu was jammed by the National Broadcasting Service (NBC) was the day many Nigerians who didn’t know Kanu decided to Google him for the first time and he was well on his way to becoming one of the most popular human beings in Africa.
Not done with making Kanu popular, on the 15th of October, 2015, Buhari arrested Kanu when he visited Nigeria, and that was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Kanu’s followers and adherents saw a massive leap and he immediately became a symbol for the consciousness of the marginalised people whom he represents.
Perhaps, Buhari may have one or two regrets about Kanu and silently wish he never happened, however, one thing he can never change is the fact that after the 29th of May, reality will be catching up with him before he retires to live the rest his life in absolute regrets.
For eight years, the Buhari government went after people who demanded self-determination and ensured that they were ‘brutally prosecuted’ and dehumanised. In some cases, they were even renditioned to face trial and possibly jailed. For Buhari calling for a referendum which was a very legitimate call was akin to calling for war in the country and hence treated as treason. Rather than finding out ways of developing a channel to address the root causes of the renewed Biafran agitations in the South East under him, he chose vindictiveness and brutality which were obviously not in the general interest of peace, security, and national integration.
As if that was not enough, Buhari’s government proscribed IPOB and designated them a terrorist group when they had just placards. As expected, that move radicalised them, and as they say, the rest is history!
Buhari supervised a dark era in the history of Nigeria where protesters were killed and ‘repentant’ terrorists were treated like Kings while being rehabilitated. His government gave cover and immunity to marauding Fulani herdsmen who were brazen about killing farmers they disagreed with and forcefully taking over lands they admired. The atrocities which the Buhari maladministration supervised are too numerous to mention and they will hunt him for the rest of his days on earth, however, there is a little lifeline, he can still remedy some of the situations by trying to rewrite some of those negatives before he says his goodbye.
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A few days ago, he was quoted to have apologised to Nigerians. That was a good step, but they was nothing remorseful about that apology. The only way he can genuinely prove his regrets is by making certain restitutions such as releasing Kanu before he leaves office to close that dark era.
