Ambassador Buratai as a Victim of PDP’s Phantom Patriotism
By Maiwada Dammallam
Ambassador Buratai as a Victim of PDP’s Phantom Patriotism: In a report published by Daily Trust Newspaper (4/7/21), the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to recall the former chief of army staff (COAS) and Nigeria’s ambassador to the Benin Republic, Tukur Buratai, to face investigations and clear his name over his alleged connection to the N1.8bn recovered in Abuja. Apparently, PDP is reacting to the money recovered from a property in Abuja by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), recently.
If anything, PDP’s ranting on this matter only proved how shallow and ill-motivated its newly found sense of accountability is besides proving how hopelessly retarded PDP is and how hopelessly irreversible the situation is. One could only wonder what substances they feed people at Wadata Plaza that every next National Publicity Secretary is as daftly equipped as the last; always good at scoring own goals or at best, exposing the ill-preparedness of the PDP as the main opposition party.
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How else could one explain the silliness of this round of PDP’s anti-corruption crusade? According to its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, the call to President Buhari to recall the former chief of army staff (COAS) and Nigeria’s ambassador to the Benin Republic, Gen. Tukur Buratai was predicated on the statement released to the public by the ICPC on the N1.8bn saga. It’s interesting then, that while ICPC in the statement released to media or anywhere else, did not link the recovery to Gen. Buratai in any manner whatsoever, PDP is urging President Buhari to investigate Buratai on the case. What could be after?
PDP’s strain of amnesia is out of this world too. While PDP is “patriotically” urging President Buhari to investigate people in cases they have no relevance, the entire Wadata Plaza is overcrowded with beneficiaries of the $2.3bn arms scandal perpetrated by the PDP in its dying days. If the call to President Buhari to investigate Buratai is for him (Buratai) to clear his name as Ologunagba put it, I will take PDP is fully convinced of the guilt of its warlords and the hopelessness of any effort to clear their names hence, the party’s lack of interest to invite President Buhari to speedy up the process of clearing their names in various courts across Nigeria where they make regular appearances to answer questions about not only the above mentioned $2.3bn monumental heist but about similar others of different categories and classifications. PDP is simply shameless!
Funnily, PDP said the assertion by Monguno heightened suspicion on allegations of barefaced looting of money meant to equip our security forces. Very few people will forget that the same PDP crying about an imaginary “barefaced looting of money meant to equip our security forces, left the Nigerian Army fighting Boko Haram almost barehanded, a situation that seriously degraded the morale and capacity of the Nigerian Armed Forces to the lowest minimum achievable. It’s the same Buratai that today PDP is picking on who halted and reversed the embarrassing situation, restoring honour, decency and dignity into the Nigerian Army while recovering for Nigeria a considerable number of LGAs that were conceded to Boko Haram by the PDP. PDP should go all the way; floor the gas pedal of shamelessness and tell Nigerians Buratai achieved this feat with clubs and catapults and not with the critical weapons it denied the army which billions of dollars voted to purchase were shared by PDP warlords.
PDP should also deny Nigeria has been taking delivery of military hardware which orders were placed during the life of this administration and during the tenure of Gen. Buratai as Chief of Army Staff. Even more mesmerizing is PDP’s respect for Monguno on the whose misquoted assertion the party is trading what’s left of its respectability for phantom accolades by mostly its foot soldiers. Less we forget, the Office of the National Security Adviser has to release a statement to clarify the position of the NSA. A report, titled “Missing arms funds: NSA Monguno makes U-turn, says he was “misquoted,” published by Daily Nigerian (12/3/21) partly read thus:
“The attention of the Office of the National Security Adviser has been drawn to some media reports regarding Armed Forces equipment during an interview with the BBC Hausa service. We would like to state that the NSA was quoted out of context as he did not categorically say that funds meant for arms procurement were missing under the Former Service Chiefs as reported or transcribed by some media outlets from the BBC interview. During the interview, the National Security Adviser only reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to deal decisively with insecurity and stated President Muhammadu Buhari’s continued commitment to provide all necessary support to the Armed Forces, including the provision of arms and equipment.”
“In the interview the National Security Adviser clearly informed the BBC reporter that Mr President has provided enormous resources for arms procurement, but the orders were either inadequate or yet to be delivered and that did not imply that the funds were misappropriated under the former Service Chiefs. The NSA also informed the reporter that, Mr President is following up on the procurement process as is usual with contracts relating to military equipments, in most cases the process involves manufacturing, due diligence and tedious negotiations that may change delivery dates.”
Then, Olugunagba must be high on something to ignore all this in a blind pursuit to drag the name of Gen. Buratai in what’s clearly a syndicated effort to discredit him for being a stalwart of the APC. In my previous outing on this matter, I warned about a syndicated agenda to go after APC stalwarts by the PDP in its blind and clearly hopeless effort to reclaim power from the APC come 2023. With this, I’m vindicated.
Finally, let me infuse humour into this opinion by closing with this humorous anecdote as contained in its latest verbiage:
“Any allegation bordering on the looting of funds meant for the fight against terrorism is of grave national concern and consequence. It must be thoroughly investigated and anybody found wanting must be made to face the full weight of the law no matter how highly place.”
This is PDP talking. I’m convinced, that whatever substance is being abused in Wadata Plaza is worse than expired “ganja” mixed with “ogogoro.” Truly, PDP’s aversion to honour, decency and fairness is as unprecedented as its legendary. It’s particularly important for APC to see and respond to this attack for what it is — a syndicated attack on this administration to dampen the chances of APC coming in 2023. This is not about Gen. Buratai or fighting corruption in Nigeria. PDP is the least to be interested in the administration’s fight against corruption because it’s the enemy. This is about smearing APC by the PDP to balance the existing moral deficiency it’s carrying like a hump on a camel’s back. Dear APC, be warned!
Ambassador Buratai as a Victim of PDP’s Phantom Patriotism
Ambassador Buratai as
