What has come to define the personality of President Muhammadu Buhari, apart from his acclaimed integrity and incorruptibility, has been his ability to listen to people, and above all, appreciate the good thing others have done for him.
As a matter of fact, it is believed that about 85 percent of his personal staff (special assistants and others) in the Presidential Villa or outside it, are those who had in one way or the other glued to him at the time he was struggling to rule this country through ballot, and democratically: those who had maintained faith in him at the time some fair weather ones had deserted him.
When he first came out in 2003 to campaign for the Presidency, there were many who are today in his government that really suffered all sort of personal discomforts, including Sarki Abba, Abba Kyari, Ya’u Darazo, and a host of others. Amongst such personalities are two journalists who stuck to him, though they were attached to his campaign team by their organizations, but they also suffered a lot of personal and material discomfort.
The journalists are Mammanga Ibrahim, who was attached to Buhari campaign team by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) and Yusuf Ozi-Usman, who was also attached to the campaign team by Media Trust Limited, publisher of Daily Trust and Sunday Trust.
During the 2003 campaign, there was nothing like day or night. In fact, the campaign team was on the road 24 hours. Members of the team used to sleep either in their vehicles as the vehicles sped through villages, towns and cities across the country or in lodges for just two or three hours at best.
The campaign team, for instance, arrived at Malam Madori in Jigawa State at about 3.00am while the team arrived at the palace of Alafin of Oyo at about 4am. Buhari’s campaign team stopped over to address supporters at a village between Jaji and Kaduna town at about 4.30am before the team proceeded to Jos, arriving in Jos at about 6.58am.
The vehicle conveying the journalists had a near fatal accident at Zaki Biam in Benue State, as the team headed to Wukari in Taraba State. It was around 6.30 in the evening. Buhari was kind enough to stop the convoy, came out of his Prado Jeep to give directive that the injured journalists should be taken to the nearest medical facility for attention. The journalists were promptly treated after which they immediately joined the campaign movement.
The vehicle conveying the journalists was also attacked by supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Mubi, Adamawa State when they left the convoy to rush to a nearby cyber cafe to file stories to their head offices.
All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader and Presidential aspirant, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has told Chief John Odigie Oyegun led Presidential screening panel that he had never failed in whatever he had the opportunity to manage.
According to him, as governor of Lagos State, he raised the internal revenue generation of the state from a paltry N600 million monthly to N51 billion today.
He also cited his invitation to Enron to begin the first state-backed power generation in Nigeria and how Nigeria will need to take the power transmission lines as a highway.
Tinubu said that he has vast knowledge of the economic operations and management, as well as having perfect understanding of Nigeria’s political economy.
The Committee screening the 23 aspirants contesting to be President of Nigeria on the platform of APC is holding the exercise at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja. Tinubu featured today, May 30, Day One of the screening.
The Presidential flag bearer of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi has lamented that Nigeria has been hijacked by the forces of retrogression who have been spending Dollars to buy everybody off.
“Painfully, our current dysfunctional system rewards unearned income and conspicuous consumption; allows university lecturers to remain on strike for months; keeps our youths at home; and owes pensioners, who gave their patriotic sweat and their youthful energy to serve this country.
“The despicable contrast is that those responsible for the mess – those elected to take care of them – have abandoned the national currency and are living in opulence and like kings, spend dollars to buy delegates as well as houses all over the world.
“Meanwhile, they owe most workers, lecturers and retirees. Yes, our country stands hijacked by forces of retrogression. We are almost zero in all indices of development.”
Peter Obi, who addressed the delegates shortly after he emerged as the Presidential candidate of the party, praised the delegates and those who stepped down for him for their patriotism, saying: “what you are doing today is a patriotic duty towards seeking the desired political emancipation of our dear country, which stands wounded by many years of cumulative leadership failure.”
Obi regretted that as of leaderhip failure, “our future, especially those of the youth and generations unborn, is in ruins. We have become a laughing stock among other nations, including African countries where we were once revered. As a party that represents the workers and masses of this great nation, we are people organised and working for our economic rebirth.
“As I am nominated today, I humbly proclaim that the journey towards the emancipation of the country has begun. I note with humility that the journey is going to be a collective one that will certainly require the cooperation of critical stakeholders in our country, especially the youth, whose future has been thoroughly degraded.
“I, therefore, thank all of you and call for your sustained support towards returning Nigeria to Nigerians from forces of bad leadership and retrogression. Such a noble task brooks no conscientious objectors. I hardly use war metaphors for political analysis due to my belief that politics is not adversarial and not war.
