To say that many people are having a good laugh right now at Nigeria is to say the obvious.
The country is becoming the butt of jokes locally and internationally. Some will say that did not start today. That is true. But an inexplicable disposition of those presently in power to hug falsehood with relish is making it worse.
So, it was no surprise when Fareed Zakaria weighed in in late July when he mockingly asked, “The head of state from which country has not set foot in his homeland in over two months?” during his Global Public Square (GPS), a foreign affairs show he anchors on Cable News Network (CNN). Options provided for the GPS Challenge were Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Nigeria and Syria. I looked closely at Zakaria’s face when he announced Nigeria as the winner of the dubious trophy and the smirk on his otherwise placid face was quite suggestive.
But Buhari is back in the country after 103 days of medical vacation. Expectedly, there is jubilation. Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, in office since January 27, 2016, without much to show for it, upped the ante by declaring August 21, a public holiday for citizens to thank God for safely returning Buhari to the country in sound health and sound mind.
That should have ended the drama. But anybody who banked on such expectation surely does not know Nigeria.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, dropped a bombshell on Tuesday, August 22, three days after Buhari’s return, that the president’s office was ravaged by rodents during his medical trip, causing extensive damage to the furniture and air conditioning system.
Many people were not flummoxed. Such outlandish claims are not strange here. But Shehu did not stop there. He doubled down in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), insisting that Buhari had a “well-equipped” office at home that he could work “perfectly” from. “There is nothing at all to worry about as to the condition of his health. From everything we have seen from the president – we have a new Buhari: energetic, well focused and it is clear he is enjoying excellent health,” Shehu told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.
Ordinarily, there should be nothing to worry about. The Buhari who came back from London on Saturday, August 19 looked healthier, at least physically, than the man who left Nigeria three months ago.
But when news filtered out the very next day that he had cancelled the day’s weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), only two days after announcing readiness to resume duties, there were murmurings. The reason given for the cancellation made matters worse.
Femi Adesina, the presidential spokesman, said in a statement that Buhari would rather receive the report of the committee led by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo which probed allegations of fraud against suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal; and Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ayodele Oke.
Both reasons given by Shehu and Adesina for the actions taken by their principal Tuesday and Wednesday flew in the face of logic.
First, even if it is true that rats “chased out” Nigeria’s president from office (as reported by the BBC), the question still needs to be asked why the office could not be fixed while Buhari was away. Did he take the office key to London? When was the havoc caused by the “rat-rage” discovered?
And the reason for the cancellation of the FEC meeting was as preposterous as the reason why Buhari will work from home.
How can he cancel a FEC meeting two days after announcing readiness to resume duties just to receive a report? What does it take for him to receive a report? Is it no longer a matter of scheduling? If the two issues – FEC meeting and receiving a report – are put on a priority scale, which should be deemed more important? Is the report, which was concluded more than three months ago (Buhari was to receive it on May 8, but his health had deteriorated, forcing him to return to London on May 7), more important than being brought up to speed on state matters by his ministers and other officials?
It is even more worrisome when we throw into the mix the fact that the last time Buhari attended a FEC meeting was more than four months ago, on April 5.
Last week’s cancellation was the fifth time he would be in the country but unavailable for the meeting of the council which consists of himself, his deputy, ministers, head of civil service of the federation, secretary to the government of the federation, and chief of staff to the president.
And the reasons given for cancellation each time were as spurious and unintelligent as it is in the latest case.
On April 12, a month after returning from an earlier medical vacation from January19 to March 10, Buhari absented himself from the very important meeting to attend to “other issues.”
Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, explained that “Mr. President is not ill again .… Mr. President is in town; Mr. President is attending to other issues. He looked at the agenda for the meeting and decided that the vice president should preside. It is not unusual for the vice president to preside over FEC meetings.”
While it is true that it is not unusual for the vice president to preside over FEC meetings in the absence of his principal, to say that Osinbajo was mandated to preside because of the inconsequentiality of the agenda ridicules the meeting itself.
But as to be expected from Mohammed, his explanation flew in the face of truth. Buhari did not attend the meeting because he was sick, not because the agenda was unimportant.
On April 19, the meeting did not hold at all – as it happened on August 23 – and the reason was as silly and ridiculous as the rats’ story.
On that occasion, the Presidency said State House secretariat staff were yet to resume work after the Easter break and, therefore, could not provide the logistics for the meeting. “The staff on the Council secretariat resumed on Tuesday after the Easter. There was no time to prepare and circulate memos to ministers,” Shehu said. He described, just as Mohammed did the previous week, as “very unfair’’ those attributing the cancellation of the FEC meeting to Buhari’s health conditions. And Shehu said that with a straight face, happy with himself and the government he represents in a country that should be in a haste to catch up with the rest of the world.
On April 26, the meeting held with Osinbajo presiding again. Mohammed came up with another spin. Buhari had sought “leave to work from home,” he told an incredulous nation.
But by May 3, Aso Rock had run out of lies and there was nothing again to spin. Buhari was critically ill and continuing to hem him in at the Villa would have backfired seriously, hence the quick dash to London.
So, the reason for the cancellation of the FEC meeting August 23 was déjàvu. Buhari has been taken hostage by a cabal who sees in his health challenges an opportunity to manipulate the system and advance a nefarious agenda.
It is not about the promotion of shared national values. For those on the driving seat of this insidious game of thrones, truth is not a constant, it is a moving target and they don’t give a damn, believing in the Machiavellian ideology of the end justifies the means.
But it is important to sound a note of warning. Adopting deceit as a tool of governance is a slippery slope because erecting an edifice on the quicksand of deception is a recipe for disaster.
*This article was written on Friday, August 25, 2017