Buhari as mini antiChrist preparing the ground for the full antiChrist
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Muhammadu Buhari returned from his latest wasteful foreign sojourn on 18 March, clocking 136 trips to 42 countries which have taken him 340 days out of Nigeria since he became President on 29 May 2015.
He allocated N5.29 billion in the 2022 budget for his travels and is determined to burn all the cash.
The stench and the shame of the incompetence of Buhari – an emperor dancing naked in public but pretends to have his clothes on – are seen and felt by Nigerians North and South and by Nigerians in the diaspora.
Buhari wastes Nigeria by his deliberate actions and inactions. And he takes delight in the groans and the moans of Nigerians. He knows it. They know it.
It is also seen loud and clear by China, which has stopped granting loans to Abuja, and seen by the wider global community, despite puerile and ridiculous statements being churned out by Buhari’s spokesmen Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu.
Adesina and Shehu are among his false prophets who dish out lies and distortions to prop him up because they, too, are taking their cut from the plundering of Nigeria.
Global test run of the Great Tribulation
The world is going through a test run of the Great Tribulation in the last days (Matthew 24:21-22, Revelation 13:1-18) and some leaders in different countries represent the “antichrist” (1 John 4:3; 2 John 1:7 NKJV) who will rule the world in the Great Tribulation.
Spokespersons and other supporters of the leaders are the false prophets of the mini antiChrists in this age, acting out the “false prophet” of the full blown antiChrist in the age to come in the Great Tribulation (Revelation 16:13; 19:20; 20:10 KJV).
The “antichrist” (1 John 2:22 KJV), “that man of sin” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 KJV), is also called the “beast” (Daniel 7:23-25; Revelation 13:1, 11 KJV).
The antiChrist, the beast, will rule the whole world in the Great Tribulation and enforce the rule of satan all over the earth (Revelation 13:1-18).
Some mini antiChrists in this age quietly do their evil works preparing the ground for the full manifestation of the main antiChrist. Some do their evil works brazenly.
Leaders across the world – mini antiChrists (1 John 4:3; 2 John 1:7) – within the past one hundred years who were or are openly wicked and Godless include:
- Joseph Stalin (USSR, now Russia)
- Vladimir Putin (Russia)
- Adolf Hitler (Germany)
- Donald Trump (United States)
- Boris Johnson (United Kingdom)
- Aleksandr Lukashenko (Belarus)
- Rodrigo Duterte (The Philippines)
- Jorge Redondo (Argentina)
- Idi Amin (Uganda)
- Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe)
- Jacob Zuma (South Africa)
- Sani Abacha (Nigeria)
- Muhammadu Buhari (Nigeria)
The world is not yet in the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:6-8).
What is going on – “the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:8 NKJV) – is the dry run for the Great Tribulation itself that will occur a few years before the Rapture (Matthew 24:29-31, Mark 13:24-27; Revelation 14:14-20).
In the Great Tribulation:
The full antiChrist will wage a social, economic, and religious war against everyone on earth, including Christians, by forcing them to take “the mark … of the beast” (Revelation 13:16-18 NKJV).
Without the mark of the beast, no one can move around or communicate electronically or “buy or sell” anything (Revelation 13:17 NKJV).
But anyone who takes the mark of the beast – a microchip – that will be inserted “on their right hand or on their foreheads” (Revelation 13:16 NKJV) is doomed to hell forever (Revelation 14:9-11).
Everyone will be forced to “worship the image of the beast” (false religion), and anyone who refuses will be “killed” (Revelation 13:15 NKJV).
But anyone who worships the image of the beast (practises false religion) will never enter Heaven. He or she will die and go to hell (Revelation 14:9-11).
Buhari waging religious and economic war against Nigerians
Buhari is test running the Great Tribulation on Nigerians by waging a religious and economic war against them.
Religious war
Buhari has Islamised the government by installing Northern Muslims as heads of nearly all military and paramilitary organs as well as key ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs). This has never happened in Nigeria before.
