At the weekend, the President finally put a call through to some of his aides, particularly Femi Adesina, one of his spokesmen. During the call, the President was said to have dismissed those peddling unholy rumours about his state of health as “mischief makers”. He was however said to have insisted that he was getting back to form and would soon return home. Obviously, that is good news.
In fact, it is wretched of any human being on earth to wish another person dead knowing that death is the ultimate end of all mortals. It is the inevitable due we all must pay at one time or another during the course of life. Except that in Nigeria, being what we are, we practice what is essentially “do or die” politics.
The President’s health has been a topical issue for some time. Last week this column featured a piece titled: “Buhari: The price of ill-health”. It was centred on the goings-on in Aso Rock, the Nigerian Presidential Villa, since President Muhammadu Buhari left the shores of Nigeria on Thursday, January 19, on a supposed “10-day” vacation in England. The column took a cursory look at the way some aides of the President were fighting tooth and nail to downplay the severity or otherwise of the President’s illness by consistently selling a dummy to Nigerians on the issue. It is very obvious that rather than come clean to the public on the true situation of things, the presidency may have been economical with the truth.
First, they said the President was only going to London on vacation and that he would be back at his desk on Monday February 6. As the date drew nearer, the President himself transmitted another letter to the National Assembly to the effect that he needed more time to get through with the medical tests he was undertaking in London.
The storyline again changed. This time, the dummy sold to the public was that the President’s physicians had advised him to take further rest. At that juncture, his handlers attempted a bold-face by coming out to tell the public that it is only the President who can determine when he would eventually come back to Nigeria. And of course, that is predicated on the decision of his physicians, as it were.
What followed this was the call for prayers to enable the President to quickly get back to his feet and get back to work. In this regard, almost all the mosques and churches in Nigeria have been co-opted into one huge prayer vanguard to seek God’s face in the matter. The highlight was a recent event in Kano where a close friend of the President allegedly put a call to him in London. The event was a joint prayer session organized by the state government to offer prayers for the President’s speedy recovery.
Once the President got on line, the caller promptly told him where he was and after some banter, he handed over the phone to Abdullahi Ganduje, the Kano State governor, to have a word with the President. At this time, Ganduje upped the game by putting the discussion on speaker. Perhaps, this was to enable the attendees at the prayer session to listen first hand to the voice of the President from far away London. It may also have been to convince them that the President was still alive, contrary to insinuations making the rounds that he was gravely ill or that he had even passed on in London.
Trust Nigerians to want to convert any opportunity to an advantage or political mileage, as the case may be. From that moment, the airwaves and newspapers sprang to their feet and what followed was a deluge of news, analysis and commentaries that the President, indeed, spoke with Ganduje. That must have been the hidden agenda of the President’s close friends. You may call that sycophancy, but the truth of the matter is that, that singular call has given the President and his handlers some mileage in trying to assure the public that their principal is alive in London. Therefore, last weekend’s call to Adesina may have just been the icing on the cake.
Some other Nigerians with means even took the thing a notch further by embarking on get-well pilgrimages to London. They all came back with sweet tales of how the President was doing well. The crux of the matter is that beyond the façade going on in the presidency, it is apparent that all may not be well in the Villa. And of course, this may have to do with the true position of the President’s health.
According to impeccable sources, (sorry, the controversial American President, Donald Trump, recently embarked on a no-win crusade to stamp out “our sources” from the journalists’ lexicon), this was what necessitated the recent change of guards at the Villa. It is alleged that some powerful people want the President out of the Villa at all costs for some selfish reasons using his current state of health as cover-up.
Many of them are said to be disgruntled politicians, particularly from the North, the President’s homestead, who believe that they are not benefitting from the Buhari presidency. But the President’s close aides and acquaintances do not want him to move an inch from the Villa and that is why they have thrown a protective cordon around him. This is probably out of fierce loyalty and not really because of the benefits accruable to them with his presence in the place.
By and large, the President is said to be personally worried about new twists around his health status, so much that he had probably toyed with the idea of putting other things on hold to attend to his health. But the cabal in the presidency will not want to hear anything like that. They do not want to lose the presidency to any other person other than their own man. Among members of the cabal are some personal aides, ministers and friends of the President who have his ears.
