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The Story That Led To The Eviction Of Punch Correspondent From Aso Rock by Julivas(m): 9:43am On Apr 25, 2017 |
Fresh anxiety in Aso Rock over Buhari’s health
Fresh anxiety is mounting over the state of health of President
Muhammadu Buhari, who returned to the country on March 10
after a 49-day medical sojourn in London, United Kingdom.
The 74-year-old Nigerian leader was only seen in public once
throughout last week, when he joined other Muslim faithful for a
Juma’at service on Friday at a mosque located near his office
inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The service lasted less than one hour after which Buhari returned
to his residence.
Before Friday’s brief appearance, the last time he was seen in
public was penultimate Friday when he attended the same service
at the same venue.
Presidency sources attributed the President’s continuous non-
appearance at public events to his ailing health and the need to
take further rest.
“It is no longer news that the President has been sick. His ill
health coupled with his age is responsible for the scaling down of
his activities,” one of the sources said on Saturday.
In the Presidential Villa, there have been continuous whispers
among workers over Buhari’s continued absence.
The concern was further heightened when it was observed that
many of the President’s assignments were transferred to the Vice
President.
During the week, a delegation of the Arewa Consultative Forum
had met with the vice president and told him they were welcoming
Buhari from his medical vacation through him (Yemi Osinbajo).
“Was it that they were denied access to the President himself due
to his ill health?” some workers wondered aloud.
One of our correspondents reported that, although some
government officials were reported to have met with Buhari in his
office during the week, to update him of developments in their
ministries, no photographs or video recordings of such encounters
were made available by the Presidency, which was contrary to the
usual practice.
Although the government officials spoke with reporters after their
separate meetings with the president, the absence of such
photographs and video recordings raised doubts as to whether,
indeed, the government officials met with the President.
When confronted with such suspicion on Thursday, the Minister of
Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Usani Usani, who was one of the
government officials that met Buhari during the week, said those
who held the opinion that he did not meet the president were
entitled to their opinion.
He, however, insisted that he met Buhari and briefed him on
developments in his ministry.
Others who met the president during the week were the Head of
Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winnifred Oyo-Ita; Minister of
Solid Mineral Development, Kayode Fayemi; and the Minister of
Sports and Youth Development, Solomon Dalung.
Speaking on the development, a former Joint House Leader of the
defunct Peoples Redemption Party and Chairman of the Foreign
Relations Committee, as well as a member of the Defence
Committee in the Second Republic, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, told
SUNDAY PUNCH that there was every reason for Nigerians to be
worried about the president’s health, especially because he has
hardly been seen in public.
Mohammed said, “The Presidency needs to tell the truth. It is
disingenuous and not good for the country for the people to be
told lies about their president.
“We need to know the truth and not be told lies. People have
genuine cause to be worried because they don’t see their
president as they should. Knowing about the health of the
President is not a personal issue; it is of public interest. Nigerians
are genuinely concerned.”
Also speaking on the rare appearance of Buhari in public, a
member of the National Executive Committee of the Arewa
Consultative Forum, Mohammed Abdulrahman, said Nigerians
should be worried that the cabal in the administration of the
president might have hijacked the care of Buhari from his wife,
Aisha Buhari.
“That was what happened to Gen. Sani Abacha. The same
happened to (ex-) President Umaru Yar’Adua when he took ill and
eventually died. Aisha has to learn the ropes and should not allow
the cabal in her husband’s government to mismanage the
President’s health. While I think the President’s illness is due to
old age, there are concerns in the public that he has continued to
stay away from the public and the Presidency keeps saying the
President is fine. People are worried because Buhari is a
president they love,” the ACF chieftain told SUNDAY PUNCH on
Saturday night.
Similarly, the leader of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum,
Yerima Shettima, stated that Nigerians were worried about the
continued absence of the President in the public. He noted that
Buhari was not elected to stay indoors.
“Nigerians want to see the President they voted for. Nigerians
want to know the status of his health. We are praying for him to
get better but nobody should hide him from us. We are worried. It
is disturbing and worrisome that we have not seen him in public
and that we do not know his exact health status. Nobody should
hide him away from us because we feel he has been kidnapped
from Nigerians. He is being treated with taxpayers’ money so they
deserve to know the status of his health.
“It is sad that against all odds, a cabal in the government has
turned Buhari to a private property. But Buhari is a public
property as an elected president of the country. Tradition and
constitution demand that we should know about his health. No
one has the right to hide him from us. We are concerned; we are
worried. We feel that our mandate is being hijacked by some
people. The electorate must know what has happened to their
mandate,” Shettima said.
He is recovering, says Presidency
When contacted on Saturday to react to the fresh anxiety over the
President’s health, the Special Adviser to the President on Media
and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said Buhari was recuperating,
adding that the prayer of all was that he recovered fully soon.
When further asked when the President would likely return to see
his doctors in the United Kingdom, the presidential spokesman
said Nigerians would be adequately informed about Buhari’s
movement when the time comes.
Adesina said, “The President is recovering, and our prayer is that
he returns to full heath soon.
“On arrival in the country on March 10, he (Buhari) said he would
still travel at a later time. No date was given, but be assured that
when it’s time to travel, the country would be told.
“The President is a plain and straightforward person.”
It will be recalled that the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose,
had questioned Buhari’s absence from state functions, especially
the weekly Federal Executive Council meetings.
The Convener of Every Nigerian Do Something, Perry Brimah, had
also claimed in a statement on Friday that the President was
critically ill and was being locked up inside the Presidential Villa
by a selfish cabal.
Fayose, in a statement in Ado Ekiti, on Thursday, issued by his
Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere
Olayinka, had asked if the President was governing the country by
proxy.
According to him, it is becoming obvious that a group or cabal is
exercising the powers of the President.