All the three arms of government (executive, legislature, and judiciary) are headed by Muslims. This is the first time it has happened in Nigeria’s history.
He is pursuing an Islamist Fulani supremacist agenda for Fulanis to occupy strategic positions and dominate and control Nigeria, North and South.
Economic war
Buhari’s appointees are stealing the treasury dry. He knows the thieves.
But he fails to stop the thieves because they are carrying out his spiritual plan to deprive Nigerians of their God-given resources and make them so poor that families cannot feed well or educate their children.
Mass illiteracy North and South serves Buhari’s purpose because it keeps Nigerians in bondage – as clearly demonstrated in the North.
Other ways Buhari wastes Nigeria’s resources include
Building a rail line from Kano to Maradi in Niger Republic at a cost of $1.96 billion. To bring crude oil from Niger Republic to the refinery being built in the border town between Nigeria and Niger Republic.
- There are not enough rail lines in Nigeria itself.
- Nigeria has four refineries. Buhari pumps billions of naira into them yearly in maintenance. But none of them is functioning.
- By March 2021, a total $26.5 billion had been spent to revive the refineries, a sum enough to build three new ones of the same size, based on the cost of refinery projects across the world
- N100 billion was wasted on the four refineries in 2021 alone.
- Nigeria is Africa’s largest producer of crude oil – which it does not refine.
- Buhari is building a new rail line in the border town between Nigeria and Niger Republic to refine crude oil imported from Niger Republic.
Budgeting more than N9.25 billion to create ranches for Fulani herdsmen across the country.
- Fulani herdsmen invade communities, kill the natives, and occupy their lands.
- Prioritising animals when human beings displaced by Fulani herders who are now living in internally displaced camps (IDPs) in the North scavenge for food in markets.
- Neglecting other Nigerians who find it hard to feed their families and educate their children.
Neglecting to prevent yearly oil theft worth $4 billion.
Neglecting to collect N7 trillion tax owed by local and foreign firms operating in Nigeria.
- Buhari encourages tax evasion by willingly neglecting to prosecute big or influential tax dodgers – rooted in the culture of criminals bribing public officials to escape punishment.
Neglecting to probe and recover N105.66 billion public funds missing, misappropriated or unaccounted for across 149 MDAs.
- Buhari wilfully fails to prosecute officials, including his Ministers, who steal public funds indirectly by inflating contracts, collecting bribe; or directly by grabbing hard cash from the treasury.
Raising Nigeria’s debt from N20.8 trillion in June 2015 to N39.55 trillion in December 2021. Raising it by N18.75 trillion in six years.
- Loans are spent on capital project contracts whose amounts are inflated or on fictitious contracts or the monies are stolen in cash.
- These loans that are frittered away must be paid back by Nigerians of this and future generations.
- Nigeria’s N39.55 trillion debt in December 2021 is the total external and domestic debts of the federal and 36 state governments, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the Debt Management Office (DMO) disclosed in Abuja on 17 March 2022.
- The World Bank says 4 out of 10 (40 per cent of) Nigerians, meaning 82.4 million Nigerians, live below the national poverty line and only 17 per cent of works earn salary that is enough to lift them out of poverty.
- The World Bank gave the figures in its report titled “A Better Future for All Nigerians: Nigeria Poverty Assessment 2022”, released on 23 March 2022.
- The World Bank’s report corroborates data compiled by Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Taxing Nigerians to death, from bread and bottled water to carbonated drinks and cooking gas, to pay off loans Buhari takes mostly for his officials to steal.
- Consumer goods prices have been rising nearly weekly since April 2020.
Buhari test running the mark of the beast on Nigerians
In the coming Great Tribulation, the mark of the beast will become the de facto global currency. Without it no one can spend his or her legitimate money to move around or communicate electronically or “buy or sell” anything (Revelation 13:17 NKJV).
