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Farooq Kperogi: Celebrating Buhari’s death Vs forgiving him

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Farooq Kperogi

Farooq Kperogi: Celebrating Buhari’s death Vs forgiving him

Two dominant narrative strands have emerged in Nigerian discursive spheres in the aftermath of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s death: whether it offends decency to celebrate his death (as many have done both online and offline) and whether Nigerians should forgive his betrayal of the country. I have slightly unconventional views on both.

The religious and cultural values that shaped me in my formative years and that I have internalized throughout my academic and interpersonal socializations have predisposed me to find no value in celebrating anybody’s death, although I admit that it would amount to discursive tyranny for me to insist that people who find value or cathartic experience in celebrating a death shouldn’t do so.

Here’s why, outside the realm of my religio-cultural socialization, I don’t celebrate anybody’s death.

First, death is a garment that every living soul, irrespective of their piety or depravity, will wear at some point.

Celebrating another person’s death, in my mind, is like a line of schoolchildren, all guilty of the same offense, awaiting punishment from a stern teacher. When an obnoxious child gets whipped, those farther down the line cheer and clap, momentarily delighted that it wasn’t them and overjoyed that the loathsome child had met his comeuppance, forgetting that the teacher is merely working through the queue.

The cane is coming, steadily and inevitably. Their distance from the front of the line is merely a delay, not a pardon. Their personal sense of righteousness or imagined innocence won’t save them. Death, like that teacher’s cane, is no respecter of position or moral superiority. It will reach everyone in turn.

So, to me, rejoicing in another’s death only reveals a foolish ignorance of your own place in the line. Still, I acknowledge and respect the right of people to celebrate anybody’s death, if that gives them even temporary emotional reprieve. It’s the same as the right of schoolchildren in a whipping line to chuckle when the cane lands on someone ahead of them, even if they, too, won’t escape the cane.

Every death is a sharp reminder that I, too, am just further down the line, waiting my turn, not exempt from the cane.

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In a July 10, 2010, column titled “Grieving in America,” which I wrote in the aftermath of my first wife’s death, I pointed out that, “It is supremely ironic that it is tragedies and traumas, more than successes and prosperity, that bring out the depth of the humanity in us. Perhaps it is because these tragedies remind us all of our own mortality, our own frailty, our own vulnerability.”

Nevertheless, had Buhari died while he was inflicting pain on Nigerians with his harsh policies, it would be justified, I think, if people that were being crushed under the weight of his ineptitude and insouciance exulted.

But he died after eight ruinous years that reversed Nigeria’s little progress by decades. And he died in his 80s at one of the best hospitals in the world. The average lifespan in Nigeria is only about 54. Buhari lived close to the highest life expectancy anywhere in the world. Most of us would be lucky to reach 70 before the inevitable, inexorable cane of death gets to us.

So, I see no karmic retribution in the death of a man who caused so much anguish to millions of people but who lived his best life at the expense of the country that gave him everything and that he devastated without remorse.

Now, should he be forgiven in the interest of posthumous clemency and reverence? Well, Buhari’s offense was to the Nigerian state. Speaking for myself, he never offended me as a person. We are so far in age, symbolic capital, and social symmetry for him to have offended me.

But if he did, as a Muslim, I would forgive him. Although the Qur’an and Hadith do not explicitly command Muslims to forgive the dead who wronged them, they strongly recommend forgiveness as a moral virtue, and there is no teaching that restricts forgiveness to only the living.

We are taught to forgive because forgiveness heals the heart from the toxin of resentment and removes the burden of grudge from our own souls. I simply don’t have the emotional and mental stamina to hate or nurse a grudge against anyone.

However, Buhari collectively offended the Nigerian state and its people. He became president when he knew he had neither the physical fitness nor the mental agility to navigate the complex contours of our nation. So, he left Nigeria hungrier, angrier, more divided, and less hopeful than he met it when he became president.

There is no mechanism to get the Nigerian state and its people to forgive him. The hurt he visited on the country and its people, both knowingly and unknowingly, is both unforgivable and inerasable. Forgiving him is beyond the realm of human capacity. Since he was a man of faith, only his Creator can choose to forgive him.

