“Nigerian herdsmen don’t carry AK
47’s. They only use sticks”- President Buhari to President Donald Trump, The
White House, 30th April 2018.
“We’ve had serious problems with
Christians who have been murdered, killed in Nigeria. We’re going to work on
that problem and work on that problem very, very hard, because we can’t allow
that to happen.”- President Donald Trump to President Muhammadu Buhari, The
White House, 30th April 2018.
Despite all the smiles, banter,
pretensions, diplomatic niceties, doublespeak and pleasing words these two
assertions, from the bully and the big man respectively, remain the most
relevant in yesterday’s historic meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and
President Donald Trump at the White House.
The fact that Buhari, like a
naughty little schoolboy standing before his intimidating headmaster, had to
tell a pernicious and specious lie about the weaponry (or lack of it) of the
Fulani herdsmen and attempt to absolve them of any blame for the horrendous
genocide that is being perpetrated against Christians in our nation in order to
escape being spanked speaks volumes.
And the fact that Trump, not
fooled by the lie, like a wise old headmaster, had to issue a stern warning to
the schoolyard bully about the killing of Christians says even more.
That, to me, was the meat of the
historic meeting. All the rest that was said was nothing but diplomatic
doublespeak, fake smiles, meaningless platitudes and dross.
Particularly nauseating were the
servile and downright embarrasing questions that the Nigerian journalists that
accompanied Buhari asked President Trump.
In my entire life I have never
seen a journalist ask a President when he intends to visit his or her country
at a major world press conference where the questions and the number of
questioners are limited or ask whether he can release “just two helicopters” to
help Nigeria out. This is shameless and unprofessional. It is for the Nigerian
President to ask his American counterpart such questions, albeit privately, and
not a member of the Villa press corps.
I see Shehu Garba, Buhari’s media
assistant’s magic hand in all this. He sat directly behind the Nigerian
correspondents like a bulldog, breathing down their necks and quietly warning
them not to ask any difficult questions about their own country at the White
House and in a foreign land.
The whole scenario was sickening.
The Nigerian journalists were completely cowered. One of them called me
afterwards and said it was hell and that they had been well-schooled and warned
to behave themselves and mind their manners and words.
I bet the seasoned, hard-nosed
and experienced American White House correspondents who also covered the event
and members of the White House Press Corps were shook their heads in pity and
whispered o themselves, “what a country, what a people!”
Yet for the sake of posterity
more needs to be said about the meeting itself. Permit me to add the following.
The truth is that the progressive
forces, the official opposition and leaders of the resistance in Nigeria failed
to put out the correct narrative about Buhari to the international community
and international media over the last 3 years.
Consequently Buhari escaped
thorough international scrutiny. Apart from that Trump failed us. He chose
economic gain and the juicy prospect of a massive Nigerian market for American
goods, products and commodities over human rights and decency.
Yet who can blame him for that
given his “America first” mantra and the fact that the Nigerian people
themselves appear to be very comfortable with their hazardous plight and
murderous leader and do not appear ready to resist his corruption, tyranny,
evil, ethnic cleansing, mass murder and genocide.
The good news is that Trump may
be the biblical Cyrus (and I really do believe that he is) but he is not God.
We never looked to him. We look to God. And God will deliver us despite our
inherent weaknesses, accursed fears, petty divisions and monumental cowardice.
Finally hear this. If the
opposition does not roll out its best guns, get its act togther, unite, stop
playing childish games, stop the petty bickering and present one credible and
acceptable candidate in 2019, Buhari will be back for another four years. The
choice is ours.
Permit me to end this
contribution with a final word about the meeting between the bully and the
headmaster at the White House.
My younger brother, Babatunde
Gbadamosi, wrote
“Buhari went and got NOTHING. We
must now buy two helicopters and agricultural produce from them. This is beyond
incompetent”.
Tunde, as always, is absolutely
right.
Finally as Pastor Bayo Oladeji
pointed out,
“Mr Buhari was asked during
Monday’s joint press conference about a report in January that Mr Trump had
complained about immigrants coming to the US from “shithole countries”,
specifically referring to Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations. His
diplomatic resoonse was: “I’m not sure about, you know, the validity of whether
that allegation against the president is true or not. So the best thing for me
is to keep quiet.”
This was a golden opportunity to
tell the world, in the prescence of its most powerful man, that, whether Trump
had said so or not, Nigeria is not a “shithole country”.
Yet sadly Buhari, the
quintessential erring, self-hating and self-denigrating African leader with
very low self-esteem, refused to take up the challenge and defend the honor of
his people.
Instead he dodged the question,
crawled into his hole, kept his mouth shut, put his tail between his legs and
whimpered like a little puppy in the prescence of his master.
So much for him being a strong,
no-nonsense leader. At the end of the day and when it mattered the most he
proved to be weak, uncaring and insensitive in the prescence of a man who
rightly or wrongly dishonored his country and denigrated his people.
Clearly he is only strong when he
is ordering his troops or his Fulani herdsmen to slaughter innocent men, women
and children. Such is the way of all schoolyard bullies.
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Fani you will never change always antagonizing the president hmnm
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