But anyone who takes the mark of the beast – a microchip – that will be inserted “on their right hand or on their foreheads” (Revelation 13:16 NKJV) is doomed to hell forever (Revelation 14:9-11).
Nigeria’s currency is now stealing and bribery – presaging the mark of the beast, the currency in the Great Tribulation.
Public officials believe they cannot survive without committing fraud and stealing from the treasury. The vast majority of Nigerians also expect them to steal state funds and give them their own share.
In turn, public officials demand and collect bribe to provide any service for members of the public, even though the government pays the officials from tax payers’ money to render such service.
There is hardly any government agency where officials do not collect bribe to provide service. Members of the public themselves know they have to pay bribe to get their due.
All categories of officials in all arms and layers of government – federal, state, and council – are involved in giving and taking bribe. There is also corruption in the private sector to a very large extent.
So in Nigeria, even if you have legitimate money, society is so dysfunctional on Buhari’s watch that your legitimate money may not be enough for you to survive if you do not possess stealing, the de facto currency.
Again, even if you have legitimate money, there are some goods and services you cannot buy or sell except you possess bribery, the default currency.
Only the special grace of God provides cover for the obedient children of God not to have to give or collect bribe to survive or to get anything done.
Under Buhari, Nigeria’s currency is stealing.
The Bible warns that anyone who steals will go to hell (1 Corinthians 6:9-10), just as in the case of anyone who takes the mark of the beast, the de facto currency in the coming Great Tribulation.
Under Buhari, Nigeria’s currency is bribery.
Whoever gives or takes bribe is also bound for hell (Proverbs 17:23; Job 15:34), exactly as it will happen to anyone who takes the mark of the beast, the default currency in the Great Tribulation.
In this age, the grace of God allows anyone who steals anything or gives or takes bribe to repent, get born again, and make Heaven (1 John 1:9).
But in the coming age in the Great Tribulation, no one who takes the mark of the beast can repent, get saved, and go to Heaven. Once someone takes the mark of the beast he or she is doomed to hell forever (Revelation 14:9-11).
Definition of a false prophet
Balaam the false prophet (Numbers 22:1-41; 23:1-30; 24:1-25; Numbers 31:8) “loved the wages of unrighteousness” (2 Peter 2:15 NKJV).
The 400 false prophets Ahab gathered to himself lied to him, and for him to the people, and lied to Ahab to his death (2 Chronicles 18:1-34).
A false prophet is someone who does not speak the truth of God, even though he knows the Word of God. He lies to himself. He lies to another man, flatters him, and encourages him to do evil so he can get favours from the other man.
A false prophet also lies for another man to people. He lies to deceive people to support the other man, so the false prophet can continue to get favours from the other man doing wicked things.
Spiritually, the false prophet and the other man doing evil are two sides of the same evil coin. They are compatible in unrighteousness. The false prophet speaks the heart of the other man. The other man does what is in the heart of the false prophet.
- “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Revelation 19:20 KJV).
- “The devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:10 KJV).
- “O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” (Deuteronomy 32:29 KJV) – and
- repent of sin now (1 John 1:9), and get “born again” (John 3:3,7 KJV), so they can go to Heaven in “the end” (Mark 13:13 KJV).
Nigeria under state capture
Nigeria is in the grip of Buhari’s “state capture”, a term first coined for the corruption of Jacob Zuma when he ruled South Africa and cornered up and diverted state resources into his and his cronies’ private pockets.
Yet Adesina, Shehu, and other false prophets of Buhari gaslight Nigerians by
- Denying and distorting their reality, or
- Making them doubt their experiences, or
- Making them blame themselves for their hardship, instead of blaming Buhari.
Buhari and his false prophets all know they must face and give full account to God on the day of their final judgment. No one can bribe their way out of that.
- “Every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12 KJV).
- “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27 NKJV).
- “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31 KJV).
No tangible benefit from Buhari’s travels
Buhari’s travels bring no tangible benefit to the country, as Daily Trust pointed out in an editorial on 10 December 2021.