“However, permit me a little indulgence here, to relate what we are embarking on to the ancient battle of Thermopylae, where the Greek forces, conscious of fighting for the life of Greece, held on against great odds in the defence of their country.
“In the battle to retake Nigerian, the odds are great and seemingly insurmountable, but with our commitment, patriotism and understanding that we are doing, what we are supposed to do for our country, lest she shall die, we shall move on discontent with what is and focused on enthroning what ought to be. In doing this, our battle cry shall remain: get your PVC and become part of this great liberation!
“Our governance mission will be twin-tracked. Secure Nigeria in every ramification: national security, human security, food security and tackling insecurity created by unemployment. We will also seek to unite our nation by pulling our people out of poverty and creating a new sense of nationalism and patriotism.
“Nigeria shall rise again: and her people will be proud to claim ownership of her patrimony. Doing so is in our collective national interest. As I earnestly thank Nigerians for their faith in me.
“In the days ahead I will publish our governance manifesto, which will spell out our top governance priorities. I assure you that no region; state, local government or community will be left behind.
“I also assure you all that the struggle continues and that victory is certainly insight towards the guarantee of a meaningful future for our youths and making this country a respected and viable member of a 21st-century world that places high value on production overconsumption. God bless you all and God bless Nigeria.”
A Yobe State High Court has awarded a teenage girl, Hamsatu Abdullahi, a total of N200 million as damages against Nigerian telecommunications giant, MTN and Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company (NELMCO) over a wrong mast connection whose cable electrocuted her, leading to her hand and leg being amputated.
Delivering the judgment in the case, Justice Lawu Lawan said: “I hold that the plaintiff has duly established, by oral and documentary credible and unchallenged evidence against the defendants.
“I equally hold that the plaintiff is entitled to claims from the defendants jointly and severally as compensating or general damages for the permanent disablement via the loss of her two hands, right leg, continuous pains medical treatment, anguish, shock and continuous psychological trauma and loss of amenities of life caused by the defendants’ act and omissions.
“Therefore, the sum of two hundred million naira (N200,000,000.00) is hereby awarded against the defendants jointly and severally in favour of the plaintiff. The particular of heads of the damages is as follows:
1. Loss of earnings, pains and suffering – N10,000,000.00
2. Loss of capacity for enjoyment of life – N10,000,000.00
3. Shortening of expectation of life – 10,000,000.00
4. Cost of keeping a servant to assist the plaintiff – N10,000,000.00
5. General damages – N150,000,000.00
6. Cost of action – N10,000,000.00.”
Hamsatu’s father, Abdullahi Koki, had filed a suit with reference No. YBS/D/HC2/001/2021, complaining that his daughter was electrocuted by the second defendant’s electricity cable in front of their house, despite protests at the first defendant’s building of a mast in the same position.
He said that because of the 2012 event in Chumbusko village in Karasuwa Local Government in Yobe State, little Hamsatu’s hands and right leg were amputated, leaving her permanently handicapped.
Reacting to the judgment, Counsel to the plaintiff, Ahmed Igoche, said that he was happy with the judgment because it involves a teenage girl from a remote village and a multi-million company like MTN and NELMCO.
“What gives me joy for this judgment is the status of the people that are involved in this case and our defendants. This is a girl from a remote village in Karasuwa with very poor family background. So what this judgment has taught us how to respect the law and that the law can bring you down, no matter how high you are.”
Fighting between people from Mauritania and Libya who are informal gold miners, in a remote part of northern Chad has left about 100 people dead and 40 injured.
The Chadian government said today that what started as a “mundane dispute between two individuals… degenerated” into deadly clash.
The country’s Defence Minister, Daoud Yaya Brahim said that the clashes occurred last week and that details are only just emerging now.
He said that government immediately sent a mission to the affected area, which is about 1,000km (620 miles) north-east of the capital, N’Djamena, when news of violence first came through.
According to the Defence Minister, a large military contingent has restored calm to the area, adding that all gold mining activities in Kouri Bougoudi have now been suspended.
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has accused some of his southern colleagues of betrayal, saying that with what they have done at the Party’s Presidential primary in Abuja, people in the South would continue to be slaves.
Wike, who was treated to a grand reception by PDP leaders and members after the primary election, said that the Governors from his region worked against the agreement that the presidency should return to the South, adding that he faithfully kept to the agreement
The angry governor emphasized that the PDP Governors ganged up with some vested interests to derail the quest of the south to produce the next President on the platform of the party, saying: “you will continue to be perpetual slaves.”
