A U S. based Nigerian professor, Farooq Kperogi, has poured cold water on President Muhammadu Buhari’s Independence Day Speech, saying the writers must have been high on weed when they drafted it.
Kperogi, in his weekly column, said even by the horrible standards of Buhari’s previous speeches, his October 1, 2021 Independence Day speech would go down in the records as perhaps one of the worst speeches by the leader of any country on an occasion that invites solemnity, contemplation, and sobriety.
He said he identified a few major parts of the speech that muddled basic history, turned logic on its head, and outright lied.
He said: “In the very second paragraph of the speech, Buhari claimed, ‘Today should not only serve as a reminder of the day the British handed over the reins of power to Nigerians, but also unified Nigerians from all ethnic groups, religions and regions.'”
According to Kperogi, Buhari’s claim that the British “unified Nigerians from all ethnic groups, religions and regions” is historically inaccurate.
He said the British didn’t unify ethnic and religious groups in Nigeria; but exacerbated our differences and planted the seeds of disabling fissiparity that hold us back—all for their convenience.
He said: “The British cobbled together a disparate people, imposed artificial boundaries around them, called their new artificial space “Nigeria,” then divided and conquered them for the benefit of the British. Britain had not the wispiest interest in the unifying “Nigerians from all ethnic groups, religions and regions.”
Kperogi said he wondered why Buhari who makes the most excessively pious noise about patriotism is the leader that allocates billions in the national budget for Aso Rock clinic, but goes to London to treat even the most elementary ailment.
He also added: “Plus, there has been no more divisive leader since Nigeria’s founding than Muhammadu Buhari. He has inspired almost every part of the country to demand a divorce from the British-born Nigerian union, which is consistent with what I’d warned would happen should he win a second term.”
Kperogi said in another preposterous moment in the speech, Buhari equated drugs with food and declared them as indistinguishable from each other. He quoted the president: ‘on our approach to food security, I am proud to announce Nigeria has commenced its journey to pharmaceutical independence.’
Kperogi wondered what’s the connection between food security” and pharmaceutical independence?
Kperogi also said the speech didn’t acknowledge the fact that most farmers in the country have abandoned farming because of ceaseless attacks by bandits and the increasing brazenness with which cattle destroy farm crops.
He also said the speech ignored the fact that many farmers no longer see any wisdom in farming because they might get kidnapped while farming or their entire crops might end up being used as pasture for cattle without any consequences.
“But Buhari and his speech writers think enabling Nigerian pharmacists to make drugs and vaccines at home will quench the mass hunger in the land!
“Buhari also hopes he doesn’t need to work to bring about peace, underscoring why the country is drenched in avoidable bloodbath. He said, ‘our hope is not to fight for peace. We can always settle our grievances peacefully without spilling any blood.’ What kind of leader doesn’t want to fight for peace when the country he leads is beset by bloodstained violence everywhere?
“Maybe his speech writers meant ‘our hope is that we don’t have to be violent to stem the tide of violence.’ If so, why didn’t they say it that way? To fight for peace is to work toward bringing about peace—except the speech writers are being literal in their understanding of “fight,” which would be embarrassing for a presidential speech,” he said.
He added: “In any case, the regime has consistently used violence to tamp down legitimate expressions of dissent in the form of peaceful protests. As recently as September 28, that is, three days before Buhari’s speech, eight unarmed members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria were murdered and 57 of them arrested by Nigerian security forces for merely holding a procession in Abuja that caused a snarl-up. Hundreds of them were similarly murdered in Kaduna in 2015. That’s literally “fighting” for peace,” Kperogi said.
Kperogi also added: “In the speech, Buhari repeated the bromide that ‘Nigeria is for all of us. Its unity is not negotiable.’ That sterile cliché should have been thrown to the rhetorical refuse dump by now. ‘Unity’ that is non-negotiable isn’t unity. It’s slavery. And it won’t endure. Unity comes from harmony and, as Steve Goodier reminds us, ‘We don’t get harmony when everybody sings the same note. Only notes that are different can harmonize. The same is true with people.’
“Any unity that is non-negotiable is worthless and unworthy of anyone’s commitment. Threatening to ‘take decisive actions against secessionist agitators and their sponsors,’ which basically means visiting violence on them as the regime has been doing, contradicts the earlier hope that the regime won’t ‘fight for peace,’ however this strange phrase is understood,” he said.