Public affairs commentator Mahdi Shehu has criticised the growing number of books written to praise and defend the late former President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to him, no amount of writing can erase what he described as Buhari’s painful legacy in the minds of millions of Nigerians.
In a worded statement on X on Wednesday, Shehu said assembling the best writers and authors to produce books in Buhari’s honour would remain an exercise in futility.
He insisted that the experiences of Nigerians during Buhari’s years in power cannot be rewritten.
“Let the best of writers be assembled to continue writing on late President Muhammadu Buhari, choosing the best phrases to praise him and the best arguments to exonerate him. It will still remain an exercise in futility,” Shehu said.
According to him, Nigerians hold permanent and indelible memories of Buhari, and that no matter how well written in books, cannot erase.
“President Buhari can mean anything to the authors, their sponsors and to the launchers, but millions of Nigerians, dead and alive had and still have a permanent indelible memory and impression about him.
Shehu described Buhari as a leader who cried publicly for power but n his view, lacking the competence to manage it effectively.
He accused the former president of being inept and unaware of how power should be used to improve the quality of life of the people and build a nation.
“He delegated power without the capacity to supervise, reward or punish. He was a helpless spectator with power in hand, watching while some of his appointees rampaged the polity and the economy,” Shehu said.
“An Architect of failure, quantity surveyor of pains, structural engineer that supervised the collapse of Nigeria’s economy, commerce, politics and cohesion. When he was alive, they rushed to write books on him and they went to the banks laughing.
“After his death, they have begun to write books about him and they will surely laugh to the banks as usual,” he added.
Shehu also criticised the authors and promoters of books written about Buhari, accusing them of using flowery language and ego-massaging narratives to paint a false picture of heroism.
“They deploy heart-soothing statements and exaggerated praise to mislead the public into seeing a hero that he never was,” he said.
He listed several books written about Buhari, including Muhammadu Buhari: The Nigerian Legacy (2015–2023), Working With Buhari by Femi Adesina, Buhari: The Making of a President, and others, arguing that they all follow a similar pattern of praise while ignoring what he called serious governance failures.
According to Shehu, book launches and public presentations celebrating Buhari amount to celebrating failure, protecting ineptitude, entrenching nepotism and excusing deception in public office.
He also accused the Buhari administration of damaging public confidence in Nigeria’s electoral process.
“The supervision of the destruction of the credibility of electoral processes through and using Inec as a willing vehicle of shortchanging Nigerians is one of the biggest disservice late Muhammad Buhari has done to Nigerians whose confidence in the electoral processes remains impaired forever.
“All those who continue to attend the launching of the books on late Muhammad Buhari are fully aware right inside their hearts that there is absolutely nothing to write about Buhari but a thrash, nothing to celebrate about him except supervising and watching over Fraud and deception. There is nothing to celebrate about him but decimal failure,” he said.
No amount of books can erase Buhari’s painful legacy – Mahdi Shehu
