The Buhari APC government will not cease to amaze. Just when you think the handlers of the president have reached their zenith and nadir of infamy and dragging the nation to the bottom in the unabashed efforts to hoodwink the unsuspecting public to their devious designs, they dig up the unthinkable in political treachery and larceny.
And you begin to wonder, are these people aware that the world has become a global village in the spirit of globalisation? Are they aware that with remarkable advances in information technology, searching for and getting information about any topic has become a piece of cake? Are they in tune with the possibilities inherent in social media tools and search engines that gives you instant information on the push of a button? If they do, how come they un-abashly tried the other day to hoodwinked Nigerians with a vanity award purported given to President Mohammadu Buhari by the Luther Centre. How could the President and the nation be so embarrassed? Or is it part of the scheme towards 2019 when decorum is thrown to the wind in an attempt to prop up the President’s image and electoral fortunes?. These are questions that borders the mind as one contemplate what desperation could have driven those that went about selling a dummy to Mr. President in the name of an award by the Martin Luther Centre.
President Mohammadu Buhari in a well-advertised event which took place at the presidential villa last Tuesday in Abuja was purportedly awarded or won “the Black history award in recognition of President Buhari’s anti corrupting war” the wife of the late American civil Right Activist Martin Luther King Jnr who was packaged as ‘Matriarch’ of the King family, presented the award to Buhari at Aso Rock Presidential Villa.
“President Buhari today at the state House received Martin Luther King Jnr formally. He was also conferred with the 1st Black History month National Black Excellent and Exceptional Africa Award 2018 in Aso Rock today” The presidency informed the world in a post. What a ruse.
There was a swift reaction from the King’s family and Foundation, which dissociated itself from the award in a statement it said “the award given to president Buhari of Nigeria was not given by the King Centre or by the children of Martin Luther King and Coretta Scot King”
In their desperation to give a semblance of credibility to the award, they even resurrected the personal of Coretta King. The wife of Martin Luther King who died on Jan 30, 2006 to present the award to Buhari! How audacious, and embarrassing. And most ridiculous is that they expected that it would pass unnoticed in this age and time!
Evidently, the global shame and approbuim the Buhari government and its handlers are willing to subject this nation to know no bounds.
Put against similar happenings in the past it seems nothing, no matter how incredulous is past the handlers of Mr. Presidents. While Buhari as a person may not be particularly responsible for this deceit and national disgrace, his handlers have no hiding place and should all be held culpable. Howbeit, that an award is to be given to the president of a nation, and no due diligence was undertaken to verify the authenticity and claims of the organisation and personality purportedly giving the award? This obviously goes beyond mere oversight and dereliction, it may as well be sabotage on the part of those who are supposed to know but chose to turn the other way for the deceit to be perpetrated against the person of the president and the integrity of the nation.
The controversial award is said to have been facilitated by Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the Senior Special Assistant to the president on Foreign Relations & Diaspora matters through a Ghanaian diplomat, Erieka Bennett, who runs a Non-Governmental Organization called, Diaspora African Forum based in Accra, Ghana. Erieka Bennett is said to calls herself ‘Ambassador At Large’ and uses her influence to hoodwink unsuspecting African leaders to accept vanity awards from nondescript bodies after collecting large sums of money.
Erieka Bennett is said to have been contracted by Abike Dabiri-Erewa to help use her NGO to bring Martin Luther King Junior’s family to Nigeria to give President Muhammadu Buhari award, when the King’s Centre declined, a plan “b” was hatched, which eventually led to the dubious award that was eventually presented to President Buhari.
The award obviously was a PR stunt which backfired. However it has been alleged that it cost the nation $3million.
As it were deceit and lies are becoming a major hallmark of the APC administration. Recall that just last month the Honourable Minister of Agriculture was openly called a liar, by no less a personality than a foreign ambassador. The ambassador of Thailand had visited the Minister but what came as the outcome of that meeting as reported by the Minister was one that had no bearing on what transpired between them. It was carefully calculated to garnish the image of the administration as winning the rice war with Thailand. In his speech the Minister had reported that the Ambassador of Thailand had come to complain that Nigeria had dealt a death blow to the economy of Thailand as a result of the dearth in demand for rice by Nigerian the resultant effect which has been unemployment in Thailand.
How low can a minister go? He lied against an ambassador of a foreign nation, who uncharacteristically and undiplomatically was forced to issue a statement denying the statement attributed to him. The Minister who is usually garrulous and impenitent has not been heard from since. Possibly waiting for a nation which easily forgets to forget before he launches himself again into public consciousness.
Buhari is often derided for paying too much premium on loyalty than competence. He is said to value the personal loyalty of his functionaries than proficiency and competence. Hence he is rather accommodating of the serial complacence of his appointees. Once you are loyal be assured that with Buhari your job is safe, all infractions would be overlooked and forgiven. However, it is surprising that Abike Dabiri is involved in all these shenanigans; over the years she has built a reputation for herself that is unassailable, to be involved in this fraud is unfathomable. APC do have a way of rottening peoples brains and reputation.
