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| For over 12 years Buhari jostled to rule without planning to govern. He did same in 1984 - Mustapha Jokolo |
Buhari promised heaven and earth if he is given the opportunity. However, many have continued to wonder what practical steps Buhari has planned to achieve all he has promised. Few days to the elections, Buhari was not able to articulate a sensible plan on how he is going to tackle the myriad of problems facing Nigeria and turn it around for good. Three months after 'winning' the election and over one month after his inauguration Nigeria has remained stagnant if not retrogressing. This is not surprising, because as the military Head of State of Nigeria, after painstakingly plotting to overthrow a democratically elected government, Buhari's administration was so clueless that it resorted to the phantom 'War Against Indiscipline' as a cover-up.
In an interview Jokolo granted the Sun Newspaper, Jokolo who was bitter for having been deposed as the Emir of Gwandu, was exposing most of the atrocities committed by the various military regimes in Nigeria. He hinted that the Umaru Dikko Affair was an attempt to garner cheap popularity from Nigerians and a vendetta masterminded by General Theophilous Danjuma (Rtd).
You said it was calculated to shore up your popularity rating. Why was the regime not popular in your estimation?
One, the regime came in at the time it was required. Definitely. But I told you we planned and executed a military coup d'état which was very successful except for the loss of Brigadier Bako. There was no casualty anywhere, at any level. But the problem was that we on our own part were able to execute it as we planned it, but what happened after was frustrating. We were expecting some people to prepare some blueprints for the running of the government, but they did not.
Who were these people?
We commissioned Dr. Mahmud Tukur and Mamman Daura, Those were the people we were expecting to prepare the blueprints for us because they were seasoned people who might have some friends who will help us because, you see, you could not expose your plans to everybody. So we had to select few people we could trust and let them know what we were doing so that they can help us. These were the people that I knew. I do not know whether there were other people.
And they failed to prepare it?
They did not do it. We had no blueprint. So by the time we took over government, we didn't know what to do with the government. I told you we had to think of how we were going to do it. The enormity of the atrocities committed during the civilian regime was staggering and unbelievable. You didn't know who was right and who was wrong. So everybody was lumped together and put into jail with the hope of clearing those who are innocent and convicting those who are guilty.
But some of them as I told you, because of inexperience and exuberance, we started setting up military tribunals. And these tribunals went about doing things their own way; jailing people hundreds of years. That was one of the things that brought us bad popularity; bad publicity. Secondly, a group amongst us who were power hungry, who subsequently took over from us. It was not when we took over that they started their plans. From the world go, they were planning. There was a plot within a plot because of these power hungry men.
How come you didn't know about this plot within a plot so you could nip it in the bud?
We saw it coming but we believed we were all going together. Let me tell you. Actually, there were three groups. I mentioned it somewhere, that three groups were operating during the coup. So one group was arrested - led by one Major Joseph Jetawo. We made noise by telling Nigerians that we arrested coup plotters. We amalgamated with the other group. Within our own group, we believed we were all going together. Then suddenly we found something fishy was going on. While the government was busy doing something, behind our back, we were being stabbed. We discovered that this group was the one which later took over in 1985. So while the government was trying to do something good for the country, they were painting the government black behind the government. They were also making friends with enemies of the government.
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Was that what Buhari later referred to as fifth columnist?
More than that. So by the time they came, they started giving reasons why they struck. But the failure of having a programme was our problem. If we had a good programme, we could have carried the whole country along with us. That could possibly have delayed the coup d'état. Within 20 months there was overthrow of government. That could have delayed it, maybe about four years or something.
Couldn't the killing of drug traffickers like Ojuolape, Bartholomew, Owoh and others in spite of pleadings to spare their lives have been one of the factors that accounted for the low popularity rating of the Buhari regime?
Where? Which part of the country?
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| Tunde Idiagbon, Buhari's deputy came to the rescue |
(Cuts in) No. I doubt it. I think it was because, remember that everybody was afraid of cocaine pushers, drug pushers and what have you. If anybody went to Saudi Arabia at that time and even now if anybody is caught with drugs in Saudi Arabia, that person will be executed. So, we were trying to protect our countrymen by doing that. So if you execute three people to save thousands, what is the big deal? Unless, again, the fifth columnists were using it against the government. But in the long run, who was not accused of drug peddling? Many people were involved and were accused of that. There was the case of this woman, Gloria Okon. What was it that was not said - even after we left?
This Gloria Okon issue what happened
(Cuts in) I don't know, I don't know.
What is the mystery surrounding the Gloria Okon drug case?
I don't know.
Why is this issue still shrouded?
(Cuts in) I don't know. I don't know. Ask people who investigated Gloria Okon; who were the people behind it and what happened. But I don't know. I don't want to go missing too.
You don't want to go missing?
No way.
How can somebody like Your Highness go missing?
She was missing. Was she not? Did you find her body?
No.
So, I don't want my body to be missing.
Who would have been responsible for that?
I don't know. Don't bring me into that, please. This is too hot to handle. It's too hot to handle.(Laughter).
Let's go back to the issue of the blueprint. Was it a case of deliberate refusal by those you commissioned?
I told you before that you can never know the motives of these people. Either they were trying to play it safe so that if something went wrong with the coup, no one would bring them into it. If the blueprint was theirs, they would be identified with it and if the coup failed, they could be arrested. If all of us were shot, they would have been shot down with us. They were playing safe. These are civilians. These are people that you can never know what is on their minds. The thinking in their heads, you don't know.
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