He said that it was shameful that those who were part of the agreement did not stick to it, accusing them of selling out and frustrating the collective efforts that would have secured the PDP presidential ticket for the South.
“I contested in an election (primary) based on the principle and agreement with all Southern governors and leaders of the South that presidency should go to the South this period.
“We have done our part. We never betrayed anybody because it is not in our blood to betray. But it is a shame to those people, some of the governors from the South, they are the people that were used to sabotage our course.
“Look at a region ganged up, then you, your own region cannot gang up. You became tools to be used against the interest of your people, and you think you have won, you have lost.
“You will continue to be perpetual slaves. Rivers people you don’t need to bother yourselves. PDP needs us. If they say they don’t need us, they should wait.”
The Governor made it clear that he went into the race to offer service and advance the interest of Nigeria.
He said he was confronted by a few individuals, who wanted somebody they would control and he declined to be such a puppet.
“The winner (of the ticket) also saw it. They underrated us but now they will not underrate us again. We have all it takes to do whatever we want to do. It is a matter of you being firm, it is a matter of you being hopeful. There is nobody that is born greater than us in this country; therefore, we cannot answer second-class citizens. We can’t.
“We just used this one to tell them that enough is enough. We made them not to sleep. We made them not to eat. We made all of them from wherever they said they come from to know that there is somebody who can take them on. This country does not belong to one particular zone. If people are afraid of talking it is their business. I cannot be a second class citizen in my country.”
“Some of them, their in-laws are Governors in the ruling party but they want to interfere in what happens in PDP. Some of them their brothers are Governors in the ruling party and they want to interfere in PDP”
Governor Wike said that with the presidential primary over, and given his pledge to work for whoever emerged, Rivers would work to deliver PDP and all its candidates in the 2023 general elections.
All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader and leading Presidential aspirant, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has commiserated with victims of Saturday’s stampede at a church programme at Polo Club, Port Harcourt, Rivers State during which over 30 persons were killed.
The APC leader also condoled with Governor Nyesom Wike and the people of Rivers State over the incident.
In a letter to Governor Wike, which he personally signed, Asiwaju Tinubu said: “I offer my sincere condolences to you, to the good people of Rivers State and to the bereaved families, friends and loved ones of all those who sadly perished in the recent catastrophic stampede in Port Harcourt.
“This was a devastating and unfortunate disaster, which took place in the cruellest of circumstances: at an event organised by a local church to provide food clothing and spiritual guidance to the needy. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the all those who sadly lost their lives and with the innocent survivors now forced to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of this terrible incident.
“As those who survived the stampede begin the process of healing and recovery; may God Almighty guide, guard and keep them and fill them with His peace. I also beseech Almighty Allah to grant your administration, as well as all others around the country, the fortitude and wisdom necessary to implement measures, policies and guidelines to ensure that nothing like this happens again in Rivers, or anywhere else in Nigeria.
“I commend the State’s police command and the men and women of Rivers’ emergency management agencies for their diligence and professionalism in responding quickly to the disaster, rescuing as many people as possible and returning normalcy to the area.
“As leaders, we must do all that we can to protect the lives of our citizens and I offer you my support in this time of grief. It is important that we learn the lessons of this incident and make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”
Days after he jilted the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi has secured the Presidential ticket of the Labour Party (LP). So far, he is the second Presidential candidate that had emerged in the march to the 2023 general elections. The first one is Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.
While Peter Obi is from the Southeast (Ibo speaking area of the country), Atiku is from the Northeast (Hausa/Fulani area).
I was in our nation’s capital, Abuja last week and I wept over that beautiful city because it is fast becoming John Milton’s classic description of another paradise (being) lost. Our remarkable capital where I have practised journalism for thirty-four years is very dark at the moment. I drove in the night from District to District, from Area to Area, and I was shocked that the capital of the federation where the two major political parties are holding their conventions at the moment has become another Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’.
Even the Eagle Square precinct where the ruling party, APC convention is taking place now is in partial darkness. And curiously, no one is raising questions about the strange darkness in Abuja city . All the streetlights all over the place are gone and no one to replace them.
Sadly, no one within the three arms of government located in the capital has drawn the attention of the Governor and Deputy Governor of Abuja to the darkness that has entombed Nigeria’s barely 45-year-old capital. It is sad that no one within the federal bureaucracy in the same capital is confronting the authorities in Abuja to rise up to the challenge of maintaining the capital of our already challenged federation.
