When the leader of the Indigenous People Of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, spoke of a certain Jibril from Sudan who replaced Buhari, those in the majority called him a mad man but today, thanks largely to the arrogant posture of the presidency, the number of psychiatrists who diagnosed him with psychosis are shrinking. The real Buhari, according to Kanu, died the day he raised an army to challenge Chukwu Abiama’s anointed prince. The real Buhari has a squeezed ear with ageing marks but Jibril, the impostor, has a smooth ear. The real Buhari is very tall but Jibril, the impostor, is shorter than the current Senate President, Bukola Saraki. The real Buhari can speak fulfude, Jibril can’t. The real Buhari was very ill and small in size before he embarked on that last surgery that changed everything but Jibril is healthy, looks younger, fresher and visits to London hospitals are no longer commonplace.

According to Kanu, Jibril was just a commoner living in Sudan who looked exactly like the ‘late Buhari’ and was invited to stand as the man after some surgical modification was performed on him. No wonder, the Jibrilists insist, immediately the President returned from his last medical tourism, the dishonorable Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, told Nigerians that treacherous rats ate up a lot and the repairs of the President’s office would make him stay away from the place for three months. Kanu argued that because it was Jibril and not Buhari, because the fingerprint of the impostor could not be replicated as part of the surgical modifications that went on, the three months provided ample time for the lock to be replaced as well.

Before Nigeria’s quiet President, Umar Yaradua, was proclaimed dead, a lot of politics was played and maybe, just maybe, the men who ran things then supplied the current cabals ideas to stay in power and Jibril was born. That’s how some of the new believers of the double see it. Prior to Buhari’s medical tourisms and returns, nothing was said about his sickness. Unlike Yaradua, Nigerians cannot say for sure what sickness Buhari has or how much was spent in treating the man. In fact, he seems to move around with a disdainful aura that suggests servants-master relationship and owes no one no explanation.

Buhari and his team have, from day one, ridiculed the Nigerian people and his position on the Jibril matter helped to sell the conspiracy theories. He claimed to be a man of integrity but never saw the sense in telling Nigerians how much he spent for all the treatments he got in that London hospital. He laid claims to transparency but didn’t know he owed Nigerians knowledge of his sickness. The man created an information gap because of the value he placed on Nigerian lives and the story of Jibril is one of the effects of creating such lacuna in the system. Nobody knows what is true.

I have seen Nigerians on either side of the divide speak of the gullibility of those on the other side. The propagators of the Jibril narrative see the people who reject it as fools and gullible people and vice versa. The latest from the stable of the ‘myth-busters’ compares the palms of Jibril the impostor and that of Buhari but we know there is a lot of photoshop going around. In a certain photoshopped image, the President wrote with a right hand in comparison to another where he wrote with his left. In one video, the President referred to his wife as ‘Mrs Buhari’ when ‘my wife’ should have been the natural language. While this can be used as an argument that the foreigner is still perfecting his disguise skills, it is also not an unusual thing to expect from Buhari whose propensity for denigrating his wife, like he did in front of the world and the German Chancellor, Angela Markel, is very high.

When his wife returned from her visit to the London hospital that treated him it was said she cried on setting her foot here and the Jibrilists have another reason to believe Jibril is our President. Why would she cry if the man is not dead? Why would she cry if Buhari has got the stamina to make it? The argument raises suspicion but it could also be that the sorry state she met her husband broke her as we have seen this happen around us. Last week was the most vocal she has been after returning from that journey and like before, she stirred up the waters even more. She said her husband’s government is very slow because it is controlled by two men who don’t mean well for Nigeria. To the Jibrilists, another testament that the Sudanese, Jibril, is the current President. But who knows what is true?

Why are Buhari’s kids less vocal? They ask. Why are they unusually quiet and not tweeting like they used to do? Valid questions which can also be explained very well on either side. Irrespective of whether we’ve got a Jibril as President, nothing has really changed. The president is still as dumb as he used to be. A testament to that dumbness was when he chose to address the burning issue in Nigeria abroad in the presence of foreign journalists. The President, as if the argument was that a clone was there, said he was not a clone, as if a clone would say something different. This issue has been elevating tension back home and truth is, a lot of believers have been made but he thinks Nigerians are not worthy of hearing him defend such theory.

He still places respect for foreigners above respect for his own people and this makes one question the position of the Jibrilists. If the former guy was so dumb as to tell Germans and the German Chancellor, his wife, Aisha Buhari, belonged to the kitchen and other room (where I don’t even think anything happens), was stupidity one of the commodities transferred in the surgical modifications for this gaffe to happen? If the former guy told the people of the UK that Nigerians are criminals, except him, why will Jibril want to stick with such consistency? Then you look at the killings going on and nothing has really changed. The blood of Nigerians still flow for the contraption to remain one and shooting of protesters and illegal arrests are still going one.

Again, if you analyse well, you will see that an impostor would have to be under control. We are in a confused state now. Aisha Buhari spoke of two men in control now and she has spoken of a cabal in charge before, therefore, there is no clear cut argument vindicating any side. What we know now is that the President is still a dumb guy and his performances are still below par. We still know that he has no regards for court orders not in his favour. We can see that he is still that egocentric man who disdains us but must govern us. He still thinks Nigerians are all criminals and he is the only good Nigerian. He is still willing to pretend that Boko Haram has been defeated like he did some weeks back when over 100 soldiers were killed. He could be Jibril or Buhari, but it is still the same old scenes everywhere.

By Rey Alaetuo

The author is a conscious Poet and health care professional living in Lagos, Nigeria. I've written three collection of Poems, I am an exponent of humanism and a vigilant Poet. I am deeply interested in the propagation of positive human values and behaviour.

Courtesy: Mortal Poet.