The game plan of the cabal is to keep Yemi Osinbajo as acting President for some time until such a time when the President becomes medically fit enough to return to his desk. As it is, in the ranks of those who are eyeing the presidency after Buhari come 2019, three northerners are said to be seriously in contention. They are: Atiku Abubakar, former vice president; Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa State; and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former governor of Kano State, now a Senator of the Federal Republic. Among the trio, the former governor of Kano State is said to enjoy the support of a wide spectrum of people across the country particularly in the north.
If Kwankwaso sails through, it would mean the end of the road for the loquacious Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, who has been positioning himself for the Villa all the while. There are many things working against el-Rufai. Those who are close to him say his greatest undoing is that he is very slippery, a situation that has made people to rightly or wrongly classify him as consistently inconsistent and not a politician in the real sense of the word.
Before his recent trip to London, it was alleged that the cabal around the President tried to dissuade him from giving the Vice President the power of attorney to act in his absence. It was said to have been a thug of war. At the end, Buhari was said to have stood his ground and transmitted power to Osinbajo. Even at that, beyond the shuttles, meetings and razzmatazz all over the place, what important documents has Osinbajo been able to append his signature to since he became acting President? That is the question many Nigerians may want an answer to.
For now, it is still a waiting game as Nigerians eagerly await the return of their President to his duty post.
Tag: Aso rock
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Aso Rock’s waiting game
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Buhari saved Aso Rock from being taken over by Boko Haram – Garba Shehu
But for President Muhammadu Buhari’s election in 2015, Boko Haram insurgents might have taken over the Presidential Villa in Aso Rock.
The Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu has said that President Muhammadu Buhari stated this during an interactive session with Nigeria students and youths organized by the Citizen Support for Good Governmence in Nigeria (CSGGN) in Abuja at the weekend.
“Look at all the efforts that have been put in rolling back Boko Haram. There are many people who believe that if not for president Buhari, and if PDP had continued to rule this country in 2015, Boko Haram would have taken over Aso Rock by now. ”
Shehu said President Buhari was not interested in building a legacy that will disappear within a short period or attract newspaper headlines, but wants to build a country that will stand the test of time.
According to him, Buhari is working hard to restructure the Country and reposition the economy for better.
Describing the President as a long distant runner, Shehu said Nigerians misunderstand the real intentions of the President, adding that no nation has ever developed when it rely solely on importation of all its needs.
” We have achieved so much in terms of security. On the war against corruption people are stealing money, huge amounts of money, the kind of money that they don’t need, what do you need that kind of money for?,” Shehu said.
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Buhari, Ayade meet at Aso Rock
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday met with Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Ayade arrived the Villa by 1 p.m, holding a file as he moved to the President’s office.
Few minutes later, he was out and was driven in a black Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) to the President’s home.
It was gathered that Ayade was at the Villa to discuss the deep seaport project his administration was putting up.
The proposed Bakassi Deep Seaport and the 260 kilometre superhighway are estimated to cost about N700 billion.
The deep seaport is expected to boost export of farm produce, such as rice and banana, as well as solid minerals. -
Accidental discharge in Aso Rock injures female worker
Accidental discharge from a weapon of one of the security operatives went off in the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday.
The discharge went off at the Administrative Reception of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Due to the discharge, one of the female workers in the Villa sustained bodily injury and bled profusely.
She was injured on her thigh, back and a part of her back.
The woman was rushed to the State House Medical Centre in Asokoro after initial treatment at the medical centre within the Presidential Villa.
She was still on admission at the State House Medical Centre in Asokoro at the time of filing this report.
The security personnel involved in the incident was said to be trying to empty his weapon when it went off and injured him and the woman. -
Buhari, Saraki meet in Aso Rock
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday met with the Senate President Bukola Saraki.
The meeting was held in the President’s Office.
It lasted for about forty-five minutes.
The Senate president observed the 4 pm Muslim prayer before leaving the Villa. Details of the meeting were not known as at yesterday. -
Buhari, Mimiko, Lalong meet in Aso Rock
•Governor denies moves to join APC
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday separately met with Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong.
Lalong is the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Ondo Governorship Campaign.
The President was in Akure, the Ondo State capital, at the weekend to campaign for the APC candidate, Rotimi Akeredolu.
Though the Ondo governorship election is on Saturday, the PDP is still in crisis.
Mimiko is rooting for Eyitayo Jegede to emerge as his successor.
Mimiko’s meeting with the President lasted for about 30 minutes.