It is noteworthy, nonetheless, that Buhari’s entire adult life was marked by a stubborn resistance to forgive people whom he felt offended him. He had a remarkably gargantuan passion to feed and nurse grudges. Yet, somehow, most people he personally offended often forgave him.

There’s a long list of people that Buhari refused to forgive until his death for minor and major slights they committed against him, but perhaps his bitterest, most intense enemy was former military president Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) who overthrew and jailed him in 1985.

He never forgave IBB for that until he died. But former President Shehu Usman Shagari, whom Buhari also overthrew and jailed in 1983, forgave Buhari. I’ll come back to this point shortly.

Buhari was pretty petty and explicit in his vindictiveness. For instance, he deliberately shunned the launch of IBB’s autobiography even when several previous “enemies” of IBB honored it in the interest of maturity and late-stage reconciliation. He could never forgive IBB.

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He desperately wanted to get back to power not because the benefit of hindsight inspired him with the vision to map out what he could do differently from what he did between 1983 and 1985 to make Nigeria better, but because he wanted to one-up IBB.

He wanted to prove that although IBB got him out of power through the bullet, he got back to power decades later through the ballot. One of his most cherished bragging rights, according to people who were close to him, was that he ended up ruling Nigeria for more years than IBB did.

I joked to someone a few days ago that if the dead could see and talk, Buhari would probably say his only regret was that IBB outlived him. Yes, he had that much consuming obsession with sustaining his grievance and one-upmanship with IBB, even after several efforts were made by northern elders to reconcile them.

For me, though, what was worse than Buhari’s inability to forgive people who offended him was his incapacity to requite the grace of people he offended who chose to forgive him. A classic example was President Shagari.

Although in the aftermath of reconciliation efforts by northern elders Shagari forgave him and was gracious about it, Buhari never quite requited this even when Shagari died. Buhari barely personally acknowledged Shagari’s death. He asked Boss Mustapha, a Christian, to represent him at Shagari’s Muslim funeral.

I recall the horror Buhari’s act evoked in Muslim northern Nigeria at the time. It was seen as symbolic, posthumous “F U” to Shagari. Elders of the region had to prevail on Buhari to pay a personal visit to Shagari’s house after the funeral to compensate for his symbolic blunder.

I doubt that it was a blunder because although he visited the house, he refused to write anything on the condolence register. He just signed his name and didn’t even get the date right. There were no delicately phrased words of condolence, the kind that IBB, his sworn enemy, wrote for him.

Members of the Shagari family took a screenshot of the blank page, which bore testimony to Buhari’s cold-heartedness and unforgiving spirit. I shared it on my website in a January 19, 2019, column I wrote titled “Buhari’s Physical and Mental Health is Now a National Emergency.”

So, it came as no surprise to me when a grandson of Shagari by the name of Nura Muhammad Mahe went public on July 16 with the hurt the family felt by Buhari’s conduct when their patriarch departed.

Drawing a contrast between the praiseworthy dignity with which the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration has treated Buhari’s death and the shabby, ice-old contempt with which he treated Shagari’s, Mahe said although Buhari wasn’t out of the country when Shagari died, Buhari neither attended his funeral nor accorded him a state burial.

“It remains a painful memory that Shagari’s death occurred under the leadership of a man who many believe harboured political animosity toward him,” Mahe wrote. “Even in death, Buhari showed little public remorse or respect for his predecessor.”

In the end, Buhari’s death may have closed the chapter on his life, but it reopened the wounds of a nation he led with cold detachment and punishing indifference. The irony is that a man who struggled to forgive others now stands in need of forgiveness that only the divine can dispense.

For the rest of us still in line, perhaps the lesson is less about the man who has passed and more about the moral imprint we leave behind before the cane reaches us.

Farooq Kperogi: Celebrating Buhari’s death Vs forgiving him

Farooq Kperogi is a renowned Nigerian columnist and United States-based Professor of Journalism.

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Shettima’s final test, by Azu Ishiekwene

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Azu Ishiekwene
Azu Ishiekwene

Shettima’s final test, by Azu Ishiekwene

Shettima’s final test, by Azu Ishiekwene

•Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the book, Writing for Media and Monetising It. 

