Shehu Garba writes on Buhari and his alleged involvement in the Dasuki arms deal scandal

In a piece title "BuhariGate, as the limit of
obstructionist politics' Senior Special Assistant to
the President on Media and Publicity, Shehu
Garba, distanced President Buhari from the
ongoing Dasuki $2.1 billion arms deal scandal.
Read the incisive piece below...
As the war on corruption heightens, the
political battle-line between the governing
All Progressives Congress, APC and the
opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP
has sharply been drawn.
While leaders from both parties voice out their
support for the clean-up of the country by ridding
it of corruption, the National Working Committee
of the PDP seems clearly to be working contrary
to the anti-corruption rhetoric of their Board of
Trustees. Their public communication organs
have, in particular, become increasingly
combative against the exercise. All that the
President, leading the APC change orchestra is
trying to do is to revamp a moribund nation with
growth, jobs and recovered looted funds. Sadly,
only a few, if any in Wadata House are treating
the war against corruption as the extra-ordinary
event which it is. Instead, when they speak up,
they do so most ardently against it. In a clear
demonstration of abstructist politics, they
challenge the government in every move it makes,
but fail to spell out alternative roadmaps to
curbing the monstrous corruption that threatens
to consume the country; they rush to condemn
and dramatize even the smallest of measures
which, given time and patience will manifest
through positive outcomes.
Doing this gives the PDP the illusion of being an
effective opposition party but taken in the context
of national interest and the mood of the nation, it
is doubtful it it is yielding anything beyond limited
political returns. To most Nigerians, the
cacophonous opposition is just a media spectacle
to distract or mellow the President.
After an historic loss in an election to the
opposition for the first time in the annals of this
country’s political history, PDP has not looked
inwards in any serious way to seek its revival.
The first and major leap at reform ended
disastrously when first, the party establishment
rejected a well-timed apology tendered on its
behalf for their past failures. Then, the leader of
the reform movement got himself mired in
allegations leading to court charges of the theft
of billions of Naira voted for weapons purchase
to fight terror in the North East. Chief Raymond
Dokpesi's trial ( and Col. Dasuki's) is no doubt a
serious blow to any prospects of a turn-around in
the PDP.
The party did not seek democratize their internal
organization, a major reason for their implosion
leading to the loss of the election or began
thinking innovatively about the challenges of
modern day Nigeria, nor have they got a "Plan B"
that is inviting to the voters.
It is this failure to reckon with, or look at the real
issues confronting the party and the nation that
led to their call for an investigation of President
Buhari for having been supplied two jeeps by the
erstwhile Jonathan administration after the
personal bullet-proof jeep he owned was bombed
by yet unknown assailants.
As the Special Adviser to the President, Femi
Adesina said, issuance of the cars,soon after this
incident was merely a face-saving move, intended
to cover the government's failure to keep its duty
to this particular former leader. The law, cited as
the Remuneration of Former Presidents and
Heads of State (and other Ancillary Matters),
entitles former Nigerian Presidents including
General Muhammadu Buhari to “three vehicles to
be bought by the Federal Government and liable
to be replaced every four years”.
Cars are just a few in a litany of entitlements
written in that law although it is contestable to
say that General Buhari had been given his due
entitlements by successive administrations as
provided thereunder. Regime after regime treated
him as if he was not a former Head of State.
General Abacha came on the saddle and wanted
to throw everything at Buhari who, knowing his
very nature declined virtually but his military
pension. The military in particular treated him so
badly that its leaders kept silent when the PDP
charged that he didn't have WAEC papers. One
shameless Army Records officer said that the
former Head of State had no records at all under
their system. General Buhari went without a full
compliment of armed guards from the army he
served at the highest level until the dastardly
bomb attack on his convoy in April 2014. It was
at this time that the Chief of Army Staff at that
time thought it necessary to reinstate the armed
convoy to protect him. When they brought the
two cars within a few days of his being bombed,
the staff of the General were merely informed
that this was from the Federal Government in
fulfillment of its obligation to him. Since this was
an entitlement long-overdue, not minding that it
came short of what was expected, there was
absolutely nothing wrong on the part of the
General for accepting that which was due to him.
This hashtag “#Buharigate” was intended as a
counterpoise to "Dasukigate," the phenomenal
corruption scheme by which money intended for
weapons to fight terror was shared among PDP
leaders. It was a fake intervention and a
malicious propaganda against the president,
obviously intended to detract from his
enormously huge reputational capital, the basis
on which the APC nation-wide victory was
founded.
The #Buharigate failed to gain traction because
was seen as an opposition overreach and a
desperate attempt to tarnish his hard-earned
name and nothing more. No serious blogger
therefore paid a serious attention to it.
This baseless allegation that the President had
benefitted from the diversion of money intended
to fight insurgency under the former National
Security Adviser equally underlines the cruel
nature of today’s politics, that even the best
personal examples cannot keep a leader from the
tar brush of the opponent.
Apart from seeking to mellow the President, I
suspect that the opposition had thought these
attacks would revive the collapsed fortunes of the
PDP while at the same time projecting their
leaders as victims of persecution in the hands of
the APC administration.
What however is encouraging in the country today
is that Nigerians have thrown their full weight
behind the war on corruption. This itself is an
account the constructive nature of the
government’s engagement against the vice and
the determination with which it is being fought.
Adding impetus and flavor is the frustration at
the routionisation of corruption by the last
administration and their inadequate and impotent
efforts to curb and punish high-profile offenders.
My concluding augment is that President Buhari’s
election and war against terrorism and corruption
have become a template. In Niger, Chad and
Ghana where there will be elections next year,
opposition candidates are parading themselves as
the “Buhari” of their own country.
President Buhari must have himself been
embarrassed by calls, through newspaper articles,
posters and banners in the course of his visits to
these friendly countries, saying “we want Buhari
type elections; we will wage Buhari-type anti-
corruption war”. One Chadian political party
published an advertorial asking their government
to procure and issue permanent voters cards as
well as the use of card readers in the coming
election and if the funds were not available, “let
us borrow from Nigeria” for the coming elections.
President Buhari was and is far, far away from,
and remains untouched by the “Dasukigate”.
“#Buharigate” is therefore a fraud and an
unbecoming spectacle designed to tarnish the
illustrious record of the President so as to mellow
his anti-corruption drive. It failed because it was
born out of desperation to gain sympathy by an
opposition that can’t heal itself unless it comes
to terms with the danger of corruption they
thrived in, and the party's internal structures are
overhauled and remade to meet the minimum
requirements of a democratic organization.