President Muhammadu Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari
Open Letter to President Buhari on the Alleged Ganduje
Videos, by Audu Bulama Bukarti
Dear President Muhammadu Buhari,
Following your recent appearance on Kadaria Ahmed’s
widely-televised programme, The Candidates, I write to raise some
issues regarding your response to several questions on the viral
video clips allegedly showing Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of
Kano State receiving bribe from contractors.
Sir, what stood out to me in your answers are that you “can’t
understand” the extent of the “technology” used in the clips and
that you are counting on Kano State Assembly (KSHA) and the Kano
State High Court (KSHC) to provide you with the answers you and
every Nigerian want before you go to Kano for your election
campaign.
Your Excellency, these statements left me with only one
conclusion: that you have been utterly misled by those people you
appointed and trusted to guide you. Contrary to what you have been
made to believe, the issue of investigating the clips is not in
court and it is not before the KSHA. The whole world is now waiting
for you to act. I will explain my assertion below.
Sir, there is currently no ongoing investigation on the said
clips at the KSHA and there no pending suit on the investigation.
Immediately after the videos went viral, the KSHA instituted an ad
hoc committee to investigate the allegations. The committee held
public sittings to which it invited Jaafar Jaafar – the journalist
who first released the videos – and he who honoured the invitation,
testified before the committee and made copies of the clips
available to it. I was specially moved by the fact that Jaafar
arrived the venue with a copy of the Noble Qur’an and he to
testified while hanging it, the same Qur’an you swore on on the
29th of May 2015 that you will, among other things, fight
corruption “without fear or favour, affection or ill-will”.
Next, the committee invited Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje. But
Ganduje failed, refused or neglected to appear before the
committee. Instead, he sent his Commissioner of Information to
represent him. Predictably, the representative could not offer any
convincing explanation not least because he was not there when the
alleged facts took place. He merely denied the content of the video
and cast aspersions on the personality of Jaafar Jaafar. To recap
this point, Jaafar has honoured the committee’s invitation and
testified, but Ganduje failed to appear. Doesn’t that tell you
anything Sir?
But the worst for Ganduje was still to come. Few days after he
refused to appear before the committee, the whistle-blower who shot
the video and who was initially hesitant to testify volunteered to
appear before the committee if his security and safety can be
guaranteed. The committee started making moves to appoint experts
to analyse the videos. These development chilled Ganduje and his
team to the marrow. The next thing we heard was that a self-styled,
unregistered group of lawyers has instituted an action asking the
court to stop the KSHA from investigating the videos. The court
first restrained the committee and later pronounced that the KSHA
has no power to investigate the videos as they contain criminal
allegations. It further declared that it is the function of such
agencies as the police, the EFCC and the ICPC to investigate the
allegations and that the videos should be submitted to them. Thus,
the court has already ruled that the KSHA lacks power to proceed
and threw to ball to the court of the police, the EFCC and/or the
EFCC and all these agencies are under your watch. Thus, there is
neither an ongoing investigation nor is there a pending suit on the
investigation. So, the matter is not in the court. It is not in the
KSHA. Consequently, you unfortunately cannot find the answers you
are looking for from the KSHA or from the Court. The EFCC, ICPC,
NPF and the DSS have refused to act and they are all under you.
Thus, the ball is now in your court, Mr. President.
Your Excellency, permit me to now turn to your statement that
you don’t know “the extent of [the] technology used” in the clips
and you “can’t understand it”. Mr. President, I believe you a
hundred-and-ten percent that you don’t know the extent of the
technology used, but I state, with profound respect, that you can
understand it if you wish to. Qur’an 16:43 teaches us you “ask the
people of the message if you do not know”. Sir, the only thing
needed for you to understand the video is for a forensic
investigation to be carried out on them. This investigation would
reveal whether the clips are genuine or doctored or fake. Today,
Allah has put as your disposal every investigative agency in
Nigeria: the DSS, the NPF, the EFCC, ICPC, name them. Sir, you
simply need to ask them to investigate and brief you so that you
may understand “the extent of [the] technology used.”
But you do not even have to ask and wait for forensic
investigation to be conducted because the EFCC has already done
one. This is according its acting chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu and
all you to do is to simply direct the EFCC chairman to brief you on
their findings. On 23rd November 2018, Mr. Magu told me in public
at Queen Mary University of London that his team was in London to,
among other things, conduct forensics into the clips. But upon
completion and return to Nigeria, he kept mute on the issue. I
suspect that result he found is against Ganduje. Otherwise, he
would have publicised the results and the police would have
arrested and prosecuted the journalist and the whistle-blower.
Sir, do need to remind you that in 2015 you campaigned on the
back of three key promises – fighting corruption, unemployment and
Boko Haram – and I understand that you are riding on the same
promises today. Millions of Nigerians and I who not only voted for
you in 2015 but also voluntarily worked for your election to the
last atom of our strength did so because we believed that “if we
don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.” On the 29th
of May 2015, you swore on the Glorious Qur’an saying I “will to the
best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria”. Furthermore, Section 15 (5) of
the Constitution mandates you to “abolish all corrupt practices and
abuse of power” in Nigeria.
Mr President, the duo of Jaafar Jaafar and the whistle-blower
who did their best to complement your efforts in fight against
corruption, are bearing the brunt of your administration’s undoing.
While Jaafar is facing a N3billion “defamation” suit, the business
interest of the contractor who filmed the video is on a knife edge.
The ongoing contracts being executed by his company have been
revoked by the state government. This is counter-productive to your
whistle-blowing policy as people will rather remain silent in
future.
Finally, Mr. President, as you rightly stated in your response
to Kadaria Ahmed, this issue has “received a lot of publicity” and
“the world is [now] watching us”. You are the President who duty is
to lead. If keep complaining that you can’t understand, you will
only continue to erode public confidence in your government as you
are telling us that you are not in charge. Your Excellency, your
action or inaction on fighting corruption in Nigeria will surely be
written in history books and taught in history classes and this
case is a litmus test. I pray you wouldn’t let, nay make, history
judge you harshly. Most importantly, in the Day of Judgement, you
would be judged by the Almighty as to whether you have done your
best to deliver on your promise. On that Day, there would be no
cabal, aides, no supporters and Professor Osinbajo wouldn’t be
sitting beside you!
The long and short of what I have said is that the
whistle-blower has fulfilled his obligation as good citizen, Jaafar
Jaafar has paid his dues as a journalist, the KSHA has played its
own and the court has ruled. And now I have done my part. The ball
is now in your court, Mr. President.
Mr Bukarti, a Ph.D candidate at SOAS, University of London, is
human rights and anti-corruption lawyer.