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STATE OF THE NATION: INSECURITY IN NIGERIA AND MATTERS ARISING

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BREAKING: Kidnapped Oyo Pupils, Teachers Regain Freedom After 55 Days + VIDEO

STATE OF THE NATION: INSECURITY IN NIGERIA AND MATTERS ARISING

THE OGBOMOSO RESCUE: CELEBRATE THE VICTORY, PRESERVE THE LESSONS

By Group Captain Sadeeq Garba Shehu Rtd

Amplified by the Good Governance Group (GGG)

ABUJA – The safe recovery of the remaining pupils and teachers abducted from schools in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State has been met with nationwide relief and celebration. After 56 days in captivity, the children and teachers have been reunited with their families, marking the conclusion of a tense hostage crisis that gripped the nation.

According to the Presidency, the victims were recovered through a sustained military, police and intelligence-driven operation. Eight suspected kidnappers have been arrested and placed in DSS custody, while some members of the group were reportedly neutralised. The Presidency has also stated that no ransom was paid and no prisoner exchange took place, with the terrorist kingpin demanded by the abductors remaining in custody and facing prosecution.

OPERATIONAL SUCCESS OR PROFESSIONAL RESTRAINT?

Security expert Group Captain Sadeeq Garba Shehu Rtd has offered a comprehensive analysis of the operation, emphasising the professional dilemmas inherent in hostage rescue missions.

“Knowing where hostages are located is not the same as possessing a safe opportunity to rescue them,” Shehu stated. “Before action can be taken, commanders must understand the disposition of the captors, the exact location and condition of the hostages, the terrain, and whether an assault is likely to trigger the execution of the hostages.”

The retired officer stressed that hostage rescue operations frequently involve prolonged surveillance, human intelligence, communications interception, and meticulous preparation before force is finally employed.

“The objective is not merely to reach the kidnappers. The objective is to recover the hostages alive,” he added.

INTELLIGENCE: THE DECISIVE WEAPON

Perhaps the most significant feature of the operation, according to Shehu, is the apparent success of intelligence gathering.

“Popular imagination often credits hostage rescues to the soldiers seen during the final assault. Professional practitioners know differently. The visible rescue is merely the final phase. The decisive work usually begins much earlier,” he explained.

Shehu noted that intelligence officers identify patterns, communities provide information, technical surveillance tracks movement, and communications are analysed before any tactical commander can intervene with an acceptable level of risk.

“Firepower may conclude an operation. Intelligence makes it possible,” he said.

INTER-AGENCY COOPERATION

The reported cooperation among the Armed Forces, the DSS and the Nigeria Police Force has also been highlighted as a critical success factor.

“No single institution possesses every capability required to resolve a complex hostage crisis,” Shehu noted, pointing out that Nigeria lacks a dedicated Hostage Rescue Unit comparable to France’s GIGN.

“The Armed Forces contribute operational reach, tactical capability and specialised combat assets. The Police contribute investigative powers, local policing structures and criminal justice responsibilities. The DSS contributes specialised intelligence capabilities. Each institution performs a distinct but complementary function,” he explained.

THE HUMAN COST

Despite the successful rescue, Shehu emphasised that the incident was not casualty-free.

“From official snippets, a couple of security personnel were lost. Lives were lost during the initial attack. Most painfully, Mr. Oyedokun, one of the abducted teachers, was murdered while in captivity. His death reminds us that this was never simply a kidnapping. It was a brutal act of terrorism against innocent civilians,” he stated.

“Our celebration must therefore be accompanied by remembrance. Our relief must be accompanied by compassion.”

SAFE SCHOOLS: FROM POLICY TO PRACTICE

Perhaps the most critical lesson emerging from the Ogbomoso incident, according to Shehu, is the urgent need to strengthen Nigeria’s Safe Schools Programme.

“The 3 affected schools—Community Grammar School, Baptist Nursery and Primary School, and L.A. Primary School in Oriire Local Government Area—like most schools in Nigeria, were in every practical sense UNSAFE SCHOOLS right from the beginning,” he asserted.