Speaking with State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, the governor denied the allegation that he was planning to dump the PDP.
He explained that he was in the Villa to brief the President on the security situation in his state.
On why he was frequently visiting the President, he said: “What is frequent? This is my second visit to the Villa since our party crisis started.
“Mr President was in my state to campaign. I extended to him the courtesy of receiving him and seeing him off at the airport.
“I understand that people have speculated that this means I am going to APC. There is nothing of such. I only extended him the courtesy that protocol demands.
“As a governor, if the President is visiting, no matter the party he belongs, it is only appropriate for me to extend the courtesy to him. That was what I did in Akure.”
Stressing that he is concentrating on the PDP case in court, he said the state would erupt in joy if Jegede emerges the PDP candidate on Tuesday.
At the end of the meeting with the President, Lalong insisted that the APC will win the election.
He said: “We have finished our campaign. You saw what happened at the grand finale. We are not in doubt that APC will win.
“It is other parties that are scared of the APC. We have come to thank the President for coming to Ondo.”
On the absence of the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and some Southwest governors at the Saturday rally, Lalong said: “There was not problem. We explained their absence. They sent in their apologies. The President was at the rally. The national chairman was also there.
“To the party, their absence did not make any difference. If a leader was not there and he has said he was not there because of ill-health, we have prayed that God will heal him.” -
VP, Saraki, governors meet in Aso Rock
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday met with Senate President Bukola Saraki and some governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, was also part of the meeting.
The governors at the closed-door meeting included Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun, Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha, Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari, Niger State Governor Abubakar Sani Bello and Adamawa State Governor Jubrilla Bindow.
President Muhammadu Buhari left Abuja yesterday for Morocco to attend the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), also known as COP-22, in Marrakech.
Before Buhari’s trip out of the country, Saraki had met with him three different times within one week over his request for approval to get $29.9 billion loan.
The Senate had recently rejected Buhari’s approval request for the loan.
At the end of the meeting with Osinbajo yesterday, Saraki told State House correspondents: I am sure the VP will issue a statement. But nothing of great alarm. It’s all for good governance, inclusion and collaboration with all arms.”
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Inside the fortress of Aso Rock
The Presidential Villa or Aso Rock as it is popularly known in Abuja is the seat of the Nigerian government. It is a place where the country’s “honey pot,” is domiciled. Naturally, people troop there in large numbers on daily basis to have a piece of the action.
However, gaining access to the fortress is not an easy task. And since it is very difficult to penetrate the place, going in there requires weeks and months of preparation – how to go about it, your psychological frame of mind, the clothes to wear, which contact(s) to explore, what amount of money to stuff in your pocket to enable you manoeuvre your way through the labyrinth of “toll gates” inside the place and all that.
At any rate, visiting the Villa is no tea party. It is herculean. As your vehicle gets to the Three-Arms Zone, right from the back of the Federal Secretariat Complex overlooking the Eagle Square, you will notice the serenity of the environment. Then, as you descend towards the first roadblock manned by a surfeit of security agents – police, army, DSS and others – nobody will tell you that you are approaching a lion’s den.
At the roadblock, you are frisked to the pants and your car is thoroughly searched. Perhaps, if you are heading towards the National Assembly, you may find it a little less cumbersome to explain your mission to the security agents. But if you are going towards the Villa itself, you may be in for the greatest interrogation you have ever been subjected to.
If you are on appointment, you’ll need to prove it. That is, you need to convince the security men that you have business to transact there. In that case, your name must have been supplied to the unit earlier and included in the itinerary of the day. But trust Nigerians, they have various ingenious ways to beat the so-called eagle-eyed security agents at this first gate. Some visitors simply tell them they are heading to the Officers’ Mess located close to the last gate to the Villa.
At the Mess, there is a big car park that can take very many cars. Sometimes, officials from the villa cross over to the place to attend to their visitors. There is food, drinks and all that. But if there is a need to still thrust further into the bowels of the Villa, your car can drop you at the last gate to the Villa proper, while the driver turns back to the Mess area to park. At this last gate, your particulars are collected and a visitor’s badge is assigned to you.
Once you are inside the Villa, you are confronted with hordes of presidential aides dashing all over the place, pretending to be busy even though some of them go about gossiping all day. As you move along, the Nigerian factor of rubbing people’s back before anything at all is ever present. Even if you are not subjected to it as a pre-condition to gain access, you must certainly play ball as you exit the place. It takes the form of your host or guide who must have pre-bargained with you for his own take, to whisper to your ears how much you need to part with for the people milling around the reception areas. And mind you, no peanuts are allowed. It must be something substantial or tangible.
