President Tinubu, no thanks for the seven-day mourning for Buhari

"The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot" ( Prov 10:7)

Like the fuel subsidy that he removed with a fiat on the podium of his inauguration as the 16th president of Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu has again given Nigerians a gift they don't desire. He has called them fools for the umpteenth time. By asking them to observe a seven-day mourning for Muhammadu Buhari, two-term civilian president of Nigeria and a one-time military head of state, Tinubu has again told Nigerians how inconsequential and stupid they are. Who is Muhammadu Buhari to deserve such an honour in the country? He won't be the first president to die; Alhaji Shehu Shagari died, Alhaji Umaru Yar’adua died, General Sanni Abacha died, General Murtala Mohammed died, the first and only Prime Minister, Tafawa Balewa was killed in a coup, General Aguiyi Ironsi was killed in a revenge coup, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria's first titular president died, even iconic builder of the North, Sir Ahmadu Bello, first and only premier of the old Northern Region, died, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the legendary first premier of the old Western Region who accomplished great works in the region died; for none of these men was any mourning period declared, for none of them was a day public holiday declared as Tinubu has done for Buhari.

What great thing did Buhari do to warrant this honour? What great stupidity has Nigerians committed to entitle them to this sham? Buhari, in all his comings as Nigeria's ruler, tyrannized Nigerians. When he came as military head of state in a coup on 31st December 1983, he took Nigerians as slaves, drafted soldiers on the streets to teach Nigerians, in his way, how to behave. He sent soldiers to schools to teach students discipline until his fellow soldiers could no longer tolerate his iron-grip rule, and they threw him out in a coup. He arrested all the civilian rulers, especially those from the south, and locked them in prison. He was such dumb that he didn't know when a much smarter colleague, General Ibrahim Babangida, excluded him from all around him until he was left with only his ADC. Locked up and released later, he swore never to forgive Babangida. Now Babangida is praising him as patriotic. What did he see to so brand Buhari, whom he called "holier than thou," just a few years ago?

Buhari swore to come back to government in the civilian dispensation and made a determined effort. He tried thrice but failed. He was too rigid, deceitful, too tyrannical, too egoistic, for Nigerians to keep rejecting him. He sat down in his North, thinking that with votes from only that part of the nation, he could win the presidency. Who in the south did not know Buhari as a tribal jingoist, as a Muslim fundamentalist, as a man who only thinks of his Fulani tribe, as a rabid hater of the Igbo who he punished with relish during the revenge coup in Lagos, ordering their arrest where they were killed from barracks to barracks in Lagos, who fought against the Igbo during the tragic three-year civil war with such wrath as if to annihilate them from the surface of the earth, who will not attend to a paramitary group from the old University of Ife who wanted some donations of military kits from him because they had no northerner in their membership. With all these, Buhari was never to win any election in the south. But Bola Tinubu came with a lie that repackaged Buhari as a repentant democrat. This soldier turned civilian only removed his khaki uniform but kept his tempestuous heart, and soon began to wear a suit that he had never worn in his life up till then. It was a PR stunt recommended by a PR outfit, Bola Tinubu, imported from America. Bola Tinubu backed him up with huge cash, and he won the election of 2015 election. But like the deceitful person that he was, Tinubu was the first victim of his victory. He kept Tinubu at a distance from Aso Rock, the seat of the presidency in Nigeria. Buhari filled almost every available post with his Fulani people. He would not consult with his party men, just as he was accused of not doing so as the military head of state, which caused his colleagues to remove him.

He won the second term through a combination of Tinubu's cash backing and manipulation. Still, Tinubu remained a pariah; he would not want anything to do with him. He excluded even Professor Yemi Osinbajo, his deputy, said to have been nominated for him by Tinubu. When it was time for the nomination of the APC, the party of the president, Buhari, worked against Tinubu. His choice was a fellow Fulani, Mohammed Lawan, the former Senate President. He was a Fulani who had served eight years, and he wanted to plant another Fulani in his stead. Yes, he would do that. Nigeria can go to the blazes. By political dexterity and his huge cash, Tinubu would get the nomination of their party. In short, he defeated Buhari because, in real terms, the battle was between Buhari and Tinubu. Buhari deployed all the amenities of government to favour Mohammed Lawan.

