Aisha Yesufu, co-convener of advocacy group, Bring Back Our Girls, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari, who is on medical leave in London, to resign
Aisha Yesufu, co-convener of advocacy group, Bring Back Our Girls, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari, who is on medical leave in London, to resign immediately. Yesufu said this in a two-minute video clip posted on her official Twitter handle on Friday.
She said, “When are we going to realise that this Acting President (arrangement) is really not just working out? Things are stagnant in Nigeria. For crying out loud, the President is sick, the President is not capable of discharging his duties as President. Why can’t he resign?
“Sickness can happen to anybody; nobody is wishing the President bad. The fact that he is sick does not mean he is going to die today or tomorrow; even someone who is as healthy as I am can drop dead. That is life.
“But for crying out loud, for how long are we going to wait and keep watching everything go into disarray? Who is going to sign the budget? We don’t know. The report on Babachir Lawal (SGF), what is happening to it? Why are we being held to ransom?”
The activist said even though Buhari had handed over power to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, who has since become the Acting President, the latter would not be able to perform his duties properly because of the politics of Nigeria. Yesufu said Osinbajo lacked the power to take decisive actions like sacking errant public officials because he would not want to rock the boat or take politically incorrect steps.
She said even though no human being was immune to sickness, Buhari’s case was peculiar because the lives of millions of people were in his hands and he must thus put the needs of the nation ahead of his own.
Yesufu added, “It’s not about you, Mr President. Can you just take some time off to take care of yourself? May God give you good health, may God have mercy on you. What you are going through is from God and people go through it in different ways, but please, Mr. President, do not allow this to keep the rest of us in bondage.
“And for us Nigerians, it is time we woke up. The Acting President cannot do anything because he wants to be seen as a good man. We need to take our country back. Let the President resign and if he cannot resign, let the National Assembly do the right thing and let us have another President.
“It is not about President Muhammadu Buhari, it’s about Nigeria and right now, Nigeria is suffering and we cannot continue to allow this. Please, we have a lot of people who are supposed to be sacked but they cannot be sacked.”
However, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, on Friday said he stood by his earlier position on the calls being made by individuals for the resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari. In an interview with our correspondent, Adesina said those making the calls were only expressing their personal opinions, which they were entitled to.
He said about 15 million Nigerians voted massively for the President and the calls by a few Nigerians could not therefore override the mandate given to Buhari by Nigerians. Adesina said, “I have addressed this issue before and my position has not changed.
“The calls for the President’s resignation are mere opinions. They are not the gospel. This is democracy and freedom of speech is in the constitution, so they are entitled to their opinion. Like I always say, 15 million Nigerians voted for the President during the presidential election. If 10 or 15 people are calling for his resignation, they cannot override that mandate.”
