MOUNTING PRESSURE ON BUHARI’S INTEGRITY

“Buhari has tarnished whatever is left of his battered reputation and Integrity and that of his office by condescending this low to purchasing WAEC attestation certificate for an examination he obviously never sat for.”

Prior to the 2015 presidential election, the selling point of Mr. President was Integrity. It was used to veil his tyrannical disposition which him and Idiagbon exhibited when they took over power forcefully from a duly elected government making themselves criminals and subverters of the will of the people. But the sale of integrity was widely accepted by some simpletons, which constituted a larger population of the electorates. Many didn’t have the opportunity to interrogate his personality because he was a recluse and was incommunicado. He lived behind the closed walls of his mind, coming out once in four years to contest elections and to fail.

When he took over power in 2015, so much of his personae started coming to the fore, and somehow, people started doubting his claim to integrity. His first failure was his lopsided appointment which was supposed to be guided by the Federal Character as enshrined in our Constitution. Over 80 % of his appointment came from his tribe, state or and his family. This earned him the notorious Nepotistic Tribalist. Other regions were marginalized which resulted to the aggressive campaign by the Ingenious People of Biafra, IPOB for secession. Even the Yorubas who gave him block votes through Tinubu were disengaged through the trapdoor and thrown out from the scheme of things while strangers took over the government, that irresponsible cabal.

His second test to integrity was his fight against corruption having said in his inauguration he was for nobody and was for everybody…Him and his handlers were married to the anti-corruption slogan. However, his one-sided fight against corruption questioned his integrity. While his corrupt associates walked freely, he is harassing members of the opposition and members of his party who are critical of his policies. His party became a refuge for fleeing corrupt elements. The grass cutter, Babachir, NHIS boss Prof Yusuf, Abba Kyari, the MTN scandal and presidential COS, Baru of NNPC, Buratai, the Army chief, Maina, the pension thief and fugitive…were among those who have been fingered in corruption but are being shielded by Mr Integrity himself.

Who could have guessed or predicted that Mr Integrity would be involved in a certificate scandal without summoning courageous integrity to say the truth? Who had the prescient perception to predict this national embarrassment where elderly people are dancing to the store bought attestation?

The certificate narrative has been changing like a chameleon. When the issue first came out some years ago, a lawyer went to court on it, it took Mr. President over 12 SANs and a threat to the life of the lawyer for the matter to die down then. Like a cat with nine lives, undying, the matter has risen again this time with such a great vermin that it is ready to consume anything on its ways.

The president initially said in a published statement that his credentials were with the military. And that left us with a throwback question: who lives his original documents with a board after sighting them? At most after sighting the original, you leave photocopies and go home with the original, that’s the standard practice all over the world.

Well, we asked that INEC should compel him to bring his original not sworn affidavit he has been using to contest elections, this cannot be business as usual. Suddenly the narrative changed, the credentials which were safely with the military had disappeared. A little time lasted for presidential retrospection and sober reflection. Precisely on the 2nd of November, 2018 a badly plotted play ensured. The president was given an attestation by WAEC in an over publicized Noble Prize-like show. Yet the probing masses have mounted unrelenting pressure on Mr integrity to do the needful: show us your original certificate, show us the WAEC master list from which the attestation was written from or decline from contesting to face perjury probe.

If however, he scales through this trial he has set before himself, his greatest test to integrity would be his acceptance of defeat which is imminent and 60% loading. This is not about PDP or APC. If he fails to accept defeat, he will be bundled out of Aso Rock.

Elempe Dele