Ever since the write-up of the former Special Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Reuben Abati, and another confirming analysis by former spokesman on Public Affairs to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Femi Fani-Kayode, hit the social media early last week on how evil spirits operate in the Presidential Villa, the two accounts appeared to be scaring the hell out of some staff at the seat of power.
The stories seem to be having effects on their psyche and fast changing their habits. Some of them who normally work late into the nights have suddenly stopped. And others who have no choice than to work late have devised various methods to survive.
Digressing a bit, the staff and visitors car parks in the State House, like have been mentioned on this page before, have been named by some staff according to the car parks’ remoteness or nearness to the administration gate, which is by the main entrance to the President’s and Vice President’s offices.
They were named after the areas and bus stops from the seat of power in the three arms zone in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) through to the road linking the neighboring Mararaba community in Nasarawa State. The various car parks within the pilot gate were named ‘Maitama,’ ‘Asokoro,’ ‘AYA,’ ‘Nyanya,’ and ‘Mararaba.’
The one called ‘Maitama’ is the closest and within the administrative gate and it is supposed to provide car park spaces for staff on level 14 and above. The other car parks are farther away from the administrative gate. Bordering all these car parks, on one side, is a stretch of thick forest, where various animals inhabit.
Staff and visitors would have preferred to park close to the administration gate but for lack of space as the car parks closer to the gate get filled up from 9 a.m.
One of the new methods some of the staff closing late at night have adopted is that those that parked their cars at the remote places like ‘Nyanya’ and ‘Mararaba’ now move in twos and more numbers to their cars. Those that get to their cars first continue to warm the car engine and delayed a bit in their cars for their colleagues to get into theirs.
Like in a convoy, they drove out of the Presidential Villa one car closely behind the other or to say it as commonly said by Nigerians ‘bumper to bumper.’
It was not easy to link the new trend last week Monday and Tuesday to the write-ups by Abati and Fani-Kayode until last Wednesday.
Two ladies closing late on Wednesday night and going to the car park together happened to be discussing the Abati and Fani-Kayode’s write-ups.
One of them said she believed the stories were true considering the former First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan’s travail, who was sick and went through one surgical operation to the other and miraculously became well after her husband lost the 2015 Presidential election.
She also said she was convinced that Fani-Kayode’s analysis of leaders who died or lost a spouse after three years in the Villa was not ordinary.
The other lady then brought another dimension to the discussion and said that the evil spirits could even be living in the monkeys, peacocks, bats, tortoise and other animals they see around the seat of power.
Scaringly, they gazed towards the thick forest as they rushed to their cars parked at ‘Mararaba’ car park. They moved out of the Villa together.
Buhari, wife and political appointments
Is the role of the wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, purely to manage the home of the President or to additional support her husband towards ensuring smooth sail of the ship of state to its desired destination.
That is one of the questions on the lips of many Nigerians in the past few days.
It is no longer news that the questions were thrown up by the recent interview Aisha granted the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Buhari’s reaction to the interview.
Aisha had declared in the interview that Buhari’s government had been hijacked by a “few people”, who did not play any role in his emergence as the democratic President of Nigeria.
She also maintained that the President didn’t know most of the officials he had appointed.
The wife of the President also feared that the reactions of millions of Nigerian youths that brought the government to power would not be pleasant if the government derails from its promises to Nigerians.
If things continue the way they are, Aisha in the interview, also warned that she will not back Buhari in the next election if he decides to contest for second term in 2019.
But Mr. President, who was on a three-day visit to Germany was said to have responded ‘jokingly’ to the interview.
He had responded with: “I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but my wife belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room.”
The interviews generated hot discussions among Nigerians not only on the social media, but at homes, motor parks, markets, newspapers’ stands and commuter vehicles.
While some believed that the place of a wife is solely to manage the home and respect her husband in line with cultural and traditional demands, others saw the need for the wife to do more to ensure the husband is on course and succeeds in any chosen field.
Some of them pointed out that the husband is the head of a home, while the wife is the neck to the head providing support and right direction.
To douse the tension, Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, who was on the trip with the President to Germany, addressed a press conference in Abuja last week Sunday to say that the President’s remark was misunderstood and that it was just a joke.
Less than twelve hours after Okorocha’s explanation, another interview granted by the President to Deutsche Welle in Germany was aired repeating more or less what he said in the earlier interview.
The second interview made some Nigerians believed that the President was not joking with his response.
But whether the President was joking or not, some changes were made barely one week after Aisha’s interview.
Names of forty-six ambassadorial nominees, possibly capturing those who worked for Mr. President’s election, were forwarded to the Senate last Thursday for screening and approval.
While so many praises have been coming the way of Aisha, she was particularly selected last week by a group, the Association of Good Leadership Advocate Peace Development Lagos, as the Woman of the Year 2016 for her boldness to tell her husband the truth about the feelings of Nigerians.
Only time will tell if the ambassadorial appointments will help to calm the dust raised or whether the cabinet will be reshuffled soon to give room for more qualified Nigerians that worked for the emergence of the administration.