“On cost-benefit terms, the dividends of President Buhari’s visits have not been as spectacular as Nigerians expected. We are yet to see the direct foreign investments translate into jobs for our unemployed young men and women ….
“In fact, it is curious that while the president all too often finds reasons to embark on foreign trips at the slightest opportunity, he almost always needs to be persuaded to visit the states and communities within Nigeria that are deserving of his presence,” the editorial said.
“Indeed, it has been observed that on the occasion he visits the states, he hardly stays long enough to make them meaningful to the people.
“We believe that in the remaining months of his tenure, President Buhari should cut down drastically, his foreign trips and should travel abroad only where it is absolutely necessary for him to do so.”
(See the full editorial below).
Buhari has allocated N26 billion for travels, meals, refreshments, and State House Clinic in the 2022 budget alone, more than N19.17 billion for 14 teaching hospitals.
Each trip costs millions of dollars in jet fuel, aircraft maintenance, hotel bills for himself and his entourage, payment of estacode allowance to himself and to his aides, et cetera.
By December 2021, Buhari had gallivanted 131 times to 37 countries, spending 312 days. He spent 200 out of the 312 days in the United Kingdom for medical treatment.
As of 18 March 2022, he has abandoned his job and gone abroad five times to five countries where he spent 28 days this year.
Buhari has now travelled 136 times to 42 countries and spent 340 days away from Nigeria since he became President.
The PUNCH wrote in an editorial on 10 March 2022 that Buhari embarks on “frivolous travels” and “his spokesmen reel out ineffectual statements” to justify his failings in all areas.
“Junketing abroad for minor engagements or personal comfort while millions suffer and the country is imperilled, as Buhari often does, is reprehensible,” the editorial said.
“In the seven years that he has superintended over Africa’s most populous country, he has left no one in doubt that his interests and comfort are paramount ….
“Buhari, by his actions and inaction, telegraphs the image of a condescending leader who lacks empathy for the people; one who would not take charge to improve their lives.
“He abdicates the responsibility of his office, allowing aides to run the government on his behalf. Often, the in-fighting and lack of synergy within the regime have spilled out into the open. The country is left almost rudderless.”
(See the full editorial below).
Buhari has embarked on needless overseas travel five times this year alone, three of them in the thick of fuel scarcity afflicting Nigeria.
His itinerary so far in 2022 traverses
The Gambia –Wednesday 19 January (one day)
Ethiopia – Thursday 3 February to Monday 7 February (five days)
Belgium – Tuesday 15 February to Saturday 19 February (five days)
Kenya – Tuesday 1 March to 4 Friday March (four days)
United Kingdom – Sunday 6 March to Friday 18 March (13 days). For medical check up.
He spent 13 days in the UK for his latest medical check up. That brings to 213 the total number of days he has spent on medical tourism since he assumed office.
Buhari does not need to go abroad for medical treatment. There is a well funded clinic in Aso Rock. National Hospital, Abuja is the best equipped in Nigeria.
Besides, he has had for seven years the power and the resources to raise the standard of healthcare delivery in Nigeria. He promised to do it when he campaigned for the Villa in 2015, but neglects to do it, and cannot deign to explain to the public why.
His ailment has never been made public, even though his treatment has chalked up millions of pounds sterling – counting in his official entourage, family members, presidential jet maintenance and fuel cost, hotel bills – footed by tax payers.
__________________________________________________________________
Related articles:
Food and travel in Aso Rock cost N4.84b per year
Auditor says fed Accountant withdrew N1.6b without approval
Auditor says 15 MDAs fail to remit N127.13b to treasury
Under Buhari, even lawmakers are stealing billions, says ICPC
Buhari ignores yearly $4b oil theft, insists on taking loans
__________________________________________________________________
Buhari, Aisha celebrate birthdays abroad
Buhari celebrated his 79th birthday on 17 December 2021 in Istanbul, Turkey where he went with Aisha his wife, six Ministers, and other senior officials.
