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2007 Elections
After losing the 2007 general elections, Mr. Buhari remained a staunch opposition leader against the
administration of President Umar Yar’Adua. He made several controversial statements on several radio
and television appearances, but was never taken into custody. His freedom of speech was not annulled.
He asked Nigerians to make exceptional sacrifices to assert their collective will in the country. Mr.
Sowore answered the blaring call in August of 2019. Mr. Buhari, with his unshaken resoluteness, in
ruining the country, contested again in 2011.

2011 Elections
In 2011, Mr. Buhari became angry again after he lost to President Goodluck Jonathan. He led other
opposition elements to protest different issues, from fuel price hike to alleged electoral fraud, while his
case was in court. Mr. Buhari hailed the Arab Spring that swept through the Middle East from 2011,
seeing it at the time as mandatory for the long-suffering masses in the affected countries. Strongly
believing in that revolutionary process, he encouraged similar agitations in Nigeria as an effective means
of nudging the government he sued and accused of stolen mandate. He urged a revolution through the
ballot.
Mr. Buhari announced that “The Egyptian pro-democracy campaigners defied all odds to achieve
their set goal of terminating the 30-year old grip on power by President Hosni Mubarak. Their
tenacity has again confirmed the truism that no force on earth can stop a people determined.” He
commended the Egyptian military for refusing to attack “the forces of change”. Mr. Buhari said “the
military in Egypt showed exemplary conduct with the way they refused to be used to attack the
forces of change. They showed the whole world that there is a clear difference between the state and
those who temporarily occupy political offices for a fixed tenure. This is a lesson for our security
agents who have been used to subvert the will of the people at elections in recent past.” Mr. Buhari
averred. https://saharanews.co/flashback-in-2011-general-buhari-called-for-a-revolution-in-nigeria.
Succumbing to the challenge posed by Mr. Buhari, Mr. Sowore planned a non-violent protest to lead a
determined people. Mr. Buhari, under whose direct control the security agencies are, is deemed to have
endorsed the oppression and gruesome stifling of democratic voices by his security forces. Not only by
wielding and corking guns at unarmed protesters but by wearing masks in the public and occupying
Courthouse to harass innocent citizens. In parentheses, Senator, the president of Nigeria thinks corruption
just means misappropriation of funds. Corruption emanates from moral bankruptcy which Mr. Buhari is
indulging in by the unconstitutional misuse of security agents/agencies in criminalizing exercise of
democratic right of expression and peaceful action. What lessons are we indoctrinating in our citizens
when security officers wear masks to intimidate judges and the citizens they are supposed to protect?
Why would Armed Robbers and kidnappers not learn from the country security officers?
Consequent upon Mr. Buhari’s inciting pronouncements throughout these elections, in April 2011, riots
broke out across northern Nigeria as presidential poll results showed President Goodluck Jonathan was
set to win. Young supporters of Mr. Buhari clashed with police and military. Several Nigerians were
reported to have lost their lives. Homes of supporters of President Jonathan were attacked in the cities of
Kano and Kaduna. As 2015 elections were approaching, Mr. Buhari who rapaciously wanted to be in
power by all means necessary later said “God’s willing, by 2015, something will happen. They either
conduct a free and fair election or they go a very disgraceful way. If what happened in 2011 (alleged
rigging) should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be
soaked in blood.” https://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/05/2015-ll-be-bloody-if-buhari/ With that defiant
willpower, he threw his hat in the 2015 elections and he won. Nigerians were hoodwinked into believing
that we had a messiah in Mr. Buhari.
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With these records, one would think Mr. Buhari who encouraged Nigerians to engage in “revolution”
would encourage exercise of the right to peaceful protest which is intrinsically part of democracy. But no,
Senator, Mr. Buhari runs a Regime of “no protest” which is inimical to democracy.
Regime of ‘no protests’
Although the Buhari administration and security chiefs claimed Mr. Sowore was only arrested because he
used the word “revolution” in his agitation, there had been previous cases when Nigerians who did not
make allusions to revolution were prevented from holding protests by security forces.
In February 2017, the police frustrated a protest planned by Nigerians and led by a musician, saying they
had received intelligence reports that it would turn violent. In April 2018, the police illegally imposed a
permanent ban on gathering at the Unity Fountain, a major square in Abuja where “BringBackOurGirls”
and other civil movements held demonstrations for years. The police castigated former Minister Oby
Ezekwesili and other Nigerians who were taking part in regular sit-ins at the location as constituting a
‘nuisance’ with their agitation. Recently, the Buhari administration and security chiefs accused opposition
figures, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, of plotting a regime change in Nigeria through
unconstitutional means. Despite inundating Nigerians with the purported coup allegations, the
government did not provide any evidence to the public. It also turned out that a document security chiefs
claimed was circulated by alleged coup plotters did not exist. Attorneys have said there are about 50
Nigerians in unlawful detention resulting from disobedience of court orders. The accelerating desecration
of the sanctity of the judiciary through multiple means, of which noncompliance with court orders is fast
becoming the custom under Mr. Buhari’s misrule is worrisome. If all of us keep quite with the way Mr.
Sowore was manhandled in Court premises on Friday, December 6, 2019, Mr. Buhari would be
emboldened to destroy the 20years democratic foundation Nigeria has succeeded in maintaining.
Mr. Sowore’s experience in Court on December 6, 2019
While we address Judges in the United States as “Your Honor”, still swimming in the claws of colonial
mentality, we address Judges as “My Lord”, in Nigeria. In Nigeria, Mr. Buhari’s security forces caused
the Lord of the Courtroom to run for her dear life. “My Lord” took to her feet, Senator, when she saw
fierce looking agents of the Department of the State Services (DSS) wielding and corking guns, subdued
the unarmed regular police officers of “my Lord’s” Courtroom, thereby violating the Temple of Justice.
Here is a Judge who summoned courage to render her Ruling in the application for bail and granted the
bail application. For the Court’s security to have been subdued is the height of absurdity and presentation
of Nigeria as a zoo. This is very depressing to many patriotic Nigerians whose dignities are being
dwarfed.
Anyone with conscience who watched the video of how Mr. Sowore was almost suffocated and pinched
to the ground, not caring about his spinal cord, with his eye ball turning would feel the cruelty of man to
man. Anyone who watched Mr. Sowore panting for breath when he told the world that he was ready to
die so all can be free would readily see why God regretted creating human being. I am sad and I am
shedding tears while writing this letter to seek help. Why, Senator? There are no living former rulers with
appreciable moral authority in the country that we can turn to. All living former Presidents lack the moral
authority to call Mr. Buhari to order because of similar records. Consequently, we have to turn to lovers
of democracy all over the world for help by making the following requests.