No one within the security and defence community in Abuja has drawn the attention of the commander-in-chief to the nexus between darkness in Abuja and growing insecurity in and around the capital. It is also shameful that even the two Federal Capital Territory Committees in the National Assembly cannot tour Abuja to ask the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the Executive Secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) the Permanent Secretary of the FCTA why our nation’s capital is in darkness. We need to know why the authorities in Abuja cannot maintain street and sometimes traffic lights in the Federal Capital Territory.
Doubtless, it has never been so bad. There are other infrastructure challenges in the city but when darkness descends on a city, there is a cause for alarm. It is important at this time to draw attention to what may be termed an inconvenient truth: Abuja, is one of the most important capitals in Africa and indeed the black race. It is our pearl we should not cast before a swine.
What this ancient word implies is that Abuja isn’t a portfolio to be given to anyone who isn’t a competent technocrat. It is like Lagos you don’t just give to any Dick and Harry. You can see that people who have run Lagos are the ones aspiring to run Nigeria. One of the former Governors of Lagos State, now a front-runner on the ruling party’s platform, is running for president. Two of them who were earlier speculated to be interested chickened out of the tight race. It is like New York, their New York City. Anyone who can win the NYC Mayoral election can contest to be President of the United States. Michael Bloomberg, a successful businessman, a media entrepreneur and former Mayor of New York City has contested U.S presidential election more than once. Lest we forget, Rudolph William Louis Giuliani, (Rudy Giuliani) 107th Mayor of NYC has aspired to be U.S President more than once too. So, it should be with the Minister of FCT. The current Minister of FCT who has been there for seven years needs to answer some questions about his stewardship. But specifically, he needs to wake up to light up the city. It isn’t about the competence of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company. It isn’t about electricity supply to residents of the city centre and territory. It is about urban renewal and city management. Illumination is part of security of even the rural areas. The founding fathers of FCT have tried their best. Controversial as it was in the beginning, the FCT has been accepted nationwide as Nigeria’s capital. Since the constitution provides in Sections 299-304 that the President and the Vice President shall be regarded as the Governor and Deputy Governor of the Federal Capital Territory as a State, it behoves the President the same constitution empowers to appoint a Minister if he so wishes, to consider a person who is as technically competent as Malam Nasir el-Rufai who is still more remembered as FCT Minister than as Governor of Kaduna State.
This discussion point on our nation’s capital is coming at a time of constitution review and election politics. President Buhari should note in his handover papers that the FCT Minister he appointed in 2015 has been a disservice to the nation.
The Minister waited for more than two and half years before he could form his cabinet. The Minister was without a cabinet, (Mandate Secretaries) I complained about for two years. The President approved the cabinet only on November 22, 2021. And no one asked any questions about this kind of docility, nurtured by gross procrastination in public office. Two years wasted in a four year mandate for Mandate Secretaries who should act as Commissioners in Nigeria’s Capital. As I have written several times, the rains of mediocrity will continue to beat us in Abuja as long as the FCT administration remains undemocratic. It will be recalled that a former Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed, (now Governor of Bauchi State) was appointed FCT Minister by the then President Jonathan because he (Bala) pushed the registration paper of Senators who then supported a strange ‘Doctrine of Necessity’, which paved the way for the then Vice President Jonathan to act as President while his principal, President Umaru Yar’Adua was on medical vacation in Saudi Arabia.
When Jonathan assumed office as President, he rewarded Senator Bala Mohammed with the FCT portfolio – for the way he diligently manipulated the Senate Paper on ‘Doctrine of Necessity’ at the Senate. Here is the thing, the President in any dispensation can always appoint anyone he likes (even if incompetent) as FCT Minister. What is worse, the Federal Capital Territory has no Legislature. The Constitution empowers the National Assembly to assume that responsibility. That is why the Constitution should be amended to ensure that a Mayor of Abuja is elected during a general election.
Let’s return to the brass tacks, darkness should not be tolerated in any discussions. Darkness connotes danger, evil and whatever is negative. That is why evil people such as terrorists choose forest darkness to perpetrate evil.
That is also why even Joseph Conrad’s novel, ‘Heart of Darkness’ is overtly metaphorical and political, demonstrating how colonialism destroys the hearts and souls of all human beings.
Here, “heart of darkness” is a short-hand for European stereotypes of Africa, which Conrad’s novel did its part to reinforce. There is a review of it, which plays on racist anxieties about immigration: the idea that certain places and peoples are primitive, exotic and dangerous.