Aisha took a cue from that and celebrated her 51st birthday on 17 February 2022 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Some Governors’ wives, led by Bisi, the wife of Ekiti Governor Kayode Fayemi, visited and presented her with a birthday cake.
Aisha lives in Dubai and only occasionally visits Nigeria. Her foreign gig is footed by tax payers. Who owns the mansion she occupies in that city? If it is her own, where did she get the money to build or buy it?
Is it a gift to Aisha or to Buhari by someone seeking to curry favour with the corridors of power. If so, is that not corruption?
Whether or not the property belongs to her or to Buhari, she has to pay utility bills and other living costs in dollars that drain Nigeria’s external reserves.
Buhari sees Nigeria as his emirate
Buhari sees Nigeria as an emirate and himself as an emir lording it over talakawas and Almajiris to whom he cannot stoop down to give account. He rules like emirs in the North who degrade citizens to subjects impoverished without accountability.
He is too lazy and too detached to get involved in the rigorous business of effective leadership. So he allows Ministers, aides, and heads of MDAs to run and abuse their offices as they want, with little or no direction from him.
Whether or not Buhari is in town, there is no proper coordination and authoritative leadership in the workings of government. He reacts rather than anticipating and taking action to solve problems.
He provides cover for heads of MDAs to conduct government business to please their own egos and caprices, and to pursue their personal interests.
Here are just four examples:
Abubakar Malami
The Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) accuse federal Attorney General Abubakar Malami of working for contractors. And he shows it off.
Senator Stella Oduah pays N5 billion in cash for a property in London. The Pandora Papers expose it. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) charges her to court. Malami withdraws the file from the EFCC and kills the case.
Malami charges Abba Kyari to court for his extradition to the United States to answer allegations of money laundry. He says a prima facie case is preferred against the suspended fraudulent cop. A few days later, Malami withdraws the case.
Buhari does nothing about Malami’s abuse of office.
Mele Kyari
Federal Auditor General Adolphus Aghughu discovers in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), among other findings, that 107.23 million barrels of oil are not accounted for and a discrepancy of N663.89 billion the NNPC claims to remit to the Federation Account.
He issues NNPC Group Managing Director Mele Kyari an audit query to explain missing monies and oil barrels. Kyari refuses to answer the query.
Buhari, the Petroleum Minister who directly supervises him, knows about it but turns a blind eye.
Ahmed Idris
Auditor General discovers that federal Accountant General Ahmed Idris withdraws N1.6 billion from the treasury without approval.
Buhari ignores the report.
Zainab Ahmed
Auditor General discovers that N3.14 billion is missing from Finance Ministry headed by Zainab Ahmed. Buhari keeps mum on the report.
Ahmad is callous like Buhari. She is his tax Czar who formulates, announces, and enforces his taxes that deplete purchasing power and give tax payers little in return.
Most tax and other revenues as well as loans are stolen by public officials through bloated contracts, false contracts, false implementation of contracts, ghost workers, outright theft of hard cash, and through other fraudulent means.
Buhari knows all these. They are documented by the Auditor General. But he does nothing after receiving the reports.
Spiritual reasons why Buhari deliberately wastes Nigeria
These are mere examples from the cesspit of corruption and kleptocracy Buhari superintends. He has the title of President but the heart of an emir.
He wastes Nigeria and makes Nigerians poorer daily. He does not waste violently, it looks harmless as he does it by aloofness and by deceit, like Northern emirs.
- Each continent, country, region, city, and community in the world has a dominant angel who guides the children of God to do righteousness (Daniel 12:1; Revelation 1:20).
Every continent, country, region, city, town, and village on earth specialises in certain Godly conduct and lifestyle the Holy Spirit ministers directly (John 16:13) or through angels (Daniel 10:21; 11:1; 12:1; Hebrews 1:13-14; Revelation 1:20) to lead people to Heaven (John 3:16).