Although Tinubu has continued to sing the song of continuing where Buhari stopped in governance, discerning Nigerians know that Tinubu has reversed all that Buhari did. He couldn't help but do that because Buhari practically brought the economy down. He printed 3 trillion naira and borrowed from China until China said no more. He didn't mind telling Nigerians that he is not a citizen, that he came from Niger, a neighbouring country. "If you threaten me in Daura (hometown in Katsina state), I will move to Niger," he told reporters toward the end of his tenure. He caused a railway line to be constructed from Nigeria right to Maradi in the Niger Republic. Who would question him? He was draconian, he had the power of the state, and he employed it to silence opposition. He commanded soldiers to maul down dozens of youths who protested the lawless harassment of the police all over Nigeria. Buhari both delegated and abdicated; once you have his trust, especially if you are from his tribe he doesn't bother how you do the job he delegates to you. Accountability is a stranger to him. When Buhari came to power in 2015, all federal civil servants feared him and rose to the challenge. They got to the office promptly, and they saw him as one who would fight corruption hands down. But six months later, everybody knew the Buhari they had was not efficient. And the usual indolence resumed. Buhari's ministers emptied the Treasury as their boss looked the other way. The EFCC, the anti-graft body, became toothless, only employed when Buhari wanted to witchhunt an enemy. It is not a coincidence that the Attorney General of Buhari's predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, Mohammed Bello Adoke, launched his memoir, "OPL 245," a few days before Buhari died and catalogued how Buhari persecuted him over an oil block deal until the court set him free. Adoke's boss, Goodluck Jonathan, corroborated Adoke, saying Buhari persecuted him.

But Olusegun Obasanjo, former president, Goodluck Jonathan, also former president, General Ibrahim Babangida, former self-declared military president, have been singing the praises of Buhari. Obasanjo lied that Buhari died at a time Nigeria needed him most. The man has served ten years, two as military ruler and has accomplished nothing but pain for Nigerians. He, like Obasanjo himself, has built no structure to achieve peace and fairness in Nigeria. Buhari was over 80 when he died, and so what again can he do for Nigeria after he wasted ten years? If Nigeria misses Buhari at all, it is because he will not be around to witness the mountainous heaps of money stolen under his watch. Ibrahim Babangida praised Buhari's patriotism but forgot to tell Nigerians why Buhari tactfully shunned his charade of a book of IBB, recently, where he chronicled his hogwash years as a military dictator. Buhari has refused to write his memoirs. Shortly before he died, he said he would not be writing because he didn't want to offend the children of those he would want to name in the book. This is a great disservice to the nation. Whereas everybody who served with Buhari has written and made scathing rebukes on his service, the man, as usual, dodged this huge responsibility of giving Nigeria a balanced history. He had refused to give little children education in Katsina, boys and girls between 3 to 9, who tropped the streets to denounce the man who served them for ten years. They were shouting "BUHARI YAMUTU." Yamutu is not a good word to describe the death of a good man. Buhari has nothing to write but stories of horror. Just as he couldn't afford to be confronted publicly with his misdeeds at the launching of IBB's "Journey In Service," he also refused to unload the wrong he did in office in a memoir.

So, why should it be it's for this man that President Tinubu is afflicting Nigerians by asking them to spend one day doing nothing? That is one holiday Nigerians don't want. Why should it be for Buhari that Nigerians are asked to mourn for seven whole days with the flag of the nation flying at half mast? Tinubu should know that Nigerians have been mourning for the eight years of Buhari's misrule. They mourned when Buhari killed their children all over the nation, especially at Lekki Tollgate and Abuja and the East and in Lagos over the death enmasse of their children. Tinubu, you mean you don't know that you spiked the mourning of Nigeria a notch higher when you removed the fuel subsidy. This is what you did if you don't know; you removed money from the poor in Nigeria and gave the money to the governors, the legislators and the executive, who in turn distribute it among the Lebanese and Chinese contractors and their local agents. You don't know the poor in Nigeria have been mourning over this. They are very hungry. They told you in Lagos; in your Lagos. You may not know because you are far removed from them. Nigerians have been mourning since you said you can't fund universities again. Parents mourned when their children had to withdraw from the universities. One poor student I encouraged to secure admission to the University of Jos finally withdrew a few days ago when he could no longer cope. Now, the hope of university education is lost forever for the poor in Nigeria. Yet Mr. President, you have been mushrooming universities all over the place, including the one in Iragbiji, Osun state, which some people are still calling your ancestral home. What is the sense in that? The existing universities can't be funded, yet you are establishing new ones, and you are signing bills converting polytechnics into universities.

Mr President, I don't know if you saw a photograph of Buhari on his sick bed at the London clinic where he reportedly died. I hope it is not true, but if it is true, even if you didn't see it, ask your social media team to get it for you at all costs. My bible tells me it is better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting. Buhari looked so gaunt in that photograph. I don't know how long they have kept him out of public gaze before they suddenly told us that he went to London for a routine medical check-up and was asked to turn in for admission. That photograph tells the story of a man who had been sick for months and was rushed abroad at the point of death. He couldn't have been that emaciated within a few days. Please learn from that photograph because that is the end of men; death is a leveler. Today, you are on the throne of Nigeria, and you can afford to afflict Nigerians to mourn a man who afflicted them with more pains and killed them and discriminated against them if they are not from his tribe. Some time later, somebody will have to look at your photograph too. For me, I'm not going to mourn Buhari, I have been mourning for years, my teary eyes are weak. I will only ask all leaders to know that one day they will suffer the fate of Buhari. If they rule well and sacrificially, Nigerians will celebrate and not mourn them.

Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos