Following President Muhammadu Buhari’s emergence as the standard-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2015 presidential election, his political opponents and a cross section of the media expressed concern about the temperament of the then APC presidential candidate. The core of their unease was the former army general’s dismal human rights record in his first coming as military Head of State (1983- 1985) when he more than kept his stern coup-day warning to “tamper with press freedom.” Although the Nigerian electorate eventually plumped for President Buhari over the then incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, it is fair to say that they were not fully convinced that Buhari’s leopard had changed its spots.
Over the past couple of years, and especially as President Buhari seems to have rediscovered his former intolerant self, those doubts have been reinvigorated. To worsen matters, some state executives, perhaps emboldened by the president’s casual indifference to matters of human rights and the political freedom of Nigerians, have been ploughing a similar furrow. We crave the reader’s indulgence to present some evidence to back up this claim.
Last week, officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) invited former governor of Adamawa State, Umar Jibrilla Bindow, for a ‘chat’ after it emerged that he had been present at a meeting of the state APC in Adamawa where some attendees, as heard on a leaked audio clip, allegedly insulted President Buhari, with some apparently wishing him (the president) dead. In addition to Mr. Bindow, the DSS also ‘interviewed’ five other APC stalwarts, including former speaker of the Adamawa House of Assembly Kabiru Mijinyawa, Sulaiman Adamu, acting APC chairman Yola South; Mustapha Barkindo and Yusha’u Adamu, advisers to the former governor; and ex-commissioner Abubakar Umar Sirimbai.
For some reason, the DSS seems incapable of making a distinction between wishing the president dead and actively planning to kill the president. While the latter is a treasonable offence that should be treated as such, the former is nothing more than a thought, or at worst a harmless speech act. It goes without saying that wishing President Buhari dead has no material impact on his person, and if everyone who wished the president or any public official dead were to be pulled in for an interview by the DSS, there would be no one left on the streets.
Unfortunately, the records show that the president is not persuaded that there should be such a distinction. In May 2020, 70-year-old Bala Izala and two others were jailed for allegedly insulting the president and Katsina State governor, Aminu Bello Masari. Mr. Izala had reacted angrily after he visited his village and discovered that roving bandits had attacked it, killed members of his immediate family, and made away with his cows. In what legal universe is an understandably angry reaction by a distraught citizen the equivalent of an insult to the president or state governor? Did the court expect Mr. Izala to respond to his agonising discovery with a paid advertorial expressing gratitude to the president and governor?
What is it with the ego of our president? Why does he come across as emotionally insecure? We ask these questions in light of what happened two weeks ago when an Adamawa State Magistrate Court imposed a one-year prison sentence on the state Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Youth Leader Ikamu Hamido Kato for, you guessed right, insulting the president and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha. In a video that went viral in July on social media, the PDP chieftain had described both President Buhari and Mr. Mustapha as “useless human beings.” Clearly, as far as the Adamawa State Magistrate Court is concerned, a verbal abuse is the same thing as a physical assault. As we have noted, the president is not the only highly placed public official with a thin skin. In December last year, a Dutse, Jigawa State) Magistrate’s Court sentenced one Sabi’u Ibrahim Chamo to six months in prison for “insulting and defaming” Governor Muhammadu Badaru Abubakar on his Facebook page. Back in 2017, a Katsina Chief Magistrate’s Court had sentenced one Gambo Saeed to nine months in prison for insulting Governor Aminu Bello Masari on social media.
To say that these convictions are egregious is an understatement. The first rule of politics is developing a thick skin, and it seems that neither President Buhari nor the aforementioned state executives understand this rule. Second, the courts appear to have been complicit given their failure to separate between verbal insults and physical assaults. The distinction is absolutely crucial. Instead of deploying state resources to track down perceived personal slights (Governor Masari actually has a designated Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the Governor on Radio Monitoring!), President Buhari and the affected state executives should focus their attention on actual governance.
