Attacks on Buhari wicked — Itsekiri leader

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress and leader of Itsekiri nation in Delta
State, Dr. Alex Ideh, has said the verbal and printed attacks on Maj. Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) by the Peoples Democratic Party and its supporters
were wicked and misleading.
Ideh, who was the Secretary to the APC Convention Committee that produced
Buhari as the presidential candidate, said in a statement Friday that such
attacks on the person of the party’s flag bearer might mislead younger
generation of voters.
He asked the PDP and its followers to abide by the Abuja Peace Accord by
“refraining from such callous and disparaging verbal attacks.”
“It is true he was a soldier and led Nigeria for 14 months. But, those who now
seek to hold him out as an undemocratic monster must be guilty of an
extraordinary amount of revisionism. We must uphold the truth and describe the
circumstances as they are.
“I am privileged to speak on our experience of democracy because I have been
a participant and a ring-side operator for over 30 years. I can assert with some
authority that most critics of Buhari were romancing the civilian regime he
ousted. I was a part of that regime and can recall with some regret, that the
(Shehu) Shagari administration which he removed was an epitome of
maladministration,” the statement read in part.
According to the APC chieftain, there was widespread rancour during the
Shagari administration which witnessed witch-hunting and corruption.
“In one iconic moment, Alhaji Shugaba, a full-fledged Nigerian, was thrown out
of our borders on the contrived excuse that he was an alien. Such extra-judicial
determination was part of a range of widespread abuses which disfigured the
regime that Buhari was compelled to forcibly remove. Only few mourned the
ouster of the corrupt Shagari regime.
“When Buhari took over, apart from a rump of the elites in the NPN, his regime
was received with great adulation countrywide. This reception was reinforced
not just by his personal reputation for probity and single-mindedness, but also
because the prevailing orthodoxy welcomed military intervention as an antidote
to perverse governance. Some of the persons now crucifying Buhari were
amongst those who rolled out the drums when General Buhari intervened,” Ideh
added.
He urged Nigerians not to fall for the misinformation being peddled by them,
assuring them that Buhari’s reputation is guaranteed.

...... Courtesy the Punch