Sometimes when our beloved country is referred to as a land of the absurd where anything can happen, it is conspiracy theories such as the subject of this article that validates such outrageous and negative labeling. As preposterous as the allegation appears, some gullible Nigerians might have been actually led to believe that president Muhammadu Buhari, PMB passed away in a UK hospital and he has been clandestinely replaced by a body-double who goes by the name of Jubrin Al Sudani, purportedly a bandit from the war ravaged southern Sudan.
In this season of political party campaigns and jostling for office where morals are cast to the swines and hearts are sold to the devil, it is expected that politicians would be at their wits end to undo each other. But it was not expected that they would go to the extreme extent of declaring our president dead and cloned into a body-double.
The rumour had been so potent that former president Olusegun Obasanjo, OBJ reportedly weighed in by imploring President Buhari to make clarifications about the ungodly allegation which was causing Nigerians both at home and abroad stressful anxiety.
He cited the case of President Umar Yar’Adua of blessed memory who was rumoured to have died in a German hospital and how he (OBJ) got Yar’Adua to speak to Nigerians via a telephone call that was broadcast live to buttress his call for PMB to respond.
That was OBJ’s style, and l reckon that PMB might have chosen to deal with the matter differently. He may be justified by the fact that every leader is entitled to his personal style of governance and PMB unlike OBJ is known for his taciturnity hence it has taken such a long time for the cloning puzzle to be resolved.
That’s even more so as it is also characteristic of PMB not to be swayed by public opinion.
l suspect that president Buhari’s stoic, if not stern mien is rooted in his military training. And it ties with the myth that soldiers are more often than not, inflexible and rigid.
Allow me deviate a bit from the main discussion and dwell a bit more on the tough nature of men in uniform by citing an example of how rigid a typical military officer, serving or retired can be.
Legends have it that when former military head of state, Gen Sani Abacha mistakenly sent out the name of the late elder statesman, Adamu Ciroma as Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN Governor instead of chairman of New Nigerian Newspaper, which was believed to be the original intention, he (Abacha) decided not to reverse that decision even though it was a misnomer.
To the surprise of many, Mr. Ciroma served as CBN Governor from 1975-77 meritoriously and many years after, (1999-2003) functioned as finance minister under OBJ.
Coming back to the alleged cloning of President Buhari, it was to the relief of many Nigerians, that PMB has now spared them further agony by dismissing the absurd claim that he is a clone as the antics of those who want him dead.
Breaking his silence on the matter during a parley with Nigerians in Krakow, Poland on the sidelines of the conference on climate change in that Eastern European country, PMB diffused the tension by declaring that he is not a clone and thus put skeptics at ease.
He did so in response to a question posed by one Adekunle Ayoola, a Nigerian resident in Poland on whether he is the real Buhari or the alleged body-double, Al Sudani, in a characteristic tongue-in-cheek manner with which PMB often treats otherwise serious issues, (Remember the anecdote-….”my wife belongs to the other room” in Germany) Mr. President told his audience that those who want him dead are behind the cloning rumour and concluded that the people are “ignorant and irreligious”
President Buhari’s response to the mischief taken too far with humour as opposed to bitterness, implies that he is not over reacting to the lie which was given oxygen and vent by his long silence.
Perhaps feeling some unease about the unnecessary anxiety which the rumour was causing Nigerians at home and particularly in the diaspora, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Senior Special Assistant to the president in-charge of diaspora affairs, might have decided to lend her media skills towards settling the matter once and for all and thus spared Nigerians further anxiety by getting Mr President to dispel the rumour.
She leveraged the opportunity of the President’s trip to Poland which was within her mandate to practically coax, and if you like, ambush Mr President into engaging in a question and answer session with diaspora Nigerians.
The clarification which was overdue is a welcome development as the masses can now get on with the real politicks of engaging public office seekers with questions on their blue prints on how they intend to fix our broken economy and unify our divided polity.
Relatedly, apart from the Buhari body-double scam which literally crowded up the political space, the hoax that the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP presidential candidate and former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar was wanted in the USA for money laundering charges hence he could not visit that country also constituted itself into a dark cloud on the political horizon and therefore a distraction as well as a campaign dampener.
At least, the source of the clone allegation against Buhari was ab initio clear and unambiguous.
That’s because we did not have to look beyond Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Independent People Of Biafra, IPOB, a secessionist group that has become a prick on President Buhari’s side. Kanu had been vociferously making the claim about the current President Buhari wielding power in Aso Rock villa being a clone. And the wild allegation had resonated with the masses simply because oddity sells. You know the dog bites a man, it’s no news, but a man bites a dog is big news stuff.
To make the matter worse, the rumour was allowed to fester for long without being countered with the truth by Mr. President and his reputation managers.
No doubt, the IPOB leader’s motive was vengeance against Mr President whom he accused of killing hordes of IPOB members and trying to kill him and his father by sending the Nigeria military (under the guise of operation python dance) to invade his family house. In that case, personal revenge or vendetta can be and has been established as the motivating force.
But the motive behind the lie that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was banned from visiting the USA on account of corruption charges was before now, foggy.Not a scintilla of fact to support the allegation except that thePDP Presidential candidate was investigated as it is routinely done in the USA when large sums of funds are tracked after the terrorist bombing of iconic structures/institutions in New York and Washington,USA now famously referred to as 9:11.
The source of the rumour against Atiku Abubakar remained unknown until the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed weighed in last week and inadvertently removed the veil by whining about the USA embassy’s move to issue the PDP Presidential candidate a visiting visa.
Following the complaint by the Minister of Information, it became manifest that the rumor was political as it would appear that the government in power does not fancy the rumor being dispelled.
According to him, granting Atiku Abubakar a visa would create the impression that the USA was endorsing the PDP presidential candidate.
What manner of minister would be dissuading another country from granting a compatriot a visiting visa? It could have been justified if the victim were to be a felon or fugitive, but a former no 2 citizen whom no court of law has indicted or convicted. By maligning and stigmatising a fellow citizen simply because he is a presidential flag-bearer of an opposition party in a political contest, if you ask me, is cruel, distasteful and inelegant.
Onyibe, a development strategist, alumnus of Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts, USA and a former commissioner in Delta state government wrote in from Agbor, Delta state.
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