By Maiwada Dammallam
This is a response to Farooq Kperogi’s article “Buhari should give no more interviews” published 8/1/22.
Kperogi’s latest outing to disparage President Buhari shouldn’t surprise anybody given his irritating persistence to embarrass President Buhari yet, without attracting the attention of Buhari’s official handlers much less, Buhari himself. It’s logical then, if Kperogi endured and keep to the same line to save face given the Buhari administration is in the last lap of its mandate. Having said that, let’s review the Kperogi’s verbiage to make sense of the prominent aspects of the Channels TV presidential interview while making nonsense of Kperogi’s know-it-all analysis.
To begin, let me say it’s as clear as it’s unfortunate that most people chose to concentrate more on Buhari’s grammar and pronunciation than on his logical and fact-based responses to critical questions raised by the panel. I will prove this by analyzing Kperog’s verbiage. Let me begin with Kperogi’s opening misstep thus:
“After enduring 40-plus minutes of merciless self-torture to watch Buhari’s hollow, sadly familiar, and well-rehearsed ramblings, I came away with the same impressions I’ve always had of him.” Unquote
The most prominent of Kperogi’s impressions as contained in his opinion is that President Buhari is demented. But come to think of it, how could a demented Buhari held and torture a very “Alert” Kperogi for 40 minutes with familiar and well-rehearsed ramblings? My point, if Buhari’s “Ramblings” were familiar, such ramblings couldn’t be a product of a demented mind given the fact that a demented mind lack the capacity to be retentive enough to periodically torture people with FAMILIAR ramblings. Ditto a demented mind lack the capacity to retain “Well-rehearsed ramblings” much less replay the ramblings to torture others unless, of course if in Kperogi’s dictionary dementia means something other than cognitive deficits. By the way, President Buhari wasn’t rambling, he’s responding to specific posers and even Kperogi attested to that. Then how could he be rambling unless, like dementia, rambling in Kperogi’s dictionary doesn’t mean going from one subject to another without any clear purpose or direction. This is embarrassing coming from one who’s always quick to flaunt his grammar skills.
In another shot, Kperogi wrote and I quote:
“Because of Buhari’s ingrained intellectually and cognitively indolent habits, his brain has no space for the storage and retrieval of new information unaided. That’s why he is such a disaster.” Unquote
Debunking himself, Kperogi again wrote:
“Buhari has a fixed, limited, predictable, and stereotyped repertoire of responses to every question or concern about Nigeria that he never transcends.” Unquote
My question:
How could Buhari be cognitively indolent with a brain lacking space for storage and retrieval of information yet come equipped with ability to retrieve and upload repertoire of responses — ability confessed by Kperogi? Unless in Kperogi’s 22nd century world of science brains could lack the ability to save and retrieve new information while retaining the power to retain and retrieve old information, then this childish opinion have no other meaning other than what it is — explosion of bottled-up frustrations. Let’s review the next frustration thus:
“Buhari is clearly the victim of recognizably diminished sentience and cognitive presence, and everyone around him knows it. Everyone in the upper reaches of governance in Nigeria knows it. Even directors of the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) politely admitted in a secret memo to Buhari, which Peoples Gazette of December 23, 2021, uncovered, that Buhari’s aides make him sign documents he doesn’t understand.”
Who does Kperogi think he’s feeding? Perhaps his children, otherwise he should have had the decency to prove the veracity of the garbage about NIA Directors writing a secret memo to President Buhari as if he meant it in a sense of a secret message written, put in a bottle and thrown into a river as in folktales. Is this bozo not aware about government’s channels of communication that he will rely on the publication of an online magazine to build such a sensitive opinion? Even more surprising, same Kperogi will have no qualms to tell the world that Buhari’s aides are censoring documents and only allows documents they are comfortable with to get to him. How sensible is it now for him to turn around and tell the world NIA Directors wrote him a secret memo indicting these aides and sending to the president? Unless, like I said earlier, it’s a message in a bottle thrown into “River Aso Rock” for Buhari to catch with fishing rod, how’s the memo suppose to reach the president with passing through the indicted aides? No diminished sentience and cognitive deficit could be more recognizable than this. This is a challenge to Kperogi to prove NIA Directors actually wrote to the president on the matter he claimed
Still exposing his incurable hatred to Buhari, Kperogi wrote:
“For example, every response to questions about his regime is abidingly prefaced with remarks about how the APC in 2015 ran on a campaign to stamp out insecurity, revamp the economy, and fight corruption. It’s a refrain he must repeat in every damn interview, and it’s immaterial if it’s relevant to the question he was asked.”