This is seen in certain righteous conduct common in people who live in the countries, regions, cities, towns, and villages on a particular continent (Acts 17:10-12; Philippians 4:14-17).
- The devil counterfeits that with a dominant demonic principality for every continent, country, region, city, and community to influence the disobedient to do unrighteousness (Daniel 10:13, 20; Ephesians 2:2; 6:12).
Every region on earth also specialises in, and is known for, certain sinful conduct and lifestyle which are ideas and beliefs initiated by satan or his territorial principalities, demons (Ephesians 2:2; 6:12) to counter the ways of God and lead people to hell in that region (John 10:10).
This is seen in certain unrighteous conduct common in people who live in the countries, regions, cities, towns, and villages on a particular continent (Acts 17:16-21; Titus 1:12-13).
UnGodly people in each territory are influenced by demons to demonstrate unrighteous attitudes and habits – “imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5 KJV) – peculiar to that territory.
Every righteous or unrighteous thing done in one region of the world is also done in other regions everywhere on earth; it happens the same way or in different ways.
Something becomes peculiar to a territory or a cluster of territories when it is done in a certain way, at a higher rate, and is more widespread in that region.
The manifestations of the influence of the demonic principality – the territorial demon – of Northern Nigeria on the people in that region include
- Illiteracy. Poverty. Laziness
- Overbreeding. Heinous diseases
- Spiritual darkness. Spiritual dullness
- Master-servant relationship
- Corruption
- Oppressing the poor
- Insensitivity of leaders to the plight of the masses
- Leaders depriving the people of resources to lord it over them
- Leaders stealing from the treasury to amass a large harem of wives and mistresses and several children they cannot maintain except they keep on stealing public funds.
- Non-accountability. Impunity
- Anti-education. Anti-intellectualism
- Anti-reason. Anti-truth
- Anti-Jesus Christ
The demonic principality influences leaders to devise ways to keep followers down and to oppress them. It influences followers to remain subservient to evil leaders.
This is the operation of the Northern demonic principality Buhari has been trying to export to the South and to the entire nation – by his deliberate actions and inactions.
Buhari’s fabled “body language” in Aso Rock – a glasshouse with nowhere to hide – has now been read openly and understood for seven years running by more than 200 million Nigerians and by the global community.
Among other vices, his detached body language conveys from his heart
- A lack of fear of God
- Arrogance. Incompetence
- Deception. Lies
- Hypocrisy. Wickedness
- Insincerity. Nepotism
- Wastefulness. Not being accountable
- Wilfulness. Callousness
- Laziness. Evasiveness
- Insensitivity. Irresponsibility
- State capture
- Pursuit of personal comfort
Stopping the spread of Northern spiritual darkness
Buhari rules like the emirs in the North who steal public funds to educate their own children but discourage the children of the masses from receiving education and instead corral them in Almajiri schools that graduate them into street beggars.
Illiteracy makes it easy for the emirs, the politicians, the oligarchs, and the entire Northern elite to emasculate and to lord it over their hordes of talakawas, to whom they cannot deign to give account, and who dare not demand accountability.
Buhari’s actions and inactions are satanic, and they are deliberate. And they all translate into ensuring that most families North and South are deprived of resources and become so poor they cannot feed well and educate their children.
At the human level, once you remove education from a man, he is powerless and without a chance for social mobility. A man without education serves others with little or no opportunity to break away and stand on his own feet.
State schools have collapsed in the North due to underfunding caused by government officials who steal school budgets. The few children of the masses who attend public schools receive substandard education which makes them barely literate.
Only Northerners rick by hook or by crook can give their children good education in expensive private schools locally or overseas. The children inherit the estate of their fathers, and rule like their fathers to exploit the illiterate masses with impunity.
This is the demonic foundation of impoverishment Buhari has spent seven years to extend from the North to the South to cover the entire country, so the few educated children of oligarchs can dominate vast hordes of illiterates without accountability.