One important thing to note is that, not even the new era of change has eliminated the dirty habit of collecting gratification from those visiting the Villa. The practice seems to be firmly entrenched in the system. Although, in recent times, some officials and presidential aides in the villa have been indicted and subsequently sent out of the place or redeployed to other less sensitive government offices outside the Villa, the practice seems to be an old and recurrent ailment which paradoxically torments everyone visiting the seat of power.
Though, with the coming of President Muhammadu Buhari, the tempo of recklessness has subsided, there are still many people in babanriga peddling influence around the corridors of power. They are noticeable in the Villa, where they act as fronts for desperate civil servants who prefer to conceal their dirty habits from public glare. These top government officials expect something to fall on their tables when you approach them to carry out any official function for you. Here any currency goes – dollar, pounds, euro and naira – as the case may be. But naira is generally used for artisans and other junior staff, while the big guns prefer other currencies that are less bulky and easy to hide away in their pockets or drawers.
If you are the type who wants to keep a straight face, those guys in there have a way of squeezing out water from Aso Rock. You could stylishly be accosted with stories about how bad the Villa had become since Buhari took over and how only a privileged few within the confinement are favoured, while the majority of people are left to roast away like roasted corn or fish. If you are not moved by this, then the pains of the nation’s bad economy could come in handy and all that. So, if all the singing and gesticulating go on unabated, at a point you will be forced to lose your guard and do the “needful.”
The bottom-line is: Nigerians, or do I say Africans, surely know how to worship their leaders or people from whom they expect to get something. Whether the leader is good or he provides good or bad leadership, chances are that he will still find his supporters. The reason is this: Leadership in Africa is often seen as a means to an end. What this means is that, people believe that the closer you are to the seat of power, the more opportunities you have to make a living. That is why people run rings around their leaders in Africa.
A minister in former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s cabinet once told me that many of the ministers then acted like palace jesters to impress the president and secure his attention any time they wanted. He told me about how some ministers were always dancing around the president in public places to show those present that they, indeed, had the ears of the president.
According to him, anytime the former president had an outing, the following day, this set of ministers will be the first persons the president will see milling around his office. And all they will do is to come and glorify the president by telling him how beautiful his outing the previous day had been and how a lot of people went home impressed by his speech or some other actions involving the president at the occasion. And it doesn’t matter if the president was even booed at any occasion. They had a way of turning adversity to something else.
The fact of the matter is that it is not that such practices have changed, even with the change mantra of the incumbent president. I am sure that under Goodluck Jonathan, Buhari’s predecessor, the whole thing became a state art as people cringed and break-danced before Jonathan and Patience, his almighty empress, in order to have a piece of the action. That was a time Ijaw boys flooded Abuja with their ubiquitous bowler hats and almost colonized the federal capital territory.
In this era of ‘change begins with me’, perhaps, the real change should start from the Villa itself, where all forms of extortion, bribery and rip-off, hold sway. Let us sanitise the place of all the creeping scorpions, before we start chasing the cockroaches (apology to late Dr. Tunji Braithwaite) elsewhere.
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Kerry in Aso Rock
The US Secretary of State, John Kerry is yet to occupy the office of the President of the United States (US), but the security apparatus put in place on his visit to the Presidential Villa, Abuja last Tuesday appeared to be more impressive than those for visiting presidents from other countries.
Most times, security appeared to be relaxed and nothing extraordinary during visits by other countries’ Presidents to the Presidential Villa, Abuja as the place is perceived to be the most secured place in Nigeria.
Visiting security men, who accompany such visiting Presidents hardly have any business to do at the Aso Rock Villa prior to their principals’ visit.
Their first contact with the Villa on a particular visit is when they accompany their Presidents to the Villa for the visit proper.
Even though President Muhammadu Buhari did not come to the forecourt to receive Kerry like he does with visiting Presidents, nothing was left to chance as far as security arrangement was concerned for Kerry, whose official functions in the US government are similar to those of a Minister of Foreign Affairs in Nigeria.
Security ground works for Kerry, who was a five time senator in the US before his current position, started in the State House Abuja about twenty four hours to his scheduled visit.
