Ayobami Oyalowo: Re: The truth about Tunde Bakare

I normally would not dignify rumour peddling, innuendoes and outright falsehood as published in other blogs, with a response. But a certain ‘Hauwa Gambo’ crossed the line, last week. It is always better to set the records straight, because when a lie is constantly repeated, there is a propensity for the unsuspecting public to believe it and in fact run with it as the truth.

Another reason why I initially found it difficult writing this rejoinder was because the writer of the article, Hauwa Gambo is a faceless hatchet man, who goes around impugning respected people’s character armed with a dangerous paint brush couched in semantics. I challenge Chude Jideonwo alias Hauwa Gambo to produce his feminine alter ego for a televised debate. It will be nice to see the face behind these notorious hatchet jobs and put our ‘supposed’ speculation to rest.

While there is no crime in a writer, using a pseudonym or a pen name, it is malicious and utterly despicable for Chude Jideonwo to create a false personality around his alter ego, so that he can hide behind a facade to curry favor from his political paymasters.

The article in question is replete with outright falsehood and attempts at false objectivity. Clearly the writer is a Christian using examples drawn from christendom but adopting a fake muslim name as I have earlier stated.

The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) as a party, has a manifesto. Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP did not have one at the last elections and still do not have one. Yet the writer claimed the exact opposite. CPC was the only party with a message during the last elections. Jonathan and his party, the PDP, spent N3bn per state (funded by subsidy thieves) while Buhari had N400 million as his entire election budget! The playing field could not have been more disparate.

Mr. Jonathan and the PDP actively canvassed religious and ethnic divisions where possible and deployed soldiers to militarize and occupy states they knew they would lose like Kaduna, Bauchi, Kano, Adamawa and Taraba. They used violence – state violence wherever necessary– to re-write the results to suit them. When and where did CPC or Buhari insult any one? Hauwa Gambo or Chude is just a liar capitalizing on the collective amnesia of Nigerians.

The writer also alleged that Mallam Ahmad Nasir Elrufai left the Obasanjo government accused of influence peddling? That is false! Elrufai left government when Obasanjo left with no such accusations. I challenge you to produce the evidence of the influence you accused the former FCT minister of peddling.

Indeed you grudgingly acknowledged the fact that the duo of General Buhari and Pastor Bakare were better qualified than your new benefactor, the unfortunate current occupant of Aso Rock, but in the same breath, you accused them of arrogance. May I ask you Chude, alias Hauwa, do you posses an ‘arrongantometer’ with which you were able to measure their levels of arrogance?

You ignorantly talked about how they turned their noses at a merger, and with that you glaringly displayed your loyalty. Would you be kind enough to tell us exactly how they did that especially since you were privy to the meetings? Or are you informing your readers of the details garnered by the moles planted by your paymasters at the opposition merger meetings? Let me dispel your ignorance: merger of independent national political parties involve a lot more than talks and no agreements can be guaranteed. It makes for all the concerned interests to come to a mutual agreement. It is not exactly as easy as creating a pseudonym with which to throw pebbles at perceived or real opponents of your puppeteers.

As for the insults you hurled at the person of General Muhamadu Buahri, whom you gleefully called a coupist, may I remind you that your so called gentle messiah, Goodluck Jonathan, whom you claimed won the 2011 election fairly, is not a man fit to lace Buhari’s shoes? General Buhari as a former Petroleum minister, supervised the building of a refinery and as a military head of state, within just one year and eight months, built the last refinery in Nigeria. Meanwhile your purported election winner, has in the same amount of time succeeded not only in pillaging the resources of Nigeria, but has constantly been at sea as to what to do with a mandate he is ill qualified to wield. No wonder in his first full year in office, about N3trillion has been stolen by his friends and cohorts in the guise of fuel subsidy.

Referring to Pastor Bakare as proud while using unfounded innuendoes and sarcasm to describe him shows the level of your myopia. Pastor Tunde Bakare is not only a humble man, but he is also one of the very few men of God in Nigeria, who have no airs, neither does he surround himself with a coterie of bodyguards and domestic aides. You will have to do more than throwing a few barbs and ill directed jabs at him to bring him to your level of transactional journalism and bowl begging professional attack dog mode (apologies, Doyin Okupe).

Finally you accused them of wasting time in political masturbation, while time flies. But may I ask if you are a strategic consultant to the ongoing ACN and CPC merger talks or were you also paid to pre-empt their moves and gauge their level of readiness and preparedness? Let me tell you that no general discloses his battle plans to his opponents on news blogs. When the appropriate time comes, the opposition in Nigeria will rise to the occasion. But be warned, no paid hireling or hired goon can dampen the resolve of patriotic Nigerians who have resolved to save Nigeria from the hands of economic scavengers and political masquerades who have not only impoverished the generality of Nigerians, but are also bent on subverting the will of the people.
The writer is on Twitter @Ayourb