Apparently Kperogi is confused. To prove so, let me challenge him to present one question thrown at Buhari during the Channels interview or any similar interview in the life of this administration which is not related insecurity, economy or corruption and how Buhari’s response was not interconnected and aimed at given a broader answer to a compressed question which, as the president of a clearly complex country under the grips of mischief-makers like him (Kperogi) he must broaden to make better sense and avoid being misinterpreted. It’s quite ok if Kperogi chose to have a straight “A” or “B” answers in a question and answer sessions. Problem begins with his lack of appreciation for their different positions and statuses with President Buhari. Kperogi is a classroom teacher who could afford the “A” or “B” template. Buhari is the president of a democratic country of 200m people with a good chunk working hard to discredit him to cash on the benefits. Only a cognitively deficient wailer could fail to appreciate his method of broadening his responses when being scrutinized by the media. Finally, as a classroom teacher, Kperogi should have first explain which to which questions Buhari’s answers were irrelevant and immaterial instead of trying to force his beliefs on Nigerians without the least effort to substantiate as if Nigeria is his classroom.
And the funniest of Kperogi’s uncouthness read thus:
“Nonetheless, dementia doesn’t explain everything. Buhari has always been an intellectually incurious person. He doesn’t read, is mentally indolent, and is averse to learning. People who don’t exert their brains are often apt to develop cognitive impairments earlier than those who do.” Unquote
Kperogi is far away in America yet, he’s aware Buhari doesn’t read and is averse to learning. Notwithstanding, the “Demented and intellectually incurious” Buhari who is averse to learning come into limelight when he was appointed the Governor of the North East in 1975 at the young age 33. He was appointed Minister of Petroleum at the age 34 and by 1983, at the age of 41, he’s appointed Head of State. Quite a resume for a demented, intellectually incurious person averse to learning. Now if I may ask (and let’s not forget Buhari has ALWAYS BEEN AN INTELLECTUALLY INCURIOUS PERSON averse to learning according to Kperogi), how could an incurious person averse to learning become a Governor at 33, a Minister at 34 and a Head of State at 41? By being stupid? I mean, Buhari must have had something working for him to be identified and appointed a governor at 33 by his bosses and must have had something to make his colleagues appoint him Head of State.
On the other hand, despite Farooq Kperogi’s intellectual curiosity, love for books (including writing books) and subscription to learning, at 49, so far the only notable public position he held is being a speechwriter to President Obasanjo. Who’s the retard here pls? Not a single person reading this piece will pick Kperogi’s like of. success over Buhari’s for implementation as his child’s development template. I will love to hear one.
Going to the specifics, Kperogi wrote and I quote:
“Questions
economy? Well, he has a ready-made story about how, when he came to power, petroleum production declined, the price of crude oil dwindled, and how “militants” from the Niger Delta were “unleashed” on his regime. PREMIUM TIMES and Dubawa fact-checked his story about oil production and crude oil prices, which the fact-check showed he has repeated several times in the past, and determined that it is entirely false.” Unquote
So, what exactly did Premium Times or Dubawa fact-checked and discovered? That there was no crisis in global oil market immediately after Buhari took over which significantly which brought crude oil prices to unprecedented low level, or that Nigeria’s oil output did not significantly dropped to unprecedented low level due renewed insurgency in the Niger Delta region precipitated by GEJ’s defeat by Buhari? I thought these events unfolded before the eyes of Nigerians and only a retard will try to change the story just to express bottled-up frustrations. It’s a fact that for the 16 years PDP ruled Nigeria crude oil prices averaged $100 and Nigeria’s output averaged 2m barrels a day. On the other hand, a month or two after Buhari took over, crude oil prices plummeted to as low as $30 and output continue to spiral down; plummeting to as low as 500,000 barrels a day. Not even fact-checks with OPEC could disprove this.
