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.