Buhari’s demonic legacy – of hegemony consigning the populace to illiteracy and poverty to strangulate them – will grow nationwide for years to come, unless his immediate and future successors have the fear and guidance of God to reverse it.
- “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye” (Psalm 32:8 KJV).
- “Let the fear of the LORD be upon you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the LORD our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of bribes” (2 Chronicles 19:7 KJ2000).
Daily Trust editorial on Buhari
Here is the Daily Trust editorial on 10 December 2021, titled “Mr. President, Time To Reduce Foreign Trips”.
“On Wednesday, December 1, 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari jetted out of the country yet again on another foreign trip, this time to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to attend an exhibition accompanied by an entourage of 10 ministers and heads of the nation’s security agencies.
“This is coming shortly after a few weeks travels to Saudi Arabia, Scotland, France and South Africa, and a few hours after Nigeria recorded three cases of the new coronavirus variant named Omicron.
“According to the presidency, some of the trips were to seek foreign direct investment to Nigeria and others for the purpose of honouring invitations by countries with whom we have strong relations across various fields of endeavour.
“Indeed some of the trips were necessary to help resolve emerging political and economic issues in view of our leading role in Africa and beyond.
“Conveying this decision through the Director of Information of the OSGF, Willie Bassey, the statement said ‘In a bid to curb leakages and ensure efficiency in the management of the resources of government, President Buhari has approved for immediate implementation additional cost-saving measures aimed at instilling financial discipline and prudence, particularly, in the area of official travels.’
“The most recent visit to Dubai in which the president was accompanied by such a high number of officials negates the spirit behind this measure by the government.
“Considering that these top-level officials on the entourage, almost one-third of the cabinet, will be accompanied by their officials and aides, we are talking about scores of public officials on an all-paid, five-day junket to a programme in which Nigeria should have been represented by a far lesser entourage.
“Apart from the state visits that require his presence as president and head of state, some of the trips the president embarked on did not necessarily require his physical presence.
“Indeed some trips that have to do with bilateral economic issues could as well be handled by the vice president, who is in charge of economic matters.
“Those that are of specific subject matter, like security, trade and others, could be left to ministers and heads of respective agencies to attend with a small number of officials and then brief the president upon their return.
“Also, we have not witnessed the race by foreign industrial concerns to establish industries that will help boost technology transfer, raise our exports and gross domestic product.
“In fact, it is curious that while the president all too often finds reasons to embark on foreign trips at the slightest opportunity, he almost always needs to be persuaded to visit the states and communities within Nigeria that are deserving of his presence.
“Indeed, it has been observed that on the occasion he visits the states, he hardly stays long enough to make them meaningful to the people.
“We believe that in the remaining months of his tenure, President Buhari should cut down drastically, his foreign trips and should travel abroad only where it is absolutely necessary for him to do so.
“He should turn his attention inwards and undertake visits to states and communities in the country and engage with them more. The country and its citizens require his attention.”
The PUNCH editorial on Buhari
Here The PUNCH editorial on 10 March 2022, titled “Buhari’s incessant trips amid national crises”.
“Insensitive as ever, the President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), jetted out to the United Kingdom for yet another ‘medical check-up’ amid a crippling petrol scarcity and other national crises.
“He had just returned from Nairobi, Kenya, where he had, ridiculously, gone to attend the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Environmental Programme!
“His insouciance contrasts sharply with the selfless leadership of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president of Ukraine, whose bravery in the middle of a military invasion by Russian forces has riveted global attention.
“Junketing abroad for minor engagements or personal comfort while millions suffer and the country is imperilled, as Buhari often does, is reprehensible.
“In the seven years that he has superintended over Africa’s most populous country, he has left no one in doubt that his interests and comfort are paramount.
“He demonstrates this by frequently travelling abroad, even as the country slips further into state failure. His latest display of aloofness dismays many, but surprises very few.
“Apart from the escalating killings across the country and general insecurity, a debilitating petrol scarcity has for a month laid the country low.