Shehu argued that the ultimate objective of security policy is not to rescue children after they have been abducted but to prevent schools from becoming targets in the first place.

“A nation that continually celebrates successful hostage rescues without making its schools safer has addressed the symptom while leaving the underlying vulnerability intact,” he warned.

A CALL FOR COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW

The security expert has called for a thorough after-action review of the Ogbomoso incident, examining intelligence indicators, emergency response procedures, and security architecture around vulnerable schools.

“These questions are not criticisms. They are the foundation of professional improvement. Security institutions that refuse to learn eventually repeat their mistakes. Those that institutionalise learning become progressively stronger,” Shehu stated.

PSYCHOSOCIAL RECOVERY

Shehu also emphasised that the Government’s responsibilities continue beyond the rescue operation.

“The rescued pupils and teachers are survivors of a traumatic experience. They now require protection of a different kind: medical examinations, psychological first aid, trauma-informed counselling, family reunification, educational reintegration, and long-term psychosocial support,” he said.

“Children emerging from prolonged captivity should never become media spectacles.”

THE ENDURING VICTORY

“Recovering the remaining children and teachers was the immediate victory. Making every Nigerian school a genuinely safe school will be the enduring victory,” Shehu concluded.

“That is the lesson we must preserve.”

 

 

STATE OF THE NATION: INSECURITY IN NIGERIA AND MATTERS ARISING

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Nobody needs NYSC reform – Reuben Abati

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Nobody needs NYSC reform - Reuben Abati

Nobody needs NYSC reform – Reuben Abati

Peter F. Drucker, the Austrian-American management guru (1909 -2005), it was who opined that change is an inevitable constant in human situations and that innovation is important in the 21st Century where skills become obsolete at the speed of light and what was deemed essential yesterday sooner or later becomes irrelevant, requiring new thinking, new styles, new modes to remain relevant and to gain new knowledge. But the proposed plan by the Federal Government of Nigeria to reform the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme does not fit into this pattern. It is a classic case of majoring in the minors, a misplaced priority, a wasteful adventure whose long-term subliminal objective may be mere self-enrichment that would not change much but rather cause unwanted confusion.

The Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration has advertised itself as a reform-minded administration. But certain reforms do not come across as a priority, and this NYSC reform is one such thoughtless proposition, like, if we may cite an earlier example, the decision to revert to the old Nigerian national anthem. I watch people at public events, they sing along most reluctantly because there was no consensus, nor has there been any buy-in, that Nigeria needed to change its National Anthem. It is important that policies are not enacted or revised simply to satisfy the personal fancy or the whims of anyone, no matter how highly placed. In the case of the NYSC, nobody was consulted. We woke up one morning only to be told by the minister of state for youth development, Ayodele Olawande, that a decision had been taken to reform the NYSC programme. Nobody needs NYSC reform.

The NYSC is 53 years old. Established in May 1973 by the Yakubu Gowon military administration, it was a post-civil war measure in pursuit of the objectives of the three Rs: reconciliation, rehabilitation, and reconstruction, to reintegrate Nigerians and reunite them and heal the wounds of the civil war. The fratricidal war divided Nigeria and watered the seeds of ethnicity and difference.

Over 50 years later, the wounds are yet to heal. The NYSC was an attempt at reconciliation. It started with the posting of graduates of tertiary institutions to cities and states far away from their homes and places of graduation, to allow them to live among other people, get to understand Nigeria and learn to serve Nigeria selflessly. The emphasis was on service. When the late sage Chinua Achebe wrote that “there was once a country”, the NYSC was part of that effort at the making and remaking of Nigeria. It is the case that when the country began to fail on all fronts in terms of security, institutional integrity, and increased ethnic and religious division, a group of Nigerians began to agitate that the NYSC was no longer serving its purpose and it should be scrapped.

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Except that the problem is not with the scheme but the Nigerian factor: the inbred tendency by those in charge to minimise every good thing and ruin it. It is instructive that the Tinubu administration is not contemplating an abandonment of the scheme. Apart from the fact that this would be a disservice to the father of the NYSC, General Yakubu Gowon, who is still alive, it would amount to an unconscionable erosion of a significant aspect of collective public memory. Those who participated in the scheme in the earlier days have fond memories.

