By Yushau A.
Shuaib
Your
Excellency, Mr. President, permit me to use this open letter as an appropriate
channel to convey this message to you for the obvious reason of reliability.
For fear of being misunderstood, I should state from the onset that I have been
your hardened fan since the 80-90s while I was a student and contributing
articles featuring the famed incorruptibility and discipline of you and your
former lieutenant, the late General Tunde Idiagbon. (Link: http://yashuaib.com/1991/11/haba-governor-madaki/
It may
interest you to note that immediately after your election, I was approached by
well-wishers requesting my services on communication strategies for your wife,
Mrs Aisha Buhari. While I recognised the fact that such request to work with
the first family is a great honour, I nevertheless politely declined for fear
of conflict of interest because I had served the Office of the National
Security Adviser (ONSA) during the tenure of Sambo Dasuki which is being probed
by your government.
I wish to
therefore implore you to read this memo with open-mind as coming from an
admirer who means well for you and the nation because of some disclosure I
would make here for the record.
Immediately
after I was prematurely retired from the public service for writing against a
serving powerful minister during the previous administration, Sambo Dasuki
invited me to serve the same government as a consultant on crisis communication
and a major intermediary between the media and the critical stakeholders i.e.
the military, security, intelligence and response agencies in Nigeria. The
assignment was designed to counter terrorists’ propaganda and other campaigns
on security consciousness which we successfully executed in the last three
years. (Link: http://yashuaib.com/2014/03/sambo-dasuki-on-security-media-relations/
In the
course of my assignment not only did I relate closely with the ONSA and other
security agencies, I also enjoyed interaction on valuable information about
your past relationship with Sambo Dasuki. Your Excellency, you may recall my
first article on his travail which I titled 'An Encounter with the Spymaster'
in July 2015. In that article, I narrated his visit with other officers
to you in Jos while you were GOC over the coup that ousted President Shehu
Shagari which you later emerged as the Head of State. I also stated his denial
of ever arresting you or detaining you after the Babangida coup that ousted
you. In fact, few weeks after my publication, your town man, retired Colonel
Abdulmumini Aminu corroborated the same story by insisting that it was him
(AbdulMumini and two other officers –John Madaki and Lawan Gwadabe) and not
Dasuki that arrested you (Link: http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/188069-how-we-arrested-buhari-during-1985-coup-abdulmumini-aminu.html
or http://bit.ly/2fK4jQv
In the same
article, Dasuki whom I learnt is your in-law, narrated his brotherly supports
for your candidacy for the Presidency in 2003, 2007 and 2011 before he was
later appointed the NSA by Goodluck Jonathan. Apart from mentioning names of
people privy to those efforts in that article who are still alive, he also
mentioned how he pleaded with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande
on your behalf to allow you fly the joint ticket of the Presidential candidate
of the then CPC and ACN in 2011. (Link: http://yashuaib.com/2015/07/sambo-dasuki-an-encounter-with-spymaster/
Your
excellency, from the foregoing, I can say that Sambo Dasuki is an honourable
man who respected you and can do no harm. In fact, he confided in me when he
was acting as your NSA that many people were asking him to run away because you
would deal with him. He said “I can never be a fugitive after past Abacha’s
attempt on my life in the 90s. I will remain in Nigeria and face any
consequences.”
While
serving as the consultant to ONSA and other security agencies, we created a
most cohesive and organised platform for top security spokespersons under the
platform of Forum of Spokespersons of Security and Response Agencies (FOSSRA)
to counter the narratives and propaganada machinery of the insurgents and their
sympathizers. We succeeded in establishing and sustaining mutual understanding
and synergy among all the agencies, especially in coherent and coordinated
interface with the media. We also eliminated inter-agency rivalry and dichotomy
as we also checked and controlled embarrassing information leakages that might
be injurious to national security. (Link: https://prnigeria.com/2014/08/fossra-foster-interagency-security-collaboration/
It should be
stated here that during the critical period of the war on terror, the western
powers deliberately refused to sell required weapons and armaments to Nigeria
to prosecute the war on flimsy excuses of human right abuses. When they
embargoed the supply, the then government had to resort to Eastern Block for
required arms and ammunition. Though the arrival of the equipment were late
which necessitated the postponement of the 2015 election, the subsequent
operations were successful. In fact, Your Excellency, some of the acquisitions
arrived after you came into office. (Link: https://prnigeria.com/2015/04/military-to-liberate-sambisa-forest-may-29-nsa/
Dasuki also
confirmed the acquisitions of Alpha jets, Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs),
Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, advanced artillery pieces,
assorted arms and ammunition, sophisticated surveillance drones, T72 Battle
Tanks and modification of F7 supersonic jet fighters. (Link: https://prnigeria.com/2015/08/we-acquire-sophisticated-weapons-against-terrorism-ex-nsa-sambo-dasuki/
Your
Excellency, you may be aware that the military during Jonathan’s administration
also secured the cooperation of reluctant neighboring countries to confront
terrorists after funding the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF). You may also be aware about other strategies
that were deployed to tackle the Boko Haram menace when Special Technical
Advisers from friendly countries intelligently assisted our air powers to clear
the occupied territories from the sky while the ground troops moved in to
consolidate the clearance of the remnant of terrorists. (Link: https://prnigeria.com/2015/03/so-called-mercenaries-are-technical-advisers/
Your
Excellency, as you may probably know, average Nigerians can be forgetful.
