OPINION
 |
| Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode |
By Femi
Fani-Kayode
Professor John Paden, President Muhammadu
Buhari’s official biographer, is a man that is very comfortable with distorting
the truth and telling lies. He is also a man that has been doing so for virtually
all his adult life.
Anyone that doubts that should read his
biography on the late Sir Ahmadu Bello, which was written in 1986 and titled
“Ahmadu Bello, Saurdana of Sokoto: Values and Leadership In Nigeria”, and which
is essentially a self-serving and comprehensive compilation of Bello’s numerous
virtues with little or no mention of his many vices.
I read that book twenty years ago and I placed
it in the “light entertainment” shelf in my library because it lacked gravitas
or any real intellectual stamina.
It was, at best, a beautiful public relations
job for Bello and, at worse, a compilation of disjointed verbiage fit only for
the dustbin.
Paden’s book on Buhari falls into the same
category. It is nothing but an illusion: an extraordinary and fantastic fairy-tale
built on a shady foundation of pseudo-intellectual clap-trap and garbage.
To him, President Buhari is infallible. He is,
at best, an angel of light and, at worst, a perfect mortal with no warts.
Paden’s latest contribution is the greatest
exercise in dishonesty and historical revisionism that has ever been undertaken
by any foreign or Nigerian historian since independence.
The only one that comes close to it in this
respect is the book that he wrote on the Saurdana and a number of other books
that he authored over the years which were primarily about core northern
Nigeria. Writing rubbish seems to be Paden’s stock in trade.
In his latest book, amongst many other glaring
and shameless mendacities, he indulged in two particular lies that are an
eloquent testimony to his perfidy.
The first was that three names were sent to
President Muhammadu Buhari for the position of Vice President, namely Asiwaju
Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Yemi Osibanjo and Babatunde Raji Fashola in 2014 for the
2015 presidential election.
This is false and it is simply an attempt to
demean and belittle Tinubu and the role that he played in the whole exercise.
The truth is that it was Tinubu and Tinubu alone
that forwarded the only name that was given serious consideration for the Vice
Presidential slot by President Buhari. That name was Professor Yemi Osibanjo.
Senator Olorunimbe Mamora was also considered by
Buhari but he did not have the backing of Tinubu and neither did Tinubu forward
his name.
The idea that Tinubu’s name was forwarded to be
Vice President alongside that of his two protegees in the persons of Osinbajo
and Fashola is nothing but fantasy and it was a beautiful and tasteful dish and
tale that was spiced, cooked up and prepared in the kitchens of Aso Rock.
Again Tinubu never pressured Buhari to make him
his Vice President as Paden has asserted because he had decided to drop that
ambition long before then simply because the idea of a Muslim/Muslim ticket,
which was originally on the cards, had eventually been jettisoned and rejected
by the party due to public pressure and the division and outrage it attracted.
If the Muslim/Muslim ticket had not been
rejected, Tinubu would have been the Vice Presidential candidate of the APC and
no-one else, including his erstwhile protegee Babatunde Fashola, would have had
a hope in hell of getting it.
This is especially so given the fact that Buhari
had originally promised him that position at the time that their parties merged
and the APC was established but he later reneged. That is the bitter truth.
Paden was either misinformed by those who
commissioned him to write the book or he was being propelled by an ulterior and
malevolent motive for writing the rubbish that he did on the Vice Presidential
issue.
Whichever way he was completly wrong and for the
sake of history and posterity we must set the record straight.
The second lie that he told, which was
infinitely more dangerous and repugnant than the first, was that President
Buhari has documents which are signed by President Jonathan which prove that
the latter sought for what he described as “extra-budgetary funds”.
This is a pernicious lie. It has no basis in
rationality, reason or truth. There is absolutely no evidence to substantiate
it and I challenge Paten or President Buhari himself to make those letters and
signed applications for “extra budgetry funds” public.
The whole thing is simply an attempt to further
tarnish and demonise Jonathan and all those that served under him before the
world, and I believe that that is a crying shame.
I can understand such lies coming from a
Presidency or a Federal Government that is scared of its own shadows and that
feeds off its own propaganda but I cannot accept them coming from a supposedly
reputable historian, albeit a foreigner, who has become the official writer and
cheerleader of all things caliphate over the last 30 years.
Amongst many other things, he also suggested
that other senior figures in the political and military configuration in our
country committed serious crimes and indulged in damning acts of corruption
without being specific or even providing details of those acts.
Instead of doing so he suggested that the
individuals concerned, which included President Olusegun Obasanjo, would have
been prosecuted, brought to justice and called to account for their allegedly
dastardly acts whilst in governnent if not for the fact that this could have
had implications for the stability of the nation and national security.
Obasanjo, who is always quick off the mark and
who was actually present at the launching of the book in Abuja as was Tinubu,
responded in a measured manner by saying that there were “some insinuations” in
it which he disagreed with.
Frankly that was a cop out. Obasanjo was being
far too polite and this was probably due to the fact that he had not read the
whole book as ay that time and he did not want to dampen the enthuisiasm of the
biographer, upset the President or ruin the occassion.
The addage is that you do not go to someone’s
dinner party and spoil it by confronting his lies, challenging his allegations
and speaking the bitter truth.
Yet I believe that though Obasanjo touched on
the matter he did not go far enough. I believe that it is incumbent upon all
those that were maligned and alleged to have indulged in acts of corruption by
Paden to set the record straight and state their case.
It would be very dangerous for all those that
have been misrepresented in this so-called book, including President Goodluck
Jonathan, President Olusegun Obasanjo and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to keep
quiet and not clarify the issues about what was written or insinuated about
them because many years from now that book will be used as a major source and
reference point for our history.
I urge all those affected to write their own
books quickly otherwise they will become victims of historical revisionism.
If I had been invited by President Muhamnadu
Buhari or Professor Paden to the book launch I would have mounted the podium
and said as much. Sadly I was not.
Permit me to end this contribution by making a
suggestion to Paden. Since he wrote about Jonathan’s campaign funds and alleged
all manner of corruption concerning their source and application, in his next
book on President Buhari I would suggest that he sheds more light on how his
subject’s own 2015 presidential campaign funds were sourced.
For a start he should tell us who provided the
10 million USD that was paid as consultancy fees to the company of Mr. David
Axelrod, President Barack Obama’s erstwhile campaign manager.
He should also tell us the source of funds and
how Buhari and his team managed the 19 billion naira that was given to him in
cash by the then sitting Governor of the leading and largest state in the south
west and the 24.6 billion naira that was given to him in cash and in one day
(which was recorded on video before being handed over) by another leading south
western politician.
In addition to that he should tell us precisely
how much the then Governors of Rivers and Kano states and the present Governors
of Ogun and Kwara states amongst many others contributed to Buhari’s campaign
and where they got the money from.
Since everyone is claiming to be holy and
righteous in this matter let us all get there and publicly exchange notes.
After all, the Nigerian public and indeed the entire world, has a right to
know.
If Paden fails to ask those questions and
declines to provide the answers then he, his accursed books and his
questionable and dubious “white-washing” mission of President Muhammadu Buhari
shall undoubtedly remain damned forever.
Whether he does so or not other governments that
will come to power in the future in this country will not only get the
necessary answers but they will also do the appropriate thing and bring them to
justice. It is only a matter of time.
