Can anybody tell me why he wouldn’t travel abroad, every week, if he were President Muhammadu Buhari? Here is why travelling abroad under the guise of pursuing looted public funds or wooing investors is irresistible.
For a moment, just imagine that you are the president of Nigeria. With that, you are entitled to certain exclusive benefits. For a start, you don’t have a problem getting your passport stamped with a visa by any embassy. You don’t even need to fill the form or visit the embassy to get a visa.
As you start imagining in the inner recesses of your mind where next to go; instantly, your passport is back from the visa office with an amazing speed. Don’t forget, the visa you are granted is not for two years as they do to some of us. The president determines how many years’ visa he wants.
Within seconds of expressing interest, your presidential accommodation is fully booked over there while your pilot patiently waits in the luxurious presidential jet to haul you safely into the skies. No flight tickets. No flight cancellation. You own the aircraft; the pilot is at your command; and the skies are yours to invade.
Driving to the airport? Come on! Keep dreaming. Don’t wake up yet. All you require is to take a few steps to the backyard of the presidential mansion where the green-white-green chopper awaits you. It is manned by an Air Force pilot. A journey from there to the airport is reduced to a few seconds.
Sorry, I almost forgot. While you’re still in Nigeria, getting your shoes polished by someone employed for that purpose, and waiting for Hajia to finish preparing the prescribed breakfast, staff members of Nigeria’s embassy at your destination are already at the airport awaiting your arrival.
Then you take off. While in the air, you are served the best of wines and your menu list is heavenly.
You have the freedom to stretch out and have undisturbed sleep for hours with the pilot making sure the flight is smooth no matter how thick the cloud is. While landing over there, the air is cleared of any commercial, private or military jets.
Then you don’t have to go through any kind of immigration checks. Nobody has a chance to ask you stupid questions like: how long are you staying; what’s the purpose of the trip; have you been here before; and all of that.
If you were the president, shiny limousines await you at the foot of the presidential jet while some jobbers at the embassy do the good job of having your passport stamped and fulfilling other protocols while you engage in diplomatic handshakes with plastic smiles on your age-stricken face.
Then off you go into the city; preceded and trailed by siren-blaring escorts. The road is cleared for your safe passage. Security is tightened. Nigerians abroad are waving the green-white-green flags by the roadsides even when you are not looking in their direction.
Safely out of the country, you are not harassed by deadly reports of Boko Haram attacks. Forget about the fuel queues. Or the political mess created by your party in Kogi State. Things will sought themselves out as they always do.
That is just a tip of how presidents travel and why they must travel. No hassle whatsoever. No thought about where the resources to make the trip will come from. You are the baby of the state: fed, clothed, accommodated and generally catered for by the tax payer.
Nigeria’s presidents really do not have anything to worry about. While planning official trips, they don’t even think of the speeches to be delivered. That’s the kind of worry others are paid to provide solutions. Somebody packs their suit cases; and somebody carries their telephone handsets.
Since Buhari came in as president on May 29, 2015, he has done whatever is possible to beat former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s record on foreign trips. So far, I have lost count of how many countries our cost-cutting president has been to.
Dalai Lama once said: “Once in a year, go some place you’ve never been to.”
In the case of our president, he does that every week.
In fact, Buhari believes in John Cheever’s saying that: “I have been homesick for countries I’ve never been, and longed to be where I couldn’t be,” as a private citizen for about 30 years.
That’s why since May 29, the man has been on the move and he doesn’t seem tired about it yet.
While his media handlers and spin doctors keep telling us that the big man is busy pursuing stolen funds stacked abroad, we are still waiting to see the outcome of the pursuit. Why go abroad when those who stole the money are here with us?
More noticeable is the fact that most of the trips made by the president, with all the risk involved, could have been made by other officers of his administration while he stays back to face more serious issues of state. However, it’s like our president loves the feel of the air up there.
If Matthew Karsten was right when he said an investment in travel is an investment in yourself, then it’s time for Buhari to invest more in the nation than in himself. Some of these trips are not necessary. There are sufficient problems back home to solve.
Nigeria needs its president back home than up there in the skies. When the trip is necessary, we will all know. Presidential advisers must clearly tell the president this. Let’s get to work, please.
