The spokesperson for the Congress of Progressive Change (CPC), Rotimi Fashekun, has explained that the ‘Dogs and baboons’ statement credited to the party’s presidential candidate in the 2011 election wasn’t calling for blood-shed but a “classical Hausa idiom.”
Mr Fashekun on our Politics Today programme explained that the phrase was an idiomatic expression which does not give the exact meaning when the words are put together.
The CPC leader, Muhammadu Buhari, had in a recent address to his party members in Hausa language, stated “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.”
According to Mr Fashekun, the reference to soaking dogs and baboons in blood was not calling for blood-shed but rather a normal idiomatic expression, regularly used in Hausa language.
Making reference to similar idioms in other languages, Mr Fashekun noted that a Yoruba idiom which states that “you and I will wear the same trousers”, does that mean a single trouser will be worn by the two persons involved in the conversation” he added.
He also cited the English idiom, which states “it is raining cats and dogs”. Does it mean that cats and dogs are raining down from the skies” he asked?
He lamented that people are been very picky and economical with the truth on the issue.
However, Mr Doyin Okupe, a member of the People’s Democratic Party disagreed with the argument, saying such a statement, calling for blood-shed in the 2015 elections is not expected from a revered former Head of State.
But the spokesman for the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Lai Mohammed, also on the programme argued with Mr Okupe that, General Buhari was not calling for a blood-shed.
To see the full programme, click here.