Buhari and assets declaration fraud

By: Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu  

 

As the days go by, President Muhammadu Buhari is turning out to be the most deceptive leader in Nigeria’s history. Almost everything he said in the course of the campaign has turned out to be lies, while some others like his most prominent campaign manifesto “my 100 days covenant with Nigerians” has been roundly denied by his spokesmen and party chairman. The document detailed his pledge and the first steps and initiatives to be taken in such cases as corruption, insurgency and insecurity, Niger-Delta, Diversity, Health care, Education, Agriculture, Economy, Power, Youth and ICT development. The document laid out the chief thrusts of his administration and the benchmarks it set out to achieve within a 100 days.
While the document is loaded with hypes, as was characteristic of the APC campaign, in the area of insurgency it specifically promised to rescue the Chibok girls within the 100-day timeline. As would be expected, this document was widely circulated in the print, electronic and social media and formed part of the most fundamental drive of the Buhari/APC campaign. Curiously, Buhari never denied nor disowned the document that he purportedly signed as it went viral, but fast forward to September 2015 just as the 100 day timeline was about to be reached and all of a sudden a flurry of denials is coming from the presidency and the party. Buhari now claims he never saw nor authorised the document, that some out of control APC apparatchiks were behind the document.
How strange? Buhari went to rallies where posters of the same manifestoes were emblazoned on, walls and vehicles, he read newspapers were headlines screamed with his 100 days covenant, he watched television programmes where APC leaders serialised the covenant and in all that period Buhari kept quiet only to now tell us he was never aware of those campaign promises. How about the assets he hurriedly declared after public opinion began mounting against him. We recall that Buhari had also previously denied promising to publicly declare his assets, a promise that was included in the 100 days covenant. As the upsurge of negative opinion began, he made an asset declaration that was purely as deceitful as it was a propaganda document.
Again not only did the assets contain a lot of semantics intended to hoodwink the gullible it was filled with inconsistencies that starkly contrasts with what Buhari had previously said with regards to his assets. During the presidential campaign, Buhari had said barely had one million naira was in his account and had to borrow money from his bank to buy the presidential nomination form. Few months later, we learn there is close to N30 million in his account, Buhari had also said he owned only two houses, one in his hometown of Daura and another in Kaduna. His landlord had reportedly kicked him out of an apartment in Abuja because he could not afford to pay the rent. Now we learn that Buhari has five houses including one in Abuja of all places. When these are added to the acres of land in Port Harcourt that was previously not disclosed, the humongous shares in three banks that were also never disclosed and the number of cows that have jumped from 150
before the campaign to 270 and his inability to tell us how many vehicles he actually owns because they are too many, you get the full picture of a deceptive 419 President.
While Buhari has tried to deceptively push his cash stock of 30 million in our face, his total assets when his property in Abuja, acres of land in Port Harcourt, 270 cows and millions of shares in banks are factored in are possibly more than N1billion. This does not include other possibly hidden or diverted assets we might never know of, including those in the name of his wife, relations, in-laws and siblings. Essentially, Buhari is a manipulative smooth operator. From his certificate scandal all through to the presidency, he has laid his way to power, pulling off the most elaborate fraud in Nigeria’s history. He used the campaign promises and a carefully cultivated image of honesty and probity to deceive Nigerians while bidding for time. As soon as he got the presidency, he started unmasking, not intending to fulfill any of his campaign promises he went on a denial binge.
Buhari not only deceived Nigerians, he also deceived the enablers who made his presidency possible. Bola Tinubu and the party henchmen are already licking their wounds having been ostracised by Buhari who used and dumped them. We have been conned and duped. Brace up for the bumpy ride that is sure to come with it.