According to reports reaching Oyogist.com, A Nigerian-American scholar, Farooq Kperogi, has underrated President Muhammadu Buhari’s speech on October 1 Independence Day, describing it as “one of the worst speeches by the leader of any country on an occasion that invites solemnity, contemplation, and sobriety.”
The scholar also stated that the President’s speech on Friday was dull, empty and “poorly-written and filled with audaciously transparent lies.”
Kperogi stated these in his article titled, “What weed did Buhari’s speech writers smoke?”
He said, “I’ve stopped bothering to listen to or read Muhammadu Buhari’s speeches for quite a while now not only because I’ve given up on the regime he leads but also because he has some of the most inept speech writers Nigeria has ever had, particularly in the last two years
.“But a portion of the speech a friend shared with me instigated me to read the entire speech. The speech was, as usual, vacuous, insipid, poorly written, tediously mind-numbing, and filled with audaciously transparent lies. Nonetheless, even by the horrible standards of Buhari’s speeches, his October 1, 2021 Independence Day speech would go down in the records as perhaps one of the worst speeches by the leader of any country on an occasion that invites solemnity, contemplation, and sobriety.
“I have identified a few major parts of the speech that muddled basic history, turned logic on its head, and outright lied.“In the very second paragraph of the speech, Buhari claimed, “Today should not only serve as a reminder of the day the British handed over the reins of power to Nigerians, but also unified Nigerians from all ethnic groups, religions and regions.”
“Buhari’s claim that the British “unified Nigerians from all ethnic groups, religions and regions” is historically inaccurate. The British didn’t unify ethnic and religious groups in Nigeria; they exacerbated our differences and planted the seeds of disabling fissiparity that hold us back—all for their convenience.
“The British cobbled together a disparate people, imposed artificial boundaries around them, called their new artificial space “Nigeria,” then divided and conquered them for the benefit of the British. Britain had not the wispiest interest in the unifying “Nigerians from all ethnic groups, religions and regions.”
“It’s absurd, but not surprising, that a post-independence Nigerian leader would make this sort of ahistorical claim in an Independence Day broadcast. It’s like the victim of a rape thanking her rapist for unifying her with her child. “But that’s self-pitying lamentation. A serious country would have worked to reverse the damage the British created and left behind. But Nigeria’s post-independence leaders turned out to be thoughtless, self-loving epicureans with zero emotional investment in the country.
“That explains why Buhari who makes the most excessively pious noise about patriotism is the most servile Anglophile Nigeria has had as a leader. After allocating billions in the national budget for Aso Rock clinic, he goes to London to treat even the most elementary ailment.” the scholar stated further.