Darkness has therefore become a symbol of hatred, fear and symbol of the power of evil. A reviewer of Conrad’s classic begins his story believing that these elements exist within the jungle, then with the natives and finally makes the realisation that ‘darkness’ lives within the heart of each man. Mita Ramani, a young writer in Chicago, while dissecting the struggle between darkness and light notes that the universal struggle between darkness and light, good and evil, is one that has plagued mankind for ages. The human race seeks daylight and yet paradoxically cannot survive without the night.
Traditionally, darkness is associated with emptiness, ignorance, and evil. Shadows hide in the darkness, but without a black night one would never be able to see the stars that light up the sky. Light is often a symbol of knowledge and truth, values that will never disappear from humanity. Humans are seekers of light, as they are drawn towards trying to learn what lies beyond our basic understanding of the world. Literature and art typically portray darkness as an absence of morality and truth, and ‘The Name of the Rose’ by Umberto Eco follows the common interpretation perfectly. In the novel, ‘Jorge de Burgos’, the elderly blind monk of the abbey, embodies the qualities of darkness ranging from wickedness to ignorance. His physical disability leaves him to live without light, which compels him to perform drastic measures in order to ensure the other monks live in intellectual darkness or ignorance. The fear of widespread knowledge drives Jorge to commit the grave sin of murder at night and hide in the shadows of darkness. His character and actions are a reflection that ignorance and evil fester in darkness. The obscurity or absence of knowledge is the epitome of darkness in the novel. Ultimately, Jorge’s crimes are only revealed with the light of understanding, knowledge, and religion, just as light is the only quality that can combat blindness and ignorance in the material world.
The darkness over the city of power and Nigeria’s capital should not be taken for granted. It is both physical and spiritual. There has been too much darkness over so many fundamental issues in our country. There is darkness over even the status of the Federal Capital Territory 45 years after. There is still darkness over the terminal date of the Buhari administration. It isn’t clear whether insecurity will end for elections to hold so that we have a president-elect next year. It wasn’t clear at press time whether the APC primary will be peacefully held, after all. There is also strange darkness over why a former President Goodluck Jonathan would like to return to Aso Presidential Villa on the platform of the Party that disgraced him out of office in 2015. There is so much darkness in Abuja over why so many presidential candidates have curiously emerged from the South West where there has always been a major candidate who is generally believed to have capacity and war chest to prosecute the #project-2023 (presidential election). It is indeed dark over why Governor Yahaya Bello’s presidential election campaign has suddenly become the most remarkable so far in a survey by our own Channels Television. In the same vein, there is still darkness over the reasons zoning arrangement and policy of the two political parties suddenly collapsed like a pack of cards before the primaries.
In the main, the darkness in Nigeria’s capital may have symbolised darkness over the future of democracy in Nigeria, our Nigeria. It wasn’t clear yet at press time despite declarations of assurances whether some light will drive away darkness over the 2023 hand-over that a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Robert Clark has declared could be affected by consequences of insecurity that isn’t abating. Oh Darkness, why is thy sting resident in Nigeria’s Capital?
Inside Stuff With MARTINS OLOJA ‘The Guardian’, Sunday May 29, 2022, Back Page
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), is angry with the Chief Executive officer of Bioresources Development and Conservative Programme, Professor Maurice Iwu for claiming that the Agency had approved IHP Detox Tea for the cure of COVID-19 patients.
The Director-General of NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, said in a statement that it is only NAFDAC that is mandated by law to make any pronouncement on the quality, safety, and efficacy of all regulated products that showed satisfactory scientific evidence.
Professor Mojisola said that the media reports ostensibly circulated at the instance of the promoters of IHP Detox Tea that claimed that the herbal medicine was the only product approved by the Agency for the treatment of COVID-19, was false.
In a letter to Professor Maurice Iwu, the Director-General of NAFDAC said: “it is worrisome that such an unguided statement is made without the fact that no product can be approved by NAFDAC without satisfactory clinical evidence.”
She explained that three herbal formulations were approved for clinical trial studies during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Mojisola Adeyeye said that while two studies have commenced, including the IHP Detox Tea, the third clinical trial study is yet to start, adding that the IHP Detox Tea clinical trial study at CMU/LUTH and NAUTH, approved for Professor Iwu’s company, was only a pilot study, (that is still ongoing), with a small sample size that is inadequate to make a pronouncement on safety and efficacy of the product.
