If Care’s Not Taken, Nigeria’ll Go The Way Of Egypt, Says Buhari

Three time Presidential candidate, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), has warned political leaders in the country to take a cue from what happened in Egypt a few days ago.

Egyptian President, Mr. Mohammed Morsi, was on Thursday overthrown by the country’s military after days of protest near the Presidential Palace.

Speaking at the public presentation of two books by Malam Nuhu Ramalan, Head of Political Science Department of the Federal College of Education (FCE), Zaria, the former Head of State said:
“I encourage young men to buy the books to know their history. Although I know history would keep on repeating itself, as it (has) just been in Egypt. Nigeria would not be an exception, and by the way we are going only God knows where we are going to end up, but I hope we would end up well”.

The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) leader also vowed to remain in active politics despite the fact that he “ended from the Head of State to a prisoner of sort that did not stop me to attempt to get back through the other means; that is politics. And after three unsuccessful attempts, I refused to give up. I tried to, but my supporters wouldn’t support my throwing in the towel. So, I intend to fight on in spite the challenges.”

Commenting on the books, ‘Nigerian Military in Politics; 1966 to 2011 and Politics of Transition to Civil Rule; 1966 to 1999’, General Buhari recalled that when he was Head of State, he encouraged young intellectuals and even brought some of them on board; a move that saw the emergence of Ibrahim Gambari as foreign minister.

Buhari said “the deterioration of the culture caused the lack of accountability in the system, and it has now gone absolutely wide. When the military and the political leadership came, they were so corrupt and they destroyed these institutions.”

While quoting Obama as saying that African countries are bedeviled with problem of strong leaders and institutions, Buhari said “Paradoxically, in Nigeria it is the strong leaders that destroy the strong institutions by corruption and laziness of some sort.”