Before the handover to you as the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria on
May 29, 2015, when Sambo Dasuki was still the NSA under the Jonathan
administration, Nigerian military had successfully liberated dozens of towns
and cities from terrorists in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe State. Some of the
liberated towns including these 24 towns: Abadam, Askira, Baga, Bama, Bara,
Buni Yadi, Damboa, Dikwa, Gamboru-Ngala, Goniri, Gujba, Gulag, Gulani, Gwoza,
Hong, Kala Balge, Konduga, Kukawa, Marte, Madagali, Michika, Monguno, Mubi,
among other communities with pictorial and video evidences provided by the
Defence Headquarters. In one day alone April 30, 2015, at least 234 abductees (Women
and Children) were rescued by the military who had stormed sections of the
Sambisa Forest. (Link: https://prnigeria.com/2015/05/another-set-of-234-women-and-children-freed/
Some of the
finest and courageous military commanders who led our troops to recover those
territories are still in active service and can bear witness to those great
moment of the military’s accomplishments. I must commend your Excellency for
assigning some of them to higher responsibility and for providing the nation
with the current courageous Service Chiefs who have performed exceeding well in
the mopping and clearance exercise.
You may also
be aware that it was Sambo Dasuki as the NSA who introduced the Soft-Approach
programme that gave birth to Presidential Initiative on North-East (PINE),
which later metamorphosed into Presidential Committee on North-East Initiative
(PCNI) which you recently inaugurated. In fact Dasuki also introduced and
implemented the National Counter Terrorism Strategy (NACTEST) which your Vice
President Osinbajo and current humble
NSA Babagana Monguno jointly relaunched recently. These are obvious
facts your excellency. (Link: http://yashuaib.com/2016/09/nactest-osinbajo-and-the-revised-counter-insurgency-campaign/
Mr.
President, I raised some of these issues to let you know that there are a lot
of alarming and toxic misleading information in the public domain. You may
recall my alarm over the AVM Jon Ode Panel on arms procurement and advise I
gave you to always conduct thorough and due diligence search on those to be
appointed into any organisation, committee or panel to ensure their
incorruptibility in line with the change mantra of your administration. I
warned that wrong people in sensitive positions may capitalise on your
sincerity to engage in proxy wars without your knowledge. I mean this sir.
(Link: https://prnigeria.com/2016/03/yashuaib-resigns-fossra-say-jon-ode-panel-misleading-president-buhari/
May I appeal
to Your Excellency to simply review the fact that Sambo Dasuki has been granted
bails by three High Courts in Nigeria and that even the ECOWAS Court has also
ordered his release yet he has remained in custody. I know you can do it
because you single-handedly intervened in saving careers of some senior
military officers when you refused to be misled by some reports. Surprisingly,
the public are not even aware of your magnanimous gesture but some of us are,
as the saved security officers remain grateful to your kindness and fatherly
role. (Link: https://prnigeria.com/2016/10/ecowas-court-orders-immediate-release-dasuki/
The obvious
disobedience to court order on Dasuki's bail is quite disturbing. Since his
arrest and detention on December 1, 2015, Dasuki has observed Christmas, New
Year, Islamic Festivities of Ramadan, EidKabir and Moulud in captivity. In less than a month time, he will have
clocked one year in detention against the law.
With
consolidation of some of the charges against Dasuki, the judiciary should also
be encouraged to ensure that the Court Trial is open to the public rather than
through Secret Trial. Open trial may provide factual realities of stewardship
against occasional imaginary fictions of media trials.
Your
Excellency, as an admirer of your discipline and incorruptibility, I pray you
lead the country to the path of political stability and economic recovery. I
also pray that at the end of your tenure, your aides and loyalists would have
the same courage to stand by you without being hypocritical ingrates as we have
seen today.
I wish you
success sir. Long live Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Yushau A.
Shuaib
Blogger: www.YAShuaib.com
Founder: www.PRNigeria.com (The Press Release
Platform)
yashuaib@yahoo.com
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