President Buhari and his unpresidential attitude By Malik Opeyemi

Charity they say begins at home but it seems this saying does not apply to the Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, a man who won the election using the Mantra “Change”, one begins to wonder the meaning of change and if this is what the APC meant when they convinced the non suspecting voters to vote in a Man who ironically seemed set in his ways and may likely not change.


Here is a president who does not think it wise or necessary to speak to citizens of his country on critical nay burning issues affecting them but quick to “pokenose” into other country’s affair.

You can ask yourself, what is president Buhari’s view on killings in Benue by fulani herdsmen, oil facilities bombing by the Avengers, cold blooded(gruesome) murder of an Abuja woman?,  just to mention a few, and you would either answer by saying  no comment yet, or search through the Internet to find albeit fruitlessly any statement that can be said to have come from him.

If you ask me, what kind of a president feels unconcerned about the plight of his people, their welfare or well being and I would say, a president who does not care, a president content with the glamour of office and who does not have a clear-cut plan on what, how and when to take decisions that will make his people hope for a better tomorrow.

A president whose only game-plan is to fight corruption, who having contested four times before winning took a year before forming his cabinet, a president who has within his ranks corrupt and soon to be corrupted fellows, whose only achievement so far is the arrest and investigation of people rightly or wrongly suspected to be corrupt.

Nigerians are resilient by nature and  would not react unless and until pushed to the wall, this was clearly the case with the Goodluck Jonathan administration, Nigerians were simply tired and would, given the opportunity vote for the Devil himself and face the consequences later.

Of course, the APC propaganda worked on the psychic of some people but not on everyone, many voted Buhari simply for want of a better choice, it was more like choosing between the Devil and the Deep blue sea, the rest as they say is history!.

Nigeria,  having recently lost several lives as a result of fightings,ritual killings, bombings e.t.c, isn’t it puzzling that no presidential pronouncement was made, as if the Nigerian life (lives) does not matter and yet the president was quick in condemning the failed attempt at ousting the Turkish leader through a Coup-de-tat.

One would wonder if Mr president was just observing presidential protocol or was simply sounding an alarm to those who care to listen, if it can happen in Turkey, it can happen anywhere!.

Whatever the reason, isn’t it ironic that a man who came to power through the barrel of a Gun in his first term as a military head of state would condemn this act, the answer is obvious, He is now a ” changed man”!.

If the president’s attitude to Nigerians does not change, I hope his spokesperson has in his repertoire tailor-made excuses to make on his behalf.

Speaking of his spokesperson, It was in horror that I watched an interview of Mr Femi Adesina as he struggled to answer questions posed to him by a channels TV presenter, he was asked why the president found it difficult to address Nigerians especially on sensitive matters of the state such as the recent killings all over the country, Adesina replied that the president has his style of doing things and does not need to follow the examples of other world leaders who addresses the citizens of their nation as occasion demands.
when asked specifically, why president Buhari did not issue any statement condemning the killing of an Abuja woman by suspected Islamic fundamentalist, Femi Adesina replied that the wife of the vice president, Mrs Osinbajo visited the family.

This Is where Femi Adesina misses the point, Mrs Osinbajo is not the president, she is not even the Vice president, it must be pointed out that She visited the family because the slain woman is a member of the same church she attends (The Redeemed Christian Church of God), where her husband the vice president is also a pastor and not because she was part of any government delegation.

One would expect that the spokesperson of a president will think before talking especially on salient and sensitive issues but it seems Femi Adesina is only concerned with defending his principal no matter the cost to his personal moral and professional ethics, I would advise Femi Adesina to make friends with Dr Reuben Abati, the erstwhile spokesperson to former president, Goodluck Jonathan.

Why do I say so? In an interview  Abati did recently, I watched him on TV describe how people literally disappeared from the Aso Villa after his principal lost the 2015 presidential election, he described the atmosphere as that of a “ghost town”, he also spoke about (using his own words) his phones not ringing and that he actually tried using one line to call another line just to be sure the phones were in good working conditions.

When asked lessons learnt, he answered,  “you are simply as good as your last appointment “, he also spoke about other things like not having time for friends and socials because of the hectic nature of his job .

Femi Adesina should understand that every position is like a revolving door, where everyone goes in at one point and also go out at another, how you will be treated outside the door is mostly determined by what you did while entering inside.

2019 is just around the corner, let Femi Adesina remind his principal that the cane used to beat the first wife is waiting patiently on the shelf to be used also on the second wife!.
A word should be enough for the wise!.