Biafra's Ojukwu Vs Buhari: The UnPresidential Lie, By Tobenna Obiano.

Often times, some leaders can be very reckless in their use of words and in a chase to mop up sentiments, where they seem to be carried away into giving in sheepishly to arrogance, confusion and lies. Nigeria's President, Muhammad Buhari just lied!

A Latin adage reads thus: "mens sana in corpore sano" which when translated reads: "a sound mind in a sound body". If any leader cares less about what he says, how he acts and has no listening ear to the wishes of the led, such leader has neither a sound mind nor does he have a sound body. This is the Buhari problem.

In Nigeria's President, Muhammad Buhari, we have seen the height of recklessness. It beats one's imagination what incompetence has done and terribly dealt upon Nigeria as a nation. A Government built upon insincerity would continue to shamelessly carry same on atleast, until they are retired, removed and replaced.

Former Biafran warlord, the Ezeigbogburugburu, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu is one man, too man. Aside his wealthy upbringing and his attending an Ivy League institution, he later joined the Nigerian army. Talk about being smart and sound, he has got it. I'm not a spokesperson for the late Emeka Ojukwu, but I can beat my chest that he can never state directly to Buhari or anyone else that Nigeria's unity is unnegotiable. This is a white lie, one from the pit of hell.

Ojukwu as an individual, and as someone who led Igbos from the Eastern part of Nigeria to the secession build up that metamorphosed into the civil war, may have decided much later as he aged, to soft-peddle on his push for the break away of the Igbo-nation from Nigeria, but that wouldn't make him to state in clear terms that our unity is unnegotiable. That would amount to ignorance of the highest order and as we all know it, he isn't an ignorant man.

Even the word impossible when broken into bits reads, "I'm possible". Also, common sense has proven beyond every doubt that nothing, absolutely nothing at all is truly impossible. The Religious know that in the Biblical record, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, days after death. Himself too defeated death rising after three days. What then would impossible amount to?

If dead can rise again, what rationale would anyone use to conclude that a people divided quite clearly along the line of Religion, Ethnicity, Language, Culture, Background, Custom, Norms and Core-values wouldn't possibly disintegrate if need be.

As a people, we sometimes shy away from the truth and it's most unfortunate. Our society have persistently failed to call wrong by its name and speak truth to power, and this is why our standards fall, both within our immediate environment and beyond.

I tell you with all honesty, "THE UNITY OF NIGERIA IS VERY NEGOTIABLE".

If it's not working, or we as a people from diverse backgrounds aren't agreeable, or our Religious inclinations are dividing us endlessly, or a group are being marginalized, or the society clearly is favoring those from a divide, why not? When every other possibility fails, and the only option is a choice of breaking away, of course it's doable!

It's the height of ignorance, arrogance and radical personage for anyone, no matter how highly placed, outreach, connection or whatsoever it is, to state publicly that the unity of Nigeria can't be negotiated.

As a person, I have looked at the three minutes clip containing what was suppose to be a Presidential broadcast released today. I say this with sadness, President Buhari is a monumental failure and a big shame to leadership. Even his handlers, especially those who have background knowledge in media practice are even worse. Who the heck wrote that very speech?

I have for long respected Mr. Femi Adesina. I have once met with him at the SUN Newspaper Lagos office a very long time ago. I also had a brief personal chat with him when he was in Awka, Anambra State to anchor the Governorship debate back in 2013. I have therefore known him, admired his style of writing as a columnist and subsequently, MD/ Editor-in-chief with the SUN. I have remained proud of him until now.

Somehow, there seems to be a connection of an unknown charming "god or deity" that lives in Aso Rock, where once anyone comes into the villa, he or she looses his or her integrity, discipline and maybe also, sanity. Mr. Adesina has failed many of us his long time admirers badly. I speak of only Adesina because to me, Nigeria's lying machine, Lai Mohammed is a shameless fellow, while the trio of Garba Shehu, Lauretta Onochie and Abike Dabiri Erewa absolutely are a set of helpless "junk" integrated into one.

Truth is, anyone of those ones were to be serious minded, he or she would have long called it bluff and thrown in their resignation letters, it is happening in the America under Trump's radical watch and Government.

In Nigeria's Presidential broadcast, there were common mistakes in English littered here and there. There was no touch of class. There was no genius-approach in its content. A speech which didn't run coherently, nor was it consistently integrational nor systematic nor sequential, it was a junk of a message, one of the worst in recent time. In fact, the Presidential speech writer and the reviewing team should all be sacked, without fail.