The (temporary) fall of all-powerful SGF
Olalekan Adetayo
It was a huge shock for some of us who have observed events in
the seat of power closely when the Presidency, through the
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi
Adesina, on Wednesday announced the suspension of the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir
Lawal, alongside the Director-General of the National Intelligence
Agency, Ambassador Ayo Oke.
We were gathered inside the Press Gallery near the Council
Chambers ruminating on the failure of the government to hold its
weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council when we received
the statement announcing the suspension. Shortly after filing the
report of the suspension, news filtered to us that Babachir was in
a meeting with Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo in his office.
Expectedly, we rushed from the President’s side of the Villa to the
Vice-President’s wing as fast as our legs could carry us. To
confirm that he was indeed with the Vice-President, we sighted
Babachir’s police orderly with some security operatives attached
to the Vice-President’s office. The VP’s Wing does not have a
press gallery, so we laid ambush for him on the corridor.
A few minutes after, Babachir emerged from the Vice-President’s
office. As he was descending the staircase, we were already
waiting for him. He expressed surprise at the ambush. Even after
asking him to comment on his suspension, he feigned ignorance of
the development. He asked us where we got the information from.
After telling him that the Presidency issued a statement on the
matter, he asked us who the Presidency was in a manner that
suggested that he was wondering if anybody could lay claim to
the Presidency without his involvement.
We had an Herculean task getting any useful statement from him
as he kept responding to questions with questions as he was
making his way out of the building. By the time he got to the open
space in front of the Admin Reception, his official car was not in
sight. I initially thought maybe the car had been withdrawn
following his suspension. Luckily for him, however, the car was
brought and he asked if he could enter his car, wondering whether
he was under arrest. He was later driven away.
Another drama played out shortly after he left. Embattled Oke
also arrived the Villa with his retinue of security details.
Immediately he stepped out of his official car and sighted
journalists, he became uncomfortable and was smuggled back into
the car by his men. They made an attempt to drive him into the
forecourt of the President’s office through the Service Chiefs’
Gate but his convoy was denied access by the security men
manning the gate. He had been using that gate in his capacity as
the head of one of the nation’s security agencies up until
Wednesday when he was suspended.
Oke was then driven out of the premises. He later got across to
the presidential spokesman and appealed that journalists be
asked to leave the vicinity to enable him to keep an appointment
with the Vice-President. Officials from the media office led by
Adesina later came out to appeal to journalists to leave the area
and return to the Council Chambers’ Press Gallery. Shortly after
the area was cleared of journalists, Oke returned to meet
Osinbajo.
Not a few persons will miss the suspended SGF in the cabinet.
Missing him does not necessarily mean that most of them are not
happy with the development. The truth is that some will be happy
to miss him. He carries on at the Council Chambers as if he is the
class monitor. He would call most of the ministers to order at the
commencement of council meetings as if they were his boys. It
was Lawal that at a time chided the Minister of State, Petroleum
Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, publicly for exchanging pleasantries
with his colleagues at a time when, according to him, there was
fuel scarcity.
We had our unfair share too. The embattled SGF had had cause to
threaten to stop journalists from entering “my Council
Chambers.” His grouse was that reporters pick up some of his
talks like the one addressed to Kachikwu and turned them to news
items. He attempted to carry out the threat until the Minister of
Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, intervened.
Funny enough, Buhari himself is aware that his SGF is
controversial. When receiving some engineers in his office last
year, the President told his guests that their colleague (Lawal is
an engineer) is controversial. Even the Vice-President, at a
thanksgiving service Lawal organised shortly after his
appointment, recalled the funny thing B.D (Babachir David) said at
the first meeting he attended inside the Villa. Osinbajo recalled
that as the meeting progressed, Lawal turned to the President and
asked if all they do in the Villa was to talk at length without
refreshments. He said the President and others at the meeting
laughed over the comment while Buhari quickly asked that they
proceed on break.
Will Lawal and Oke return to their seats after the Osinbajo
committee investigating them would have completed its
assignment? We are all waiting.
Seat of power’s event centres going into extinction
If the truth must be told, activities are currently at the lowest ebb
in the seat of power. There seems to be nothing happening. The
development has left many of the different venues where events
or meetings are usually held in the villa empty for a long time.
Such places are gathering dust.
For now, even the Council Chambers which used to host various
types of high level meetings is now opened once in a week: for
Wednesday FEC meetings. No other event had been held inside
that hall at least in the last two months.
The same fate has befallen the Presidential Banquet Hall near the
President’s office. Before now, that building was hosting high
level meetings between the President and some high profile
foreign and local guests. He was also receiving letters of credence
from ambassadors and high commissioners newly posted to the
country inside the building. I can’t even remember the last time
such exercise took place.
The story of the main hall of the Old Banquet Hall now christened
State House Conference Centre is not in any way different. Many
big events of various ministries meant to be attended by the
President were always holding inside that hall. I have lost memory
of the last time such events were held inside that hall.
During the last administration, political meetings were held inside
one of the guest houses in the Villa popularly called House 7. No
event has been held inside that building since the inception of the
present administration to the best of my knowledge. So far, the
few events holding in the Villa have been restricted to the
President’s office, Council Chambers, the Vice-President’s office
or his Conference Hall. I hope the proposed law for unoccupied
buildings in Abuja will not affect the aforementioned empty
buildings in the Villa soon.
If you insist that I must give reason(s) why these once bubbling
events centres are gradually going into extinction, I will simply
say it is a sign of the times.
copied |
Re: The Story That Led To The Eviction Of Punch Correspondent From Aso Rock by prospero5(m): 9:50am On Apr 25, 2017 |
op, why do you bring this news again as if it's fresh? meanwhile, who is presidency? 1 Like |
(1) (Reply)
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