Buhari“…e be like say they want tell another story again o!……they want act another movie again o!…”Even though he pulled out of a nationwide protest h
Buhari
“…e be like say they want tell another story again o!…
…they want act another movie again o!…”
Even though he pulled out of a nationwide protest he was going to lead in demanding good governance in Nigeria, the words above from a popular song by Afropop singer, Innocent Idibia aka 2baba is apt in describing the current situation in the country. We are all waiting for the story while watching the movie being acted by President Muhammadu Buhari and his clan of ineffectual handlers.
Nigerians have been asking about the whereabouts of their President for some time now. And just when they appear to have come to terms with the narrative that ‘nothing (really) is wrong with going on vacation’ according to Mr. President, a more disturbing news came out of the Villa. Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity told a stunned nation in a press release on Sunday that President Buhari had written to the National Assembly that he was extending his stay in London to enable him complete a cycle of medical examination for an unspecified period of time. This sounds worrisome.
Nigerians were never told that their President was going on a medical or sick leave. The President only said he was proceeding on 10-day vacation. That, sadly, has now become an indefinite medical leave. Although President Buhari has been fair enough by constitutionally transferring power to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who has since assumed the duties of the President in acting capacity. But there has been nothing like fairness in the lacklustre manner the President’s team has been going about communicating his vacation (that has now become a medical leave) and other issues that are germane to the nation.
The President departed Abuja for London apparently on a medical vacation but his team came out to say that Mr. President was only going on a vacation albeit relentless efforts by Femi Adesina, the president’s spokesperson, in particular, to deny the obvious by stating repeatedly that there was nothing medical about the President’s trip to London. As we now know, the President’s expected return to the country on Sunday the 6th of February, 2017 was put on hold with the Presidential spokesperson announcing that the President had transmitted a letter to the National Assembly seeking indefinite extension of his vacation on medical advice. What can be a better definition of double standard and a public relations mess than this?
For a fact, one sometimes sympathize with Femi Adesina and some handlers of the President in some way.
There appears to be a curse of secrecy about the health of the Nigerian President. We saw this play out during the tenure of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Reflecting on Olusegun Adeniyi’s front row account of the Yar’Adua Presidency in ‘Power, Politics and Death’, I have come to the conclusion that there is a clique that gags and guides the president of Nigeria and prevents access to the president, denies the president access to the rest of the world and perpetually limit the president to only ‘their’ worldview at the expense of the collective interest of millions of Nigerians.
Unsurprisingly, this group of presidential ‘insiders’ also keeps information about the president’s health from the people and dictate what the spokesperson says or doesn’t say about the president and invariably decide what the rest of us should know about our own president. With all the shenanigans we saw in purported visits to the President by some prominent Nigerians, photos of the President and his wife allegededly taken in London, horse trading between the ruling APC and the PDP as well as the ignominious crowd of Buharists at the airport to welcome the president, it does appear that nothing would change this run of public relations disaster of the Buhari administration.
By Isah Ismail
