Noble Abe
says he just had to share his testmony. He is Chairman, Mac-Canon
Industries, and Former MD/CEO Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority. Read..
I am appalled by the direction our dear
country is going. A nation where honest men and women of integrity are
vilified and denigrated while thieves and people of dubious character
are celebrated and treated as heroes, is a nation that has lost its
soul.
It is now virtually a crime to live above
board because you are looked down upon and called unprintable names,
while murderers and robbers hold their heads high and are treated with
utmost respect by society. Something is obviously wrong with this
scenario and everything must be done to restore normalcy otherwise our
future generation will likely live in a society that has lost all its
moral values.
I am not a politician, but I am a friend
of General Muhammadu Buhari and the things that have been said about
this exceptional Nigerian will make the stomach of anyone who truly
knows him sour.
Nigerians cannot stand up to him when it comes to character and integrity. It therefore
appalls
me when people whose only credentials are that the Economic and
Financial Crimes, Commission (EFCC) has stopped chasing them around
because they know how to double speak now have the audacity and
effrontery to question the character of a man like General Buhari.
I do not make a joke of it when I say
General Buhari is an exceptional Nigerian and an incident which I want
to share here with Nigerians gave me that conviction a long time ago and
greatly influenced my own life as a public servant.
I lived in the United Kingdom in the 90s
and in the late 90s I was encouraged to return to Nigeria by my friend
General Buhari. It also coincides with when he was Chairman of the
Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF). I used to spend most of my time in Nigeria
with him and his family and I noticed that his two grown daughters who
were undergraduates at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, were always
at home because of the unending strikes in Nigerian universities at the
time.
I did not like the situation so on one of
my visits I got the prospectus and brochures of some educational
institutions in the United Kingdom and decided to encourage him to send
these kids to institutions in the UK, where they could school without
interruption.
Because of how busy he was at the time, it
sometimes took days to find a moment alone with him, so I finally did
find a moment alone with him, and I brought up the issue of his kids
always being at home on strike and suggested his sending them to the U.K
to school. I quickly brought out the brochures and prospectus and I
believed I made a very strong case. He then asked me what the cost would
be and thinking the cost would not be an issue since I was speaking
with the head of one of the most powerful and richest institutions in
the country at the time (as well as a former Head of State of Nigeria), I
boldly opened the cost pages of the brochures and tried to work out the
cost to him.
What he said at the time stunned me.
General turned to me and asked me where I expected him to get that kind
of money and I could not believe the question as I am sure many
Nigerians will not believe.
First, I could not believe that as PTF
chairman, he would find the school fees an issue. Afterall, he was
presiding over what was unarguably the richest public institution in the
country at the time and others in his shoes would have found a way to
“afford” it from their public offices. But not General Buhari.
What he did at the time made me see him as
an exceptional Nigerian and you are all free to confirm or verify this.
General Buhari sold the only property he owned in Victoria Island at
the time and it was with that fund that he sent his kids to school.
I do not know of many Nigerians who as PTF
Chairman would have done what he did and, from then on, General
Muhammadu Buhari became my hero and the epitome of integrity and honesty
in public office to me. The General Buhari I know will never come out
to claim a qualification he does not possess and for charlatans and
people of questionable character to call for his arrest for forgery is a
great insult to honesty itself.
I know that Nigeria has become a country
where anything goes, but insulting our heroes because of politics should
not be one of them. This is just one instance, as there are several
instances that I can cite here, but time and space will not permit me.
So, let’s put politics aside and celebrate
our heroes, because I do not know of any man of greater integrity than
General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB).
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