On Saturday, during a radio programme, Professor Seun Omotayo, a professor of sports psychology, currently based in Ghana, recalled that when he completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Ibadan, he was posted for National Service in Ogun state. He was not happy that he was being sent to his home state. He personally went to the NYSC office in Lagos and asked to be posted to the northern part of Nigeria.  I doubt if anyone would request such a change of posting these days. On Sunday, I had a conversation on the NYSC with Emeritus Professor Duro Oni of the University of Lagos, in the course of which he held the view that the NYSC remains relevant to Nigeria’s growth and development. The NYSC gave him his wife. He met her when she came to participate in the scheme in Lagos. Today, the woman from Ogoja in Cross River state has given him four sons and six grandchildren. “I probably would never have met her if there was no NYSC.”

There are many Nigerians who have a similar experience: inter-ethnic marriages being one of the gains of the NYSC. Those who would probably never have left their hometowns discovered Nigeria through the eyes and experiences of other Nigerians and communities. Life-long friendships have been formed over the years. I know Shedrack Akolokwu from Omoku-Ogba in Rivers state, for example. I was a young secondary student when he came to serve Nigeria in Abeokuta, Ogun state. He was so much a part of the community. He and I have remained in touch over the years. The last time I saw him in Port Harcourt, he was asking after everybody in the neighbourhood, mentioning each person’s name as if he had left Abeokuta yesterday, and it has been over 45 years since he participated in the NYSC.

My service year was spent in Benin City, old Bendel state. A few years ago, I found myself in Benin. I quickly asked the driver to take me to the compound where I lived. I also went to the department where I was a graduate assistant at the University of Benin, reliving old memories.  I find it shocking, therefore, that one of the reforms being proposed by the Tinubu administration is that corps members may not be posted to conflict areas where insecurity may be a challenge, to ensure safety and reduce the anxiety of parents. Only indigenes of those areas or graduates of schools in such locations would be sent there. This defeats the fundamental objective of the NYSC: to promote unity and open up Nigeria to its young persons. And who the hell came up with the twisted logic that graduates and indigenes from conflict zones are better off in those zones? Every life is important. No Nigerian, whether a graduate or not, should be exposed to danger. It is the duty of the government to address the challenge of insecurity and make every part of Nigeria safe for all.

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Minister Olawande also said the NYSC uniform will be changed, although a final decision on this has not yet been taken.  But the government is considering Ankara or the adire batik fabric. The idea is to promote locally made fabrics and support the Nigerian textile industry.  I dare say that there is nothing wrong with the current NYSC uniform. The khaki fabric and the vest are more durable than either Ankara or adire that would start fading or get torn within a short while. The proposal is also likely to evoke ethnic comparisons and sentiments. Adire batik is largely produced in the south-western part of the country, made for the most part in Ogun, Osun and Kwara states. It may be dismissed as an opportunity to create business for only one part of the country. Igbos are likely to demand that the Isiagu should also become part of the NYSC uniform. Northerners are likely to ask for babanriga in the spirit of federal character. Other ethnic nationalities may also make a case for their own local attire. Nobody needs such confusion.  What can be done is to improve the quality of the present uniform. In our time, the khaki had better quality, the vest and the boots too, but these days, the uniform is so poorly made, its cheapness is unmistakable.

The orientation camp for the NYSC, we are told, will be extended from four to six weeks, and the deployment will be restructured based on choices and processes during the camp, as the new NYSC will offer 11 specialised streams ranging from agriculture, education, technology and digital, healthcare, infrastructure, public service, legal, paramilitary and security, the economy, to enterprise. Corps members will be required to choose any of these streams, where within six weeks they can be trained in entrepreneurial skills and prepared for the job market. We are missing the point. The NYSC orientation camp is not a training school. It is meant to be an experience. If the plan is to teach entrepreneurship, that should have been done at the university level. It is the college curriculum that needs to be reviewed, and entrepreneurship built into the various disciplines in order to ensure a proper alignment between scholarship and the labour market, for a purposeful school-to-work transition.

