The Desperate Smear Campaign Against Senator Shehu Buba Umar
By Mustapha Gembu
Anyone still believing the ongoing media propaganda linking Senator Shehu Buba Umar, representing Bauchi South at the Red Chamber, to the sponsorship of bandits and banditry in Nigeria is either a victim of deliberate misinformation or has chosen to become a willing instrument of a calculated campaign of calumny.
The question is simple: what exactly is Senator Shehu Buba’s crime?
What is the deafening empty noise of linking Senator Shehu Buba to sponsoring banditry for? It is for being a full-fledged Fulani man and a Muslim. Everyone knows Fulani are among the most targeted in Nigeria by anti-Muslim forces and those sponsoring terrorism in the country.
Another report has it that some Christian missionaries are behind the ongoing media campaign against Senator Shehu Buba Umar, allegedly because they consider him an obstacle to the promotion of their evangelical activities among vulnerable pastoralist communities across Bauchi State and the country at large.
According to the report, they allegedly found it worthy to sponsor a character-assassination campaign against Senator Shehu Buba, including linking him to sponsoring bandits and banditry, simply because of his religious and community activities.
If this report is true, then it raises serious questions about the motive behind the campaign and whether Senator Shehu Buba is being targeted because he is perceived as an obstacle to their missionary agenda.
Any religious disagreement should be addressed openly and peacefully, not through character assassination or unsubstantiated allegations.
His crime, according to those behind this campaign, appears to be his dedication to promoting Islamic propagation among the Fulani pastoralists, especially within his senatorial zone; building mosques, schools and clinics; providing scholarships for the children of the pastoralists; and carrying out sensitisation across pastoralist settlements.
Instead of recognising these efforts, those behind the campaign have resorted to using rented individuals, including some among the Fulani, to lie against Senator Buba. They circulate images of Senator Buba with fellow Fulanis and deliberately portray them as bandits or bandit leaders.
They also sponsor a campaign of calumny and character assassination, renting some social media influencers to promote the fabricated lies on their respective social media handles, linking Senator Shehu Buba to sponsoring bandits.
This is not journalism. It is a vicious smear operation designed to destroy a public servant through insinuation, deception and character assassination.
The individuals appearing in those photographs are not members of the bandits or bandit leaders as being reported. They are Senator Buba’s foot soldiers at the frontline, helping with humanitarian services, enlightenment, Islamic propagation and sensitisation across settlements of pastoralists.
The names of famous bandit leaders being allocated to Senator Shehu Buba’s grassroots workers are never their respective true names. Giving those individuals the names of famous bandit leaders is all geared towards the desperation of linking Senator Shehu Buba to sponsoring bandits and banditry in Nigeria.
ANOTHER BIGGER QUESTION
Another biggest question is: How can Senator Shehu Buba Umar sponsor bandits when there is no banditry in Bauchi South, the constituency he is representing at the Red Chamber, the same way there is nothing like banditry in Bauchi State at large?
Do they mean a sitting Senator in Bauchi State is the one sponsoring the bandits far away in Zamfara and Katsina States?
Read Also:
If this is what they are alleging, then where is the evidence?
Where are the bandits he is allegedly sponsoring? Where are their camps? Where are the financial transactions? Where are the communications? Where is the evidence linking Senator Shehu Buba to the banditry taking place far away in Zamfara and Katsina States?
This is a question those making these allegations must answer.
But those behind this campaign did not stop there. They have now, according to the allegations being circulated, resolved to use Photoshop, AI-generated images and so on, linking Senator Shehu Buba to the kind of bandit kingpins like Bello Turji, Dogo Gide and so on.
The satanic mission of those sponsoring the fabricated lies and massive media propaganda against Senator Shehu is to dehumanise him, criminalise and malign him for serving as an obstacle for their rampages of sponsoring terrorism in exchange for blood money.
Senator Shehu Buba is deemed an obstacle, which is the reason for the sponsored media campaigns against his personality, linking him to fabricated stories of being a sponsor of bandits.
His accusers should stop hiding behind noise and propaganda. Bring the evidence.
Senator Shehu Buba’s case is just like the targeted Sheikh Ahmed Gumi, who is among those working to sabotage the effort of those sponsoring terrorism in Nigeria.
It is also just like the case of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, who worked then as a sitting governor of Kaduna State to stamp out conflict beneficiaries and orchestrators in Kaduna State and today is now being called names.
It is just like any attempt to fight corruption in Nigeria: the beneficiaries of corruption will gang up against the corruption fighter.
I hereby call on the entire people of Bauchi State and the country at large to disregard the ongoing media campaign of calumny and lies being spewed against Senator Shehu Buba, sponsored by some unscrupulous elements behind the sponsoring of terrorism in Nigeria and among the beneficiaries of terrorism, especially the banditry part of the terrorism.
The billions of blood money they are feeding on is what they choose to use against Senator Shehu Buba to sponsor mass-media campaigns, including using some rented individuals in the promotion of the fabricated lies of linking Senator Shehu Buba to sponsoring bandits and banditry in Nigeria.
If they have evidence, let them stop talking and produce it.
If Senator Shehu Buba is truly sponsoring banditry, then let them produce verifiable evidence, identify the alleged beneficiaries, show the financial transactions and present the facts before the public.
No more insinuations. No more recycled allegations. No more manipulated photographs. No more attaching the names of notorious bandits to innocent people simply to manufacture a connection.
Photographs, insinuations, recycled accusations, manipulated images and the deliberate attachment of notorious bandit names to innocent individuals do not constitute evidence.
If anyone has genuine evidence against Senator Shehu Buba, let that evidence be presented openly and subjected to public scrutiny. Nigerians deserve facts, not propaganda; verifiable evidence, not manufactured narratives; and credible journalism, not campaigns built around unverified photographs and allegations.
Senator Shehu Buba is an obstacle and will continue to be an obstacle for those he believes are sponsors and beneficiaries of terrorism in Nigeria.
But propaganda cannot substitute for evidence, and fabricated allegations cannot permanently survive scrutiny.
Enough of the lies. If there is evidence, produce it. If there is none, stop manufacturing it.
Mustapha writes from Gembu, Taraba State.
