On Dictatorship
For them, the focus is on the strong-arm tactics which characterised the Buhari regime, leading to the jailing of the critics of the military government, including the Afro-beat legend Fela Kuti, selective prosecution of politicians, execution of drug traffickers and crackdown on independent newspapers.

President Jonathan himself said during his declaration that the next presidential election was “a choice between going forward or going backwards, between the new ways and the old ways, between freedom and repression,” a sly reference to the military regime headed by the former Head of State, described by human right groups and activists, including Professor Wole Soyinka as brutal dictatorship. Buhari has always defended himself against the allegations insisting that he acted under the confines of the laws guiding his administration then. “Apart from changing to a dinner suit, General Buhari has not changed the tired ideas and provocative utterances that Nigerians rejected in previous elections,” PDP spokesman Olisa Metuh said.

Religious Sentiment
The ruling party and its supporters had also tried to dissuade Nigerians, especially Christians from supporting Buhari with allegations that the retired General religious bigot, drawing attention to some of the statements he had allegedly made in the past on the issue of Sharia, the Islamic legal system among others.

The PDP and supporters of the party had severally alleged that the mission of APC and its presidential candidate is to Islamise Nigeria like the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt. But Waziri Adio, a columnist with ThisDay newspapers noted last month that “the stigmatization of Buhari as a religious fundamentalist and sympathiser of Boko Haram is losing its sheen. Unlike in the past, there have been conscious efforts to market Buhari beyond his fanatical base and challenge the way he was negatively framed by reverse bigots. Based on this outreach, a groundswell of support, fuelled by nostalgia and the burning desire for a new Nigeria, is building up for Buhari where none previously existed.”

•Osinbajo: His choice knocked the accusation that Buhari is a religious bigot.

The selection of Professor Yemi Osinbajo, a pastor and former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State as Buhari’s running mate has further dented the PDP claims on the islamisation agenda. Nevertheless, pro Jonathan groups who seemed to be mushrooming by the minute have set up accounts with the clear objective of punching holes in the APC presidential candidate’s record of public service, which is his main appeal to Nigerians. The President had promised to run issues based campaign when he inaugurated his campaign organisation early this month.

But analysts had pointed out that his appointment of Fani-Kayode who has been very trenchant in leveling accusations of Islamisation plot against the APC and its presidential candidate as his campaign organisation belies Jonathan’s promise. Unlike his boss, the former Minister of Aviation was more truthful at his maiden press conference held a day after the inauguration, asserting that the Jonathan Campaign Organisation intends to focus on the person of the presidential candidate of APC as a key part of the campaign. Thus, it is not a surprise that the ruling party has been raising issues intended not just to impugn the integrity of Buhari, but to distract the APC presidential campaign.

Accusation on PTF
The Jonathan campaign organization had raised questions about Buhari’s stewardship in Petroleum Trust Fund, an agency set up by the late General Sanni Abacha to manage and invest funds saved from subsides on petroleum products on infrastructural and social services. Contrary to Buhari’s claims of probity, the Jonathan campaign organisation had alleged that PTF, under the former Head of State, was mired in cesspool of corruption and mismanagement. In making the allegations, the Campaign Organisation pointed to the report of Dr Haroun Adamu-led Interim Management Committee set up to probe the activities of PTF under Buhari at the inception of democracy in 1999 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. They noted that the Committee had, in its final report, concluded that N25.8 billion could not be accounted for by the PTF under Buhari.

The Campaign Organisation then published what it claimed was the report of the Haroun Adamu Committee which was not previously released to the public in several newspapers and magazines. Just when the Campaign Organisation thought it has got the final ammunition to nail Buhari, former President Obasanjo stepped in to clear the former Head of State of any form of corrupt enrichment while heading the PTF during a campaign stop by the APC in Ogun State. The Jonathan campaign organization, in a statement by Fani Kayode, wasted no time in questioning the clean bill of health given to Buhari by Obasanjo, affirming that the final report of the PTF probe “exposed nothing but monumental sleaze and the most pervasive and insidious type of corruption in PTF while General Buhari held sway there.”

The report concluded its findings by recommending that the PTF, under General Buhari and his entire team, be asked to explain the circumstances in which N25. 8 billion disappeared and could not be accounted for. As the chief executive officer of PTF at the time, Buhari, and no one else, must be held responsible for this.” But the APC and Buhari had insisted that the clearance given to the presidential candidate by the former President is enough to absolve him of any culpability in mismanagement of PTF.

Sources in the opposition party told this magazine last week that the fact that the recommendation of the Haroun Adamu Committee report was never acted upon or officially released by Obasanjo makes the allegations of PDP a non issue. “Through dark innuendo, Dr. Jonathan’s publicists seek to parlay this recommendation into iron clad evidence that Buhari was somehow culpable and does not deserve the reputation he enjoys,” Professor Olatunji Dare said in his weekly column with THE NATION newspaper. It is nothing of the sort. “The report indicts Buhari to the extent that he was chair of PTF. He held that post in a non executive capacity. The executive secretary and in effect, the accounting officer, was Chief Tayo Akpata who is unfortunately no longer with us. Were he alive, he would have with his accustomed thoroughness answered point by point the charges the Jonathan camp has dredged up,” he added while dismissing claims of Fani-Kayode.