In a recent publication on the 2015 global oil crises by Investopedia, a globally acclaimed investment magazine, titled “Why the Price of Crude Oil Dropped in 2015”, the author wrote and I quote:
“The oil industry is driven by booms and busts. Prices typically rise during periods of global economic strength during which demand outpaces supply. Prices fall when the reverse is true, and supply exceeds demand. Meanwhile, oil supply and demand are driven by a number of key factors.”
“Notably, 2015 offers an interesting example of how all five factors can conspire to send prices to historic lows. At that time, the price of crude oil fell by more than half in under a year, reaching lows that had not been seen since the last global recession.”
“At the time, many oil executives believed it would be years before oil returned to $100 per barrel. They were right, at least as of July 30, 2021, when the price of a barrel of crude oil was $73.95.”
“Five main factors can be identified as having driven crude oil prices down and kept them down. The year 2015 was a perfect storm for oil prices. The dollar was strong. Inventories were huge. The economy was weak. And production was growing. All of these factors drove the price of crude oil to less than $40 per barrel.” End of quotes
So, which of these factors or their impacts on the Nigerian economy is Kperogi trying to disprove with Premium Times’ and Dubawa’s fact-checking prowess?
Lastly, on the part of the interview which clip is making rounds in the social media trying to depict President Buhari evading the posers raised by Akimbaloye by harping on agriculture. Isn’t Buhari’s suggestions to go back to the farm a way to redress the indicators Akinbaloye raised? All the quoted indicators are tired to the health of the national economy and the national economy could be said to be entirely reliant on infrastructure to function and give good indicators and a more robust and applicable agricultural template could easily be proven as the key to unlock Nigeria’s potentials; reset its economy and revitalize its infrastructure. So, how’s Buhari’s “Go back to the farm” response out of order or a case for academic exercise?
Buhari may not be articulate and his grammar not so nose-trapped as Kperogi and other wailers may like it. However, his inarticulate presentation is not enough to deny those with the correct settings the ability to look deep into the core points he raised to appreciate his position on agriculture. Without speaking English through his nose he was able to change Nigeria from being a major rice market for Thailand and China into an exporter of rice while new rice mills are sprouting in numerous places especially in northern Nigeria — giving employments to thousands of hitherto jobless youths while making Nigeria sustainably self-reliant. Is it nuclear science to understand Nigerian won’t be taking about inflation and the poor Naira to Dollar exchange rate if farming is what’s suppose to be in Nigeria? Nigeria won’t be talking about unemployment if farming is made easy and lucrative.
That we are mostly concentrating on Buhari’s pronunciation while missing salient points in his submissions is the impact of sustained campaign of calumny against him by angry people like Kperogi whose definition of success begins and ends with one’s ability to speak good grammar. These are people we need to worry more about than Buhari’s grammar. Kperogi’s anger against Buhari is such that he has no qualms concocting flagrant lies in the absence of anything to use to rubbish the President. He wrote and I quote:
“Buhari has always been like that. His nickname as a youngster in Daura was “Danliti mugu,” meaning “Danliti the sadist.” In Hausaland, people habitually say, _”Da sauran aiki; Buhari yaga mai rake da iPhone.”_ Literally: “There’s still more to be done; Buhari saw a sugarcane hawker with an iPhone!” In other words, the appearance of even a glimmer of prosperity in people activates Buhari’s sadistic instincts. He betrays this every time he talks.”
It’s a flagrant lie that Buhari was ever nicknamed “Danliti Mugu” and this is easily verifiable by reviewing the 2015 campaign template of the PDP. Of all the the trash PDP released in the media including the one about Buhari having no school certificate, not once did anybody mention Buhari was once nicknamed “Danliti Mugu” doing which could persuade voters to be wary of him. And come to think of it, since when was Hausaland reduced to few social media posts? I challenge anybody in Hausaland to swear and confirm his knowledge about Hausaland people habitually saying “Da sauran aiki; Buhari yaga mai rake da iPhone.” “Karyar banza ce.”
This is taking childishness to a whole new despicable level.
