I’m almost speechless after watching this video of anti-Buhari “protesters” protesting the General in Chatham, London today. Take it in + read excerpts of Buhari’s speech from earlier today, after the click.
APC Candidate (and opposition leader), General Muhammadu Buhari visited Chatham House in London today to speak on issues pertaining to Nigeria’s state of affairs. Before jumping into the text of the speech, watch this video of the anti-Buhari “protesters” outside:
The video, uploaded to Youtube by Naija Center News posted this along with the vid:
Many of the Nigerians interviewed could not explain why they were protesting against Buhari, some said they were supporting their president, Goodluck Jonathan, others said they don’t know what they were doing there, adding that they were told about the protest and decided to join.
It could be recalled that Femi Fani-Kayode was accused of paying some Nigerians in the UK to protest against Buhari.
You guys have to allow me to get on a soapbox for a second because this is ridiculous. Whether the allegations are true, or not, that video is so sad and shameful. I’ll be watching the developments and responses to it but to me, at this point in time, with the information I have on hand, I’m going to attribute the student’s actions to poverty. And I might even call them victims, though I’ll use the term loosely. When people are struggling and someone or someones takes advantage by promising to drop a few dollars, they can make those struggling dance, protest, sit, stand, run, walk, spit fire, whatever. That’s just a very sad fact and the video appears to be an example of that.
Okay, soapbox done.
Now, here’s a snippet from Buhari’s talk at Chatham today, in front of Gordon Brown (former PM of Great Britain) earlier today:
Permit me to start by thanking Chatham House for the invitation to talk about this important topic at this crucial time. When speaking about Nigeria overseas, I normally prefer to be my country’s public relations and marketing officer, extolling her virtues and hoping to attract investments and tourists. But as we all know, Nigeria is now battling with many challenges, and if I refer to them, I do so only to impress on our friends in the United Kingdom that we are quite aware of our shortcomings and are doing our best to address them.
The 2015 general election in Nigeria is generating a lot of interests within and outside the country. This is understandable. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and largest economy, is at a defining moment, a moment that has great implications beyond the democratic project and beyond the borders of my dear country.
So let me say upfront that the global interest in Nigeria’s landmark election is not misplaced at all and indeed should be commended; for this is an election that has serious import for the world. I urge the international community to continue to focus on Nigeria at this very critical moment. Given increasing global linkages, it is in our collective interests that the postponed elections should hold on the rescheduled dates; that they should be free and fair; that their outcomes should be respected by all parties; and that any form of extension, under whichever guise, is unconstitutional and will not be tolerated.
With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, the collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War, democracy became the dominant and most preferred system of government across the globe. That global transition has been aptly captured as the triumph of democracy and the ‘most pre-eminent political idea of our time.’ On a personal note, the phased end of the USSR was a turning point for me. It convinced me that change can be brought about without firing a single shot.
As you all know, I had been a military head of state in Nigeria for twenty months. We intervened because we were unhappy with the state of affairs in our country. We wanted to arrest the drift. Driven by patriotism, influenced by the prevalence and popularity of such drastic measures all over Africa and elsewhere, we fought our way to power. But the global triumph of democracy has shown that another and a preferable path to change is possible. It is an important lesson I have carried with me since, and a lesson that is not lost on the African continent.
In the last two decades, democracy has grown strong roots in Africa. Elections, once so rare, are now so commonplace. As at the time I was a military head of state between 1983 and 1985, only four African countries held regular multi-party elections. But the number of electoral democracies in Africa, according to Freedom House, jumped to 10 in 1992/1993 then to 18 in 1994/1995 and to 24 in 2005/2006. According to the New York Times, 42 of the 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa conducted multi-party elections between 1990 and 2002.
The newspaper also reported that between 2000 and 2002, ruling parties in four African countries (Senegal, Mauritius, Ghana and Mali) peacefully handed over power to victorious opposition parties. In addition, the proportion of African countries categorized as not free by Freedom House declined from 59% in 1983 to 35% in 2003. Without doubt, Africa has been part of the current global wave of democratisation.
But the growth of democracy on the continent has been uneven. According to Freedom House, the number of electoral democracies in Africa slipped from 24 in 2007/2008 to 19 in 2011/2012; while the percentage of countries categorised as ‘not free’ assuming for the sake of argument that we accept their definition of “free” increased from 35% in 2003 to 41% in 2013. Also, there have been some reversals at different times in Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Cote D’Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Mali, Madagascar, Mauritania and Togo. We can choose to look at the glass of democracy in Africa as either half full or half empty.
Read the entire speech at Sahara Reporters.
