SENATOR LEKAN BALOGUN: Buhari, a fascist, will set Nigeria at war

Senator Lekan Balogun is a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a High Chief of Ibadan land. In this interview, he ex­poses the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari, as a fascist, a leader who has complete power, forc­ibly suppressing opposition and criticism, like Adolf Hitler of Germany and Benito Mussolini of Italy. He submits that such leader would set Nigeria at war with other people, if he becomes President. Excerpts:

How do you see the ploy by the All Progressives Con­gress (APC), to garner sup­port from the South West by fielding a vice presidential candidate from Yoruba land?

We’ve gone beyond that level in Nigeria, where we look at things closed-mindedly. I keep saying it, ideologically, Bu­hari is a fascist. You can get nothing good out of a fascist for the country, except turbulence, civil war etc. that would be tragic for Nigeria and the world, as far as I’m concerned. If it had been a Yoruba man that is there now, I’ll still say the same thing. These are part of the excuses people put up to support the trend. Even when they are not comfortable with what it entails. He locked up some people, he killed some, he was after his own pound of flesh, typical of how a fascist does things; and that’s why a fascist is a die-hard leader; a fascist moves in that direction; if you are a victim of that, for­get a sane governance of the country, because they just cre­ate confusion in the land. The last two fascists the world had were (Adolf) Hitler, who ruled Germany and (Benito) Mus­solini in Italy; what did they do? They caused a World War. That’s what we will get, a local war in Nigeria if Buhari gets there. Buhari is not providing details of what he did in the past and I’m not surprised, it’s just mere rhetoric. A fascist is a fascist, he does not do good things, I’m not surprised, and that’s their nature. We must consider national and global interests of Nigerians. When there is a global measure of good governance, everybody benefits, but, when there is bad governance, some people will benefit, while many others would suffer, so, ideologically, a fascist will subvert good gover­nance. What amazes me is that people in the APC claim to be progressives.

But they are progressives?

They don’t know the mean­ing of progressive politics. If they do, they won’t be where they are. They want a Yoruba Vice President, so what? If, sup­posing he’s not a fascist, or he’s a fascist in the making, even if he’s my blood brother, we can’t work together. I’m glad I identi­fy myself with a Yoruba group, I’m happy as a Yoruba man, but the issues at stake are much beyond group or parochial rea­soning.

But Buhari said, publicly, that all he did then were dur­ing a military government?

It doesn’t matter, it’s just the man that we got to know. (General Ibrahim) Babangida headed a military government, he doesn’t have that record. For God’s sake, what are we talking about? The man is, fundamen­tally, and irredeemably, a fas­cist and he can’t change. Chris­tians in Nigeria will suffer, Muslims on the wrong side of government will suffer. There is a chance for Nigerians to choose a balanced government and everybody benefits than looking, parochially, at local politics, many people will suf­fer. I don’t care where the Pres­ident or Vice President comes from, but, let’s have a good gov­ernment.

What assurance do you have that Jonathan will do better, if he wins?

His resilience saw us through four years, without a personal provocation of conflict nation­wide, those four years would serve as example to other peo­ple. Those who put him there at the beginning thought he would do their bidding, but, it took some time before they reproached him, and his own people disowned him. If we, actually, want to see the benefit of having a PhD holder at the helm of affairs in this country, let’s give him another chance, then, he would be governing on his own terms and find out the kind of person he is. There are many things he had handled quietly and beautifully, which if handled otherwise, would have been something else. But he handled them that way, be­cause he had been exposed. In any case, if some people say they would make governance impossible for him and they, re­ally, have made governance dif­ficult for him, then, somebody from their own group would  now take over and you expect those ones to fold their arms and let you rule peacefully? And that’s the kind of provoca­tion he needs to show his fangs and fascist tendency. It’s, poten­tially, a very dangerous situ­ation that we have found our­selves. Let’s just pray to God that Nigeria doesn’t reach that level.

If Jonathan wins, the North will go back into the trenches and if Buhari wins, the militants will collapse the country. Is that not like a double-edged sword?

Is it not better for us to contin­ue with the Boko Haram insur­gency than having thousands of militants in the creeks and the national economy destroyed be­cause some people want to get to power at all costs? The country belongs to all of us, for God’s sake, North, South, East and West. Let’s look at people who

are wishing to lead us, individ­ually, let’s consider their orien­tation. The country has been more peaceful under (Presi­dent) Jonathan than it would be under Buhari. There have been less provocations than it would be under Buhari; you find out that there would just be motions without movement or direction, are we not going to be in trouble? Are these not some of the reasons upsetting governance in Nigeria?

One of the reasons the Yo­ruba leaders gave for sup­porting Jonathan was that he pledged to implement the report of the National Con­ference, what do you think?

Hasn’t he started already? We would be back to regional­ism and each region would de­velop at its own pace, isn’t that good? We will be governed by the Constitution and not by the whims and caprices of a man, who is not guided by reason. He set up the National Conference and said he would implement the outcome and, I think, he’s started already. For now, we have peace and order, but if it’s Buhari, everything would be wahala. I don’t care where the President hails from, it would be a dangerous precedent, be­cause some people from a sec­tion of the country want to be ruling always and we are en­couraging them. We should be careful, it’s not right, it’s not ideological and it’s not nation­alistic. That reasoning is not, intellectually, tenable, why are we even thinking of it?