“Businesses and normal social activities have been upturned. Worse is that the crisis was caused by the criminal importation and distribution of dirty petrol over which the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company has a monopoly.
“Notably, he is, effectively, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, having retained the strategic portfolio. But on March 6, instead of staying home to take charge, Buhari took off for Kenya for a ceremony that could well have been graced on Nigeria’s behalf by his deputy, a minister, an adviser or the ambassador.
“While Zelenskyy, 44, with Russian missiles raining down around him, is putting his life on the line to stand with, and rally Ukraine’s 44 million people to defend their country and liberty, Buhari, 79, remains detached from the people he leads.
“According to reports, by the end of 2021, Buhari had combined, spent over 200 days on medical leave in the UK since coming to power.
“Yet, the Federal Ministry of Health has been allocated over N2.3 trillion from 2016 to date, while the State House Medical Centre has received over N6.2 billion, as stated on the website of the Budget Office of the Federation.
“Currently, public universities have again been shut down by yet another strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities; the economy is tumultuous, wracked afresh by a sharp rise in oil prices, low crude production and record revenue shortages.
“Meanwhile, kidnappers and armed robbers everywhere, terrorists in the North and lately in the South-East, have rendered the country unsafe.
“Buhari should demonstrate decisive leadership. Since early February when the negligent regulators confirmed the presence of petrol with methanol quantities above Nigeria’s specification in the supply chain, nobody has been suspended or fired.
“There are also acute shortages of gas and power.
“For over a month, petrol has consequently been in short supply. The same NNPC executives under whose watch the scandal happened are the same persons grandstanding and purporting to be solving the gigantic problem they created.
“One report said NNPC requires N201 billion to clean up its mess. Heads should roll.
“Celebrated Austrian-American management consultant, the late Peter Drucker, describes leadership as ‘a responsibility rather than as rank and privilege.’
“Buhari, by his actions and inaction, telegraphs the image of a condescending leader who lacks empathy for the people; one who would not take charge to improve their lives.
“He abdicates the responsibility of his office, allowing aides to run the government on his behalf. Often, the in-fighting and lack of synergy within the regime have spilled out into the open. The country is left almost rudderless.
“In March 2021, he travelled to London for a two-week medical vacation amid a national strike by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors that paralysed public hospitals. He repeated this when he returned to the UK for medical follow-up checks in June and in July that year amid other doctors’ strikes.
“Seven years in power, he has not delivered a single world-class hospital that can attend to his routine medical check-up locally.
“In December 2020 when bandits kidnapped over 300 schoolboys from the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, hours after he arrived in Daura in the same state, Buhari did not immediately visit the community.
“Similarly, rampaging gunmen regularly slaughter Nigerians daily in the North, but rather than take decisive action or identify physically with the victims, he mostly remains in Aso Rock while his spokesmen reel out ineffectual statements.
“Leadership is made of better mettle.
“In April 2021, Chad’s President, Idriss Deby, personally led his army to battle rebels who had launched an incursion into the country and paid the supreme price on the battlefield.
“In July 2021, then-German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, visited flood victims in western Germany to coordinate emergency response and humanitarian aid.
“In January 2022, United States President, Joe Biden, raced to the scene of Colorado’s destructive wildfire where he condoled with the victims.
“President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa; ex-US President Barack Obama, among other world leaders, demonstrated leadership during national crises by running back to their countries to lead from the front.
“American celebrity, Oprah Winfrey, emphasised the essence of empathy in leadership; ‘Leadership is about empathy. It is about having the ability to relate to and connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives.’
“Sadly, there has been no serious pressure on Buhari from the Ninth National Assembly. Like other parliaments, they should be voicing public outrage at this penchant for being missing in action while the country bleeds.
“NASS should loudly crystallise public dismay at such insensitivity. Civil society groups should not give up in exposing and opposing the frivolous travels.
“With just over a year left before his tenure ends, Buhari should provide strong, hands-on leadership. He owes Nigerians no less.”
