Did Buhari Call For Violence In 2011?

n 2011, General Muhammadu Buhari, the candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), called for a revolution in Nigeria — albeit through the ballot.

Via a statement by Yinka Odumakin, his spokesman at the time who has now turned to one of his fiercest critics, Buhari asked Nigerians to make exceptional sacrifices to assert their collective will in the country.

“The Egyptian pro-democracy campaigners defied all odds to achieve their set goal of terminating the 30-year old grip on power by Mubarak. Their tenacity has again confirmed the truism that no force on earth can stop a people determined,” he said.

This was not the first time the president called for mass action — he did the same in 2003, after losing the presidential election to incumbent Olusegun Obasanjo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

A video clip in which the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, appeared to have used the Hausa word “halaka” (“kill”) during his 2011 electioneering is now trending on YouTube.

His team has produced a counter video while Buhari himself has, in a telephone chat with TheCable, vehemently denied using the ‘halaka’ word, suggesting that the clip was doctored.

In the ‘halaka’ video, which lasts for one minute and 56 seconds, Buhari is seen addressing a crowd during his presidential campaign ahead of the 2011 election on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), which is now part of the APC.

The exact date and location of the rally were not stated in the clip, which carries an NTA bug.

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Speaking in Hausa, Buhari appears to be saying: “Ku fita ku yi zabe. Ku Kasa, ku tsare, ku raka ku tsaya. Duk wanda bai yarda ba, ku halaka shi.”

The English subtitle which accompanies the video reads: “Firstly, you must register, come out and vote. You guard, protect, escort to the collation centre and you wait until the result is counted. Anyone who stops you, kill them!!! (Crowd chants wildly.)”

The YouTube video is generating some intense debate, with some commenters arguing over the connotative and denotative meanings of the word “halaka” in Hausa.

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“Halaka” means “kill” or “destroy”, but a commenter said: “It’s like kare jini, biri jini that he also used (in his statement that “the dog and the baboon getting soaked in blood” if the 2011 election was rigged). It’s completely taken out of context. That proverb means it’s going be a fight to the finish. Most of the Hausa vocabulary Buhari used are in everyday use, so if they are that bad, we won’t be using it in day-to-day talk.”

Buhari Instigated Post 2011 Election Violence – Adeyeye
The Minister of State for Works, Mr Dayo Ayeye on Sunday blamed the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) General Muhammadu Buhari for the …


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The Minister of State for Works, Mr Dayo Ayeye on Sunday blamed the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) General Muhammadu Buhari for the violence that occurred after the 2011 general elections.

“I want to say without any fear of contradiction that that violence (post 2007 election violence) was instigated by the candidate of the CPC then and now the candidate of the APC, General Muhammadu Buhari”, he said on Politics Today.

ZIKORAMAMACHI:
Was he arrested?