Some US plain clothed security personnel were spotted last week Monday carrying out their assignments at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
More security and US Embassy staff were also deployed to the State House Abuja before Kerry’s arrival on Tuesday.
While one US security personnel in mufti was seen standing at the middle of the forecourt communicating intermittently on his wireless gadget as the 2.55 p.m scheduled arrival time for Kerry approached, one of the US Embassy media man assisted in positioning the State House photographers and videographers by showing them where to stay to do their job as they awaited Kerry’s arrival.
At about 3.06 p.m., four black-coloured American specs, including Chevrolet and Ford made their way through the Service Chiefs Gate to the forecourt of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Kerry did not alight from his vehicle for about two minutes when his car stopped, probably to allow his security men from other cars position themselves.
Kerry also appeared to be waiting in the vehicle for Villa’s State Chief of Protocol (SCOP), Kazaure Lawal, who received him on behalf of the President, to take position by his vehicle.
He had to bend his 1.93 meter body height in order not to hit his head against the car as he alighted.
Photographers and videographers, who had gathered at the forecourt immediately went to work as their cameras clicked away while Kerry was ushered to the main entrance of President Buhari’s office.
Apart from visiting journalists, only two television stations’ cameramen accredited to the State House and two State House official photographers were allowed to establish the bilateral meeting at the President’s office.
Kerry emerged from the main entrance to the President’s office after about two hours that he entered for the closed door meeting.
Security men at the Villa including the visiting ones immediately went into action by clearing the about 200 meters passage from the President’s office to the State House Press Waiting Room, where Kerry was planned to meet with some selected state governors from the Northern part of Nigeria.
To access the venue of the meeting with the governors, Kerry had to pass in front of the Council Chamber Press Gallery, where journalists covering the State House stay to do their jobs.
The journalists sometimes stand on the corridor in front of the Council Chamber Press Gallery to ambush and interview some high profile visitors coming out from the President’s office.
But last Tuesday was a different ball game as they were not allowed near the corridor when Kerry made his way from the President’s office to the venue of the meeting.
Some security men had to stand in front of the Council Chamber Press Gallery door to ensure no journalist disobey the instruction and venture to the corridor while Kerry moved to the venue of his second meeting in the Villa.
Again just like the first meeting, establishment of the meeting with the state governors was limited. Only seven State House cameramen and photographers were allowed to establish the meet.
While many visiting Presidents and other leaders hold joint press conferences with the Nigerian President at the end of such bilateral meetings at the Villa, there was no press conference with Kerry throughout his stay at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The visit, no doubt, showed that the Aso Rock actually received a special visitor from God’s own country.
It may also be very difficult to fault the security arrangement put in place for Kerry knowing the situation of the insurgency and militancy in some parts of Nigeria.
The US Embassy in Nigeria that has severally warned its citizens on movements to certain states in Nigeria won’t want to take any chances with Kerry’s life in any part of the country.
Battle against corruption
One of the news items that emerged from the closed door meeting between Buhari and Kerry last Tuesday was move to make the present anti-corruption war in Nigeria live beyond the current dispensation.
Buhari promised that the anti-corruption crusade will not only be deepened but institutionalized.
This is definitely a warning to all those secretly taking what do not belong to them to be ready for probe when his administration exits power.
All well-meaning Nigerians, no doubt, will be praying for the anti-corruption war to live beyond this government in order to ensure that the commonwealth of Nigeria continues to be utilized for the generality of Nigerians and not siphoned to private pockets of few individuals.
But to achieve this, there must be a real change in the behaviour of Nigerians at all levels.
For a start, Nigerians must begin to see things from the national perspective and not from selfish, ethnic or religious angles.
Whether the anti-corruption war to be institutionalized will live beyond Buhari will also largely depend on the subsequent administrations that will come at the end of Buhari’s government.
Will they have the political will and love for Nigeria to shun corruption and continue to fight it to a standstill?
Or will they embrace it like we have seen in the past?
Only time will answer these questions.
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Buhari, Soyinka meet in Aso Rock
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday met behind closed doors with the Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Soyinka, who was accompanied by Yemi Ogunbiyi, spent about one hour at the State House.
He declined to speak in details on the purpose of his visit to the President.
He dismissed the newsmen that laid ambush for him as he made his way out of the President’s office with the explanation that he discussed general and international issues with the President.
But he promised to address a press conference later.