Many Nigerians looked out for that speech with high hopes. It was supposed to be a message of peace, of unity, of energy, of assurance and a push to make wrongs become right. It was supposed to be a message aimed at healing broken hearts and those wounds inflicted upon the Nigerian populace by a Government which had no mission, vision and no ambition. It turned out to becoming a ridiculous shanty sham in its entirety.

Personally, I don't care about how long or how shortened the speech was. It's often said, "the shorter, the sweeter". I care more of quality rather than quantity. Unfortunately, the speech lacked both quality and quantity. It bothers me a lot if the work was actually proofread, for even a Secondary school student in my community of Nibo in Anambra State would have written a better, more informed, a worthwhile and a more classical speech rather than the "trash" that was delivered under three minutes christened Presidential address.

The Presidential broadcast would have been the best way to win shattered souls and reassure Nigerians that even in the worse of times, there is still hope, but no, it was built upon hate, threat and inconceivable push to drawing intolerance from the Presidency to the led. What was the message in the speech? It was of notoriety for an impending danger, a promise of dictatorship underway with major start-off point from social media and a clamp-down on freedom of speech. This is terrible!

Nigeria and the rest of Africa suffers cancerously, misleadership problems. There seems not to be any hope in sight. It boils down to the thinking of rotation, which made way for the likes of Buhari to even attain this height even after a fourth try. Nigerians sheepishly sacrificed competence, discipline, honesty, intervention and track record of success in variant fields to the sentiments of rotation and region built upon tribalism and religious bigotry. That's why we are here, at the lowest of all odds.

Again, Ojukwu would be rolling over in his grave on how and why President Buhari chose to awaken his spirit with this grave lie. As a Nigerian, we can't allow those who should better us to divide us, for as the saying goes in Latin, "corruptio optime, corruptio pessime", which means: "corruption of the best, is the worst corruption". If our leaders have built an institutionalized culture of lies, we are far from rising to reaching the heights that we have always wanted to attain.

As a matter of urgency, this Government must end celebrating frivolities and face the job of governance. All Nigerians can't be ignorant at the same time, many of us know that most of those who lined the streets of Abuja to celebrate the return of the President after 103days medical trip in London were all hired "miscreants". What is even there to celebrate?

Lastly, an honest advise to President Buhari and this APC-led Government, it's about time we learn to do the needful. The President has spent greater part of his time receiving treatment in a London hospital. Nothing can ever equate a lasting legacy. Nigeria isn't the poorest of all nations in the world. Let this administration at least build a world class standard hospital as a legacy of their Government. Atleast, future Presidents and Governors wouldn't need to be treated abroad and some of us that are poor and can't afford abroad treatment will also have the advantage of treating ourselves and our own when they get sick.

This Presidential speech is totally disjointed and one wonders if the President and his handlers actually understood that they weren't only addressing Nigerians alone, but also they were addressing the rest of the world. Nigeria as a nation has again been ridiculed and shamed before the eyes of the world by the consistent mistake of a select few, particularly, the President himself.

As an individual, I expected to see a Presidential speech began with a message of appreciation, thanking Nigerians for their believe in him and appreciating the Acting President for holding forth while he was away on the medical trip. Then to thanking the National Assembly for their dedication to service.

Then, he proceeds to discussing comprehensively about his true state of health. This is extremely important. Then, to talk about the state of Nigeria, events of the past while he was away, talk about the Biafran agitation followed by the threats by Arewa youth and then give a message of hope and assure of his willingness to sort things out for the better. He should have spoken about the Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen menace and the struggle thus far, plus the return of militants to the creeks together with the rising cases of ritual killing. But no, Nigerians now heard of "crossing the red line" and the threat that followed.

It must be noted quite clearly that while President Buhari partly wrote about Ojukwu's visit to his home in good faith as a friendly disposition, subsequently, he was indirectly indicting thesame Ojukwu when he talked about those who leave the country and run away at times of grave troubles. And he claimed Ojukwu's visit was in 2003, while in 2004, the Biafran dream lived within the subconscious mind of Ikemba himself.

It's sad that at times of poor governance, we only hear of divisive statements, worse of them all, coming from the President himself.

President Buhari's choice to lie even against the dead, our own dear Ikemba, Emeka Ojukwu is a pitiable and petty style to cruise on, it surely will backfire. It already has!