"As I said in my inaugural speech, I bear no ill will against anyone on past events. Nobody should fear anything from me. We are not after anyone. People should only fear the consequences of their actions" - President Buhari
Against calls in the social media for President Buhari to forgive and allow former NSA, Sambo Dasuki to attend the funeral of his father who died yesterday evening, I find it imperative to explain a thing or two in regard to the imaginary feud between President Buhari and Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd)
For what I know about the military and its traditions especially in regard to hierarchy and orders, Sambo Dasuki lacked the capacity to allow or deny PMB the privilege of being allowed to witness the funeral of his mother when she died while he was under detention. For people to start thinking President Buhari will take his pound of flesh from Sambo Dasuki based on hallucinatory assumptions, to say the least it's weird and the clearest proof of lack of grasp of common basics of democracy.
President Buhari was the boss of Dasuki's boss. For God sake Dasuki was just an ADC to President Babangida - a glorified servant. PMB will not stoop so low to blame a mere ADC for his travails when he knew there was a powerful and 'maradonic' President bent on destroying him politically, physically and psychologically. Who was Dasuki back then to have such powers with the Abachas, the Dogonyaros and other hyper-ambitious hawks bent on destroying President Buhari to consolidate their grip on the political structure of Nigeria.
Debating whether President Buhari should or should not allow the release of Dasuki to attend the funeral of his late father is something being done without recourse to the concept of justice, democracy and leadership. How many Nigerians are languishing in various prisons and holding cells and, out of them how many were ever given preferential treatment by the President for Dasuki to be extended same courtesy?
The President's oath of office demand he deals with Nigerians equally without fear or favour, ill-will or affection. If, by any chance, some of the pundits wish to have the President exercise the powers of his office and extend the courtesy of using 'prerogative of mercy' for this sad occasion, they should know that the courtesy is exclusively reserved for convicted prisoners not suspects under the custody of courts. And it should be noted that the distinction between judiciary and executive is glaringly clear under democracy for anybody to assume President Buhari could just cross over, deactivate a court order and direct a special favour for somebody.
By the way, President Buhari's incarceration by the Babangida junta and Dasuki's detention by this administration are two different things entirely without a fleck of similarity. Whereas President Buhari was detained by the military against the laws of the land, Dasuki's detention was sanctioned by a court of competent jurisdiction. Using his office to countermand a valid decision of a competent court of law would send a very bad signal to Nigerians especially at this point when all hands are on deck to purge the judiciary and update its moral and professional settings.
In any case, Dasuki was not detained at the whim and caprice of President Buhari otherwise, rtd Cols. Abdulmumin Aminu, Umar Dangiwa, Lawan Gwadabe would all be languishing in jail with him. Yet, not a single one of them is facing any harassment from this administration. Dasuki is in prison for his role in misusing a colossal sum of $2.8bn for purchase of arms to curtail the menace of insurgency when he served as NSA. His case is neither personal nor targeted. It's purely a case between the State and Dasuki and it shouldn't be given any other definition.
May Allah in HIS infinite mercy forgive the sins of former Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki and reward his good deeds with jannatil firdaus.
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