“I wrote to General Buhari at the beginning of the Fulani herdsmen clashes with farmers. I had a relationship with him and I thought I could offer some assistance. I was the commanding officer (CO) in Keffi with responsibility for the security of the upcoming federal capital, Abuja, when he was Head of State.
I wrote that I wanted to see him. The letter was delivered. I was told by telephone that my letter had been received and I will be scheduled to see him in two days. On the day I was to meet him, somebody called me and said my appointment had been put off. He said to me in Hausa that some people who sighted my correspondence said I will stop water from running or flowing should they allow me to see the president. I understood what they meant and I kept quiet. And I never, ever applied again to see him.
Many of us are concerned about the goings-on in the country. Unfortunately, your experience in these matters cannot reach the person who should know when access to him is blocked. At my age and level, I cannot be transmitting critical information meant for the ears of the president through proxies. You can be misconstrued, you can be nailed, just the way I was thrown into prison for eight years.
To me, the Buhari I know, except something has gone wrong, is not the kind of person that will tolerate or keep quiet in the face of all that is happening. The truth is that so much is being concealed from the president. I am not sure that General Buhari is regularly and properly briefed. That is my own assessment. And unless that is done, the sycophants around him will continue to mislead him.
Abacha was ahead of all of us with up-to-date intelligence gathering. By the time you go to him to give him what you consider privileged, first-hand information, he will just look at you and smile. He would have gotten that same report, the correct one, before your arrival. And whether you like it or not, as far as I’m concerned, Abacha did well in the security and economic management of this country. Nobody can deny that even if you don’t like him.”