As the days go by, President Muhammadu Buhari is turning out to be the most deceptive leader in Nigeria’s history. Almost everything he said in the course of the campaign has turned out to be lies, while some others like his most prominent campaign manifesto “my 100 days covenant with Nigerians” https://www.naij.com/403506-must-read-buharis-covenant-with-nigerians.html has been roundly denied by his spokesmen and party chairman in spite of that document having been personally signed by Muhammadu Buhari.  The document detailed his pledge and the first steps and initiatives to be taken in sectors such as corruption, insurgency and insecurity, Niger-Delta, Diversity, Health care, Education, Agriculture, Economy, Power, Youth and ICT development. It was a document that lay out the chief thrusts of his administration and the benchmarks it set out to achieve within a 100 days.

While the document is loaded with lofty promises and hypes as was characteristic of the APC campaign, in the area of insurgency it specifically promised to rescue the Chibok girls within the 100 day timeline. As would be expected, this document was widely circulated in the print, electronic and social media and formed part of the most fundamental drive of the Buhari/APC campaign in the final weeks before the election. Curiously Muhammadu Buhari never denied nor disowned the document  that he  purportedly signed as it went viral, but fast forward to September 2015 just as the 100 day timeline was about to be reached and all of a sudden a flurry of denials is coming from the presidency and the party. Buhari now claims he never saw nor authorised the document,  that some out of control APC apparatchik’s were behind the document and that he had no hand in it.

How strange? Yet Buhari went for rallies where posters of those same manifestoes were emblazoned on posters, walls and vehicles, he read newspapers were headlines screamed with his 100 days covenant, he watched television programmes where APC leaders serialised the covenant and in all that period Buhari kept quiet only to now tell us he was never aware of those campaign promises, how convenient?  How about his assets that he hurriedly declared after the tide of public opinion began to swing against him?  It should be recalled that Buhari had also previously denied promising to publicly declare his assets, a promise that was included in the 100 days covenant. As the upsurge of negative opinion began to bite he made an asset declaration that was purely as deceitful as it was a propaganda document.

Again not only did the assets contain a lot of semantics intended to hoodwink the gullible it was filled with inconsistencies that starkly contrasts with what Buhari had previously said in regards to his assets. In the course of the campaign Buhari had said barely 1 million naira was in his account and he had to borrow money from his bank to buy the presidential nomination form, few months later we learn there is close to 30 million naira in his account, Buhari had also said he owned only two houses, one in his hometown of Daura and another in Kaduna. His landlord had reportedly kicked him out of a rented apartment in Abuja because he couldn’t afford to pay the rent, but now we learn that Buhari has five houses including a house in Abuja of all places. When all this is added to the acres of land he owns in Port Harcourt that was previously not disclosed, the humongous shares in three banks that was also never disclosed and the number of cows that have jumped from 150 before the campaign to 270 and his inability to tell us how many vehicles he actually owns because they are obviously too many to be counted, you get the full picture of a deceptive 419 president.

While Buhari has tried to deceptively push his cash stock of 30 million in our face, his total assets when his property in Abuja, acres of land in Port Harcourt, 270 cows and humongous shares in banks are factored in is possibly over a billion. This does not include other possibly hidden or diverted assets we might never know off including those in the name of his wife, relations, in-laws and siblings. For all intents and purposes Buhari is a manipulative, deceptive 419 president, a smooth operator. From his certificate scandal all through to the presidency, he has lied his way to power, pulling off the most elaborate scam in Nigeria’s history. He used the campaign promises and a carefully cultivated image of honesty and probity to deceive Nigerians while bidding for time. As soon as he got the presidency he started unmasking, having no intention of fulfilling any of his campaign promises he went on a denial binge.

Buhari not only deceived Nigerians, he also deceived the enablers who made his presidency possible. Bola Tinubu and the party henchmen are already licking their wounds having been ostracised by Buhari who used and dumped them. We have been conned and duped by Nigeria’s first 419 president. Brace up for the bumpy ride that is sure to come with it.

Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu
Email: lawrencenwobu@gmail.com