Our Requests
 Deprive children of Nigeria’s rulers education in the US. It is a public knowledge that those in
government in Nigeria are not pleased with the education they instituted thus causing them to
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send their children abroad for education. I humbly request that the student visas of their children
studying in the United States be revoked and their children deported back to the country their
fathers created.
 Visa denial. Since President Buhari is not pleased with medical treatment in Nigeria and he is
always embarking on medical tourism with Nigeria’s resources, he (Mr. Buhari) and all those
working with and for him who are always here seeking medical treatment should not be issued
visas. We appreciate the current policy of the United States government’s refusal of visas to those
who rigged elections in Nigeria. Please let’s extend it to those debasing our values.
 All officers of the DSS, Police and other Security outfits should not be allowed here for training.
Nigerians are beginning to wonder what kind of training they are getting from the United States.
With all the requisite show of force embarked on by various United States Police, I have never
seen or witnessed policemen wearing masks or intimidating judges in the courtroom.
 All those working in the Ministry of Justice and their children should not be issued visas
henceforth. Great Americans fought for sanity in the United States, these folks cannot be creating
insanity in Nigeria and be running to the United States for sanity.
Conclusion

As established above, each time Mr. Buhari contested and lost, he headed to Court, protested with violent
and inciting comments which had led to destruction of lives and properties, and he was never arrested for
once. Mr. Sowore’s call for revolution is to have a system that works for majority of Nigerians.
Participants in the #Revolution Now# protests were only carrying placards, not arms and thus never used
inciting and hate speeches used by Mr. Buhari when he lost elections and called for his own revolutionary
protest. Currently, Nigerian polity is being unnecessarily heated by this Sowore’s saga. Yet, Mr. Buhari
seems indifferent and sees no reasons to address the nation let alone scolding his security forces for re-
arresting someone granted bail by the court. Mr. Sowore had been kept for over 125 days by the DSS with
several court orders to release him, contemptuously flouted. The DSS had all these days to interrogate
him and proceed with the prosecution. Their intent is to send a strong signal to Nigerians not to dare
challenge the government of Buhari. Their strategy is to use subterfuge to cow Nigerians into submission.
Nigerians have been through this route many times and they are victorious because many Nigerians are
too legit to quit.

A copy of this letter has been sent to Senators Benjamin Cardin and Chris Van Hollen of the State of
Maryland to brief them, as well as President Donald Trump. I am very grateful for your efforts in helping
Mr. Sowore’s family and the masses of Nigeria

With the kindest regard, I remain

Sincerely yours,

Lanre Banjo
Former governorship candidate
Ogun State Nigeria

cc: Senator Benjamin Cardin, Maryland

Senator Chris Van Hollen, Maryland
President Donald Trump