The joke called Buhari London visit

By Oguwike Nwachuku
“This week, 10 Nigerian governors and two party leaders have gone to London to “see” President Buhari. Let’s assume that these governors and leaders all traveled without an aide, which we all know is an impossibility, the cost for the first class tickets (and I will not insult our Excellencies by saying they flew Business Class) on British Airways for all 12 of them totals approximately US$133,000 (Yes I checked BA last minute ticket LOS-LHR).
“Now let’s assume that these very important people, who have no pressing issues at hand in the country, spent only two nights at an average of 500 pounds per night for hotel (and we know that hotels of this rate are beneath them), that is 12,000 British pounds. Let’s add another 500 pounds per person for entertainment (after all there is champagne to be drunk and girlfriends to entertain) for 6000 pounds, that gives us a total of approximately 47 million Naira that has been fleeced from state coffers to go and “see” the President.
“Now I wonder if the President just making a national broadcast to the nation to assure us “very worried” citizens (and yes, that includes those governors and party leaders) that he is getting better and will be back soon wouldn’t have been much cheaper and also shut up all the doubting Thomases who see Photoshop skills in any picture with the President.
“Now what makes me sick to my stomach is that the 10 governors that went are owing pensioners and primary/secondary school teachers a total of 125 months of back pay (according to figures released by BUDGIT). Was this the CHANGE that we were promised back in 2015? Well let’s all get ready to lead another CHANGE to something better in 2019.”
I read the above excerpt on the Facebook wall of a Programme Officer with the Ford Foundation, Dr. Paul Nwulu and could not agree otherwise.
But let me start by referencing a popular saying in Igbo land where I come from that says, he whose house is on fire does not go about chasing rat.
Reuben Abati, columnist and former Presidential spokesman also succinctly captured what is going on currently in this country in his satirical piece on Tuesday, July 25 in THISDAY when he wrote; “Lunch in London, Anxiety in Nigeria.”
Pronto, Nigeria has been turned upside down in the last three months President Muhammadu Buhari left the shores of the country for London for medical checks.
What is going on now with regard to the planned visits to him there by political leaders across political divide does not come to those with deep sense of perception as a surprise.
It is the new normal that was only fueled by the account, nay insinuations rightly or wrongly, about Buhari being brain dead, bed-ridden and on life-support.
The question people should be asking is: why is it that the same visit barely a fortnight ago by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has not attracted as much interrogation as that of the APC leaders and some governors?
Why are we not addressing the why and how of the recent visits? Are they simply borne out of genuine love for Buhari or they are being propelled by inordinate ambition of politicians with eyes on 2019 that is around the corner?
Let me reiterate what I had written before, that I have been a fan of Buhari since he started contesting as President of Nigeria in 2003.
I admire him for his not too loud disposition and high level discipline both of which are in short supply among his contemporaries, most of who parade themselves as our political leaders since the return to democracy in 1999.
I have always seen in Buhari a man with genuine concern for the welfare of poor Nigerians, those dregs of our country that Karl Marx and his ilk call the downtrodden, the hoi-polloi who have been shortchanged by their wicked leaders in the mould of political and economic capitalists. Yes, they are wicked because they appropriate with impunity our resources, our common patrimony for the use of only their family, friends and lackeys.
My admiration for Buhari was only tamed after I saw elements of ethnic irredentism, cronyism, clannishness and nepotism in the manner he went about his political appointments in 2015 and clearly excluded some sections of the country, like the Igbo, from very critical areas that demanded our President respected, not only the tripod upon which the country stands, but the constitution of the country as regards sharing certain political offices.
That Buhari deliberately pursued an agenda of favouring parts of the country he claimed gave him the largest votes in 2015 with which he emerged president to the detriment of other parts he felt also voted overwhelmingly for his opponent, former President Goodluck Jonathan, made me think that beyond his concern for the poor, something is amiss with his leadership judgement. My take is that deep knowledge of leadership ought to have guided our President to be magnanimous in victory, to be the leader to everyone, both friends and foes.
I am yet to be convinced Buhari is the type who, even when he realises his mistakes, apologises which is also a mark of leadership. And that is why so many people, mainly his opponents equate him with sadists. But I will not travel that road in good conscience, to classify him yet.
However, I have also come to appreciate the fact that as humans, our limitations – egos and idiosyncrasies – thrust on us life prizes we pay for not doing certain things rightly in accordance with the dictates of our creator and faith.
Be that as it may, I have continued to pray for God’s intervention for Buhari’s quick recovery from whatever may be holding him down rather than celebrate his sudden failing health that has made some people classify him as either bed-ridden, on life-support or brain-dead.
The enlivening of one’s spirit, therefore could be imagined when Osinbajo returned from his London trip and reported to Nigerians that the President is recovering fast, an indication that God is still available to those who call upon him in times of need.
Unfortunately, that singular visit by Osinbajo has since precipitated varied conceptions in the political circles and among professional politicians who want to make political capital of that visit because their eyes are fixated on 2019 with or without Buhari around.
Pronto, Osinbajo’s visit had opened a floodgate of mundane political gerrymandering within the ruling APC and among the opposition parties that our status of humans as higher animals has been lowered to that of just animals going by the attitude of the politicians.
Who does not know that political blocks have emerged in Aso Rock, National Assembly, APC Governors Forum, APC National Working Committee (NWC) among others, since Buhari was flown to London because of the fear of what 2019 portends?
The political permutations by the politicians even within the APC are a deluge. Posers are daily being raised like, will Buhari survive the sickness? Will he be strong enough to even serve out his term in 2019? And if he survives and lives, will he be in the race for a re-election in 2019? What are the chances of the Acting President? Should Osinbajo be allowed to function effectively in the capacity he is functioning currently without undue power game within Aso Rock? Are those in Buhari’s kitchen cabinet frustrating his intentions? Will Osinbajo be even allowed to take a shot at the Presidency in 2019 assuming Buhari extinguishes, assuming some APC diehards insist on his run?
There are as many political blocks as there as posers. What the minders of the new blocks have lost sight of is that only God can give life and power. The news of Buhari making progress in his health challenges was not a very palatable one to them. Yes, forget that we all pretend to be “praying” for his recovery. Did not the Bible say man’s heart is perpetually thinking evil? That is what I see and many perceptive Nigerians also see the same thing.
Many politicians are shocked and surprised that Buhari is still breathing despite been described in several ways as half dead, half living. They needed to be sure that they are on track with their permutations for 2019 political contest that is like yesterday.
Their trip to London could as well be likened to the man who, when he hears that his enemy’s wife has given birth to a baby will ask if it is true his enemy’s wife has died in child birth?
Paul Nwulu, you must therefore get it into your head that it does not really matter to our politicians if they spend millions of naira to achieve their selfish political aims.
So, the fears you have expressed could not have been an issue at all because the money in their custody which is supposed to be our money is meant to be used to satiate their interests, basically family interest, and not to deliver on the promises they made to the electorate. In an ideal situation, every kobo they took to embark on those trips would be accounted for since it does not belong to them.
And talking about change, do they themselves believe in it? It is also neither here nor there because put differently, it is only their perception of change that matters and not our understanding of it, holistically speaking.
Perhaps what Reuben Abati said regarding anxiety at home would have been apt were we dealing with politicians who mean well and who are responsible to the people.
The politicians we are dealing with in our clime are wicked, ruthless, heartless students of Machiavelli who have only memorised a verse, “the end justifies the means,” in his popular book, The Prince, and are prepared to apply it on the hapless and vulnerable citizens just to have their way in politics which is the only industry that works in Nigeria.