No cry is more expensive than the cry of others. No mourning is more sorrowful than mourning that ignores the cries of the oppressed. On July 15, 2025, the burial of former President Muhammadu Buhari turned into a theatre of what can only be described as moral hypocrisy — with some choosing to glorify a man whose tenure represents one of the darkest chapters in Nigeria’s democratic journey.
As Ohanaeze Youth, we watched with deep pain and righteous indignation as national figures, political elites, and clerical sympathizers lined up to offer condolences — not to the families of the thousands slaughtered under Buhari’s reign, but to the very architect of their sorrows.
Where were these voices of sympathy when unarmed Igbo youths were massacred in places like Head Bridge, Onitsha, Aba, Port Harcourt, and Afaraukwu Umuahia under the military operation Python Dance, sanctioned by Buhari’s command? Where was the national outrage when peaceful EndSARS protesters were gunned down at Lekki Tollgate? Where were the mourning flags for the Shiite Muslims who were killed in their dozens?
Instead, the blood of these innocent citizens was washed away with silence. Not even a day of national mourning was declared.
To extend sympathy to a man who demonstrated zero empathy is to spit on the graves of the innocent. How do we explain this to God and to humanity? As it is written: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” But those who wrote eulogies for Buhari without first writing justice for the dead will face divine judgment.
Let us not forget: under Buhari’s government, over 68,111 innocent Nigerians died needlessly — from extrajudicial killings to unchecked insurgencies, from farmer-herder conflicts to bandit terrorism. These were not just numbers. They were fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters — all sacrificed at the altar of ethnic nepotism, political incompetence, and criminal negligence.
In Benue and Plateau States, entire families were wiped out. Parents beyond childbearing age became childless overnight. Buhari’s silence and inaction turned their sorrow into generational trauma.
Under Buhari, bandits became emperors. Christians in the North were hunted. Kidnappers, organ harvesters, and murderers took over highways and farmlands, empowered by the very political machinery that elevated Buhari to power.
He became more than a president. He became a symbol of:
Fear for minorities,
Hunger for the poor,
Joblessness for millions,
Looting for the cabals,
And hopelessness for the entire nation.
The looting was legendary. Just in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), ₦825 billion and $2.5 billion were siphoned in the name of refinery rehabilitation. Eight years of national theft disguised as governance.
Let it also be remembered that Muhammadu Buhari presided over the executive lawlessness that imprisoned Nnamdi Kanu in defiance of local and international human rights laws. Watching Justice Binta Nyako during Kanu’s trials was like watching Buhari himself — injustice with a robe.
Buhari died, not as a statesman, but as a symbol of tyranny, tribalism, and political wickedness. He died in hate. He died in injustice. He died having turned the Nigerian state into a playground for ethnic cleansing, religious bias, and economic sabotage.
History must remember this. Nigeria must remember this.
Those who must destroy others in order to succeed should know — destruction awaits them at the corridor of their lives.
This was written by Comrade Igboayaka O. Igboayaka, the National President, Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC).