Professor Mojisola Adeyeye said that the World Health Organisation (WHO) team and other well-meaning individuals in the research space have found the claim of the efficacy of the IHP Detox Tea misleading, and that the Agency is saddled with the responsibility to provide oversight and deter such inaccurate information on regulated products in the country.
According to her, preparatory to the WHO team’s visit to Nigeria for the study, NAFDAC officials on inspection of the clinical trial site of IHP Detox Tea had found some lapses.
“We discovered some seventeen (17) lapses during our inspection visit. We passed the lapses to them as compliance directive to address.”
She said that the company is yet to respond to the identified lapses by the regulatory authority before making the pronouncement that the product is efficacious for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.
She asked Professor Iwu to retract the statement on the same newspapers and any other platforms used for such improper and misleading representation of the IHP Detox Tea study within 48 hours from the receipt of the letter and inform the Agency of the action to avoid further regulatory sanctions.
Responding in a letter dated May 17, 2022, and addressed to the D-G NAFDAC, Professor Iwu admitted that NAFDAC is the only authorised Agency by law, allowed to make any pronouncement on the quality, safety and efficacy of all regulated products with satisfactory evidence.
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A Yobe State High Court has awarded a teenage girl, Hamsatu Abdullahi, a total of N200 million as damages against Nigerian telecommunications giant, MTN and Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company (NELMCO) over a wrong mast connection whose cable electrocuted her, leading to her hand and leg being amputated.
Fighting between people from Mauritania and Libya who are informal gold miners, in a remote part of northern Chad has left about 100 people dead and 40 injured.
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has accused some of his southern colleagues of betrayal, saying that with what they have done at the Party’s Presidential primary in Abuja, people in the South would continue to be slaves.
I was in our nation’s capital, Abuja last week and I wept over that beautiful city because it is fast becoming John Milton’s classic description of another paradise (being) lost. Our remarkable capital where I have practised journalism for thirty-four years is very dark at the moment. I drove in the night from District to District, from Area to Area, and I was shocked that the capital of the federation where the two major political parties are holding their conventions at the moment has become another Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’.
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), is angry with the Chief Executive officer of Bioresources Development and Conservative Programme, Professor Maurice Iwu for claiming that the Agency had approved IHP Detox Tea for the cure of COVID-19 patients.
2 Journalists President Buhari Must Not Forget, By Ibrahim A. Yasallam
What has come to define the personality of President Muhammadu Buhari, apart from his acclaimed integrity and incorruptibility, has been his ability to listen to people, and above all, appreciate the good thing others have done for him.
As a matter of fact, it is believed that about 85 percent of his personal staff (special assistants and others) in the Presidential Villa or outside it, are those who had in one way or the other glued to him at the time he was struggling to rule this country through ballot, and democratically: those who had maintained faith in him at the time some fair weather ones had deserted him.
When he first came out in 2003 to campaign for the Presidency, there were many who are today in his government that really suffered all sort of personal discomforts, including Sarki Abba, Abba Kyari, Ya’u Darazo, and a host of others. Amongst such personalities are two journalists who stuck to him, though they were attached to his campaign team by their organizations, but they also suffered a lot of personal and material discomfort.
The journalists are Mammanga Ibrahim, who was attached to Buhari campaign team by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) and Yusuf Ozi-Usman, who was also attached to the campaign team by Media Trust Limited, publisher of Daily Trust and Sunday Trust.
During the 2003 campaign, there was nothing like day or night. In fact, the campaign team was on the road 24 hours. Members of the team used to sleep either in their vehicles as the vehicles sped through villages, towns and cities across the country or in lodges for just two or three hours at best.
The campaign team, for instance, arrived at Malam Madori in Jigawa State at about 3.00am while the team arrived at the palace of Alafin of Oyo at about 4am. Buhari’s campaign team stopped over to address supporters at a village between Jaji and Kaduna town at about 4.30am before the team proceeded to Jos, arriving in Jos at about 6.58am.
The vehicle conveying the journalists had a near fatal accident at Zaki Biam in Benue State, as the team headed to Wukari in Taraba State. It was around 6.30 in the evening. Buhari was kind enough to stop the convoy, came out of his Prado Jeep to give directive that the injured journalists should be taken to the nearest medical facility for attention. The journalists were promptly treated after which they immediately joined the campaign movement.
The vehicle conveying the journalists was also attacked by supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Mubi, Adamawa State when they left the convoy to rush to a nearby cyber cafe to file stories to their head offices.
Yasallam wrote in from Kaduna.