In its original design, the NYSC was meant to provide paramilitary training and inculcate the values of discipline and service. Indeed, there is nothing new about the six-week proposal. During the 1990/91 batch, corps members spent six weeks in camp and were even taught how to handle small arms and light weapons. But the military government soon abandoned the idea out of fear that the state may have unwittingly been training potential coup plotters. The so-called streams actually exist. In our time, corps members were assigned to specific responsibilities: persons who manned the kitchen prepared the meals and served others, some corps members served as Platoon commanders while everyone marched, we had press club, drama club, and it all worked out smoothly. Part of the reform is to place the NYSC under civilian leadership. Under the present arrangement, the director-general may be from the education corps of the Nigerian military, but at the state level, the NYSC secretariats are manned by civilians, and so changing the headship of the scheme will not make much difference as long as standards are maintained.

What the federal government needs to do is to make the NYSC experience richer and more exciting for those who participate in it. The monthly allowance for corps members should be increased, and feeding at the orientation camps should be improved. Scrap the monthly community development exercises. Ensure that the orientation camps are properly secured to eliminate the risk of bandits and terrorists attacking those camps to kidnap corps members. Corps members should be deployed to places of primary assignment relevant to their fields of study. There is no point in changing from a passing-out parade to a graduation ceremony. Will corps members now wear graduation gowns?  That is not necessary. Will the proposed reforms modernise the NYSC? No. Will they improve employability? I don’t think so.

There are far more important and urgent issues that the federal government should be concerned about at this moment. One, the terribly embarrassing disclosure that a certain Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew set up a fake Presidential Agency – the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC)  and Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) – which the Presidency now disclaims as a scam operation, and yet the said Prince had been operating openly – meeting with key government officials, receiving ambassadors in audience, and running an office at the Federal Secretariat that was duly allocated to him by the Office of the Sectary to the Government of the Federation. He has over 300 staff, including directors, who are all on the government payroll. His fake agency even got a N1.3 billion allocation in the 2026 Budget. He runs 39 bank accounts and even has accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria. He has since been charged to court, and his matter comes up on July 27. The man is in no way apologetic. He says he has a letter of appointment and that he paid N600 million to the president’s chief of staff, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, to get appointed. Trouble started when his sponsor wanted a lion’s share of the budgetary allocation to his office. He says one Babatunde Tanimola facilitated his appointment, but now Tanimola died in a hotel room in Abuja just before he, Adeniyi, was arrested in November 2025. Indeed, who knows tomorrow?

What we know today is the spectacle before us: a spectacle of institutional failure, incompetence, collusion, corruption and the failure of due process. If it is possible to manufacture a non-existent government agency and operate openly and brazenly, then there are persons within the entire government machinery who must answer questions. A thorough investigation must be conducted to find out if there are other similar agencies in the Federal Capital Territory. Prince Adeniyi’s boldness is so shocking. He should have his day in court. He should be allowed to say all that he knows, and no attempt whatsoever should be made to intimidate him. It is wrong, as the police reportedly did yesterday, to arrest Adeniyi’s father in lieu. Police allegedly stormed his parents’ home in Ogbomoso and arrested his father and a family friend. It is illegal to do so. Criminal liability is personal. It is not transferable in light of Section 7 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015. The Nigerian Police, not knowing this, is scandalous.

The other urgent issue would be the observation by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the Nigerian government has frittered away 2% of GDP (about N8.8 trillion) on off-budget spending. The prompt reaction from the Minister of Finance, Taiwo Oyedele, is to deny and insist that Nigeria does not have any ghost budget. This does not call for bluffing. The same government that introduced Executive Order 9 to ensure transparency and accountability in government finances should take allegations of hidden deficit, opaqueness and failure of oversight more seriously. Finally, it is about time Nigeria took South Africa to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on its request for compensation over xenophobia losses, the genocide in South Africa and that country’s institutionalisation of hatred. On the question of NYSC reform, it is in the best interest of the Nigerian government to listen to the people’s responses and retrace its steps forthwith.

Nobody needs NYSC reform – Reuben Abati

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