We in Greenbarge Reporters heartily welcome President Muhammadu Buhari from his, all added together, 14-day break from the hassles of running the difficult affairs of a country like Nigeria with diversity in all its ramifications.
The President left the shores of Nigeria for London, the United Kingdom on Monday, June 6, 2016, initially for 10-day break, during which time he was advised to see an ear expert for his ear infection.
As a born-again democrat who has learnt fast the tenets of democracy, one of which is openness, he made his health status public before he took off. And like in democracy, such disclosure became the major topic of discussion or even controversy while it lasted.
What has become clear from the scenario that played out over President Buhari’s 14-Day leave and his health matter is the issue of transparency, which did not happen in the previous regimes, safe for the period of late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua. This was what many people took for granted.
As a matter of fact, the previous Presidents had, one way or the other, gone on break like the one Buhari just undertook, but never made it public. Worst of all, some of them had even gone on more serious health related problems quietly without anybody knowing and therefore, never elicited public discourse as to the propriety of such move. Indeed, one or two of the past Presidents had even gone out of the country on birthday, and therefore dinning and drinking jamborees without anyone raising an eyebrow because it was not made public.
Of course, if President Buhari had quietly gone on his 10-day leave and or not disclosing what he would be doing while on such leave, no one would have known anything about it. Or, every other thing that would be said about it would have been speculative, yet Nigerians took his transparency as part of his weakness.
[quote]if President Buhari had quietly gone on his 10-day leave and or not disclosing what he would be doing while on such leave, no one would have known anything about it. Or, every other thing that would be said about it would have been speculative, yet Nigerians took his transparency as part of his weakness.[/quote]
As we said earlier, this happens to be a country where everybody claims to be right even though most of them are liars; this is a country where one issue is seen and interpreted in thousand ways by thousand people and each person claiming to be right. This is the country where jobless people, for lack of anything to do, would lock themselves in the confine of their rooms to send hate-messages and blatant lies clothed in make-belief facts across the internet to the whole world about what they know not about the President, simply because they do not like his face.
This is a country with upcoming youths unfortunately imbibing the culture of materialism and steel minds to kill or maim anyone standing on their way to attaining such materials, mostly in crooked way.
Therefore, this is a country where different ethnic and tribal groups in different regions and states see and discuss matter of national importance from the point of view of their ethnicity, tribe and even religions.
This is the country that Buhari’s transparency, even about his health status, has generated suspicion, doubts, insinuations, hate-talks, pure lies told to elicit hatred and therefore create a picture of confusion.
How transparent President Buhari and his handlers could have been other than disclosing the exact thing that happens, either about the country or about himself? [myad]
