The last week at the Aso Rock was not as bad as most people thought it would be. Even though the rodents were still being chased out of the President’s office, life returned.
For the second week since his resumption, President Muhammadu Buhari worked from his home office at the Aso Rock while the terminators continued in their efforts to kill or chase out the remaining rats and cockroaches. At least that is what one of his aides made us believe penultimate week.
Buhari, 74, returned to the country two weeks ago after spending 104 days in London receiving treatment for an undisclosed ailment. Since his return, the President has worked from home sparking controversies about the true state of his health and his capacity to handle the affairs of the country.
Well, this is really about my observation about the state of his health and the improved appearances he made. Unfortunately, not much has been done in terms of efforts to change things since his return.
Remember he said he is happy about the current state of the economy? Story for another day.
Despite not working from the oval office Buhari’s return brought with it some sort of renewed energy especially to the West wing as journalists prefer to call his side of the Presidential Villa which hitherto lay abandoned. Contrary to speculations that the President is still frail and perhaps too sick to run the government, every time he showed up for an event he looked stronger. I think this may be a good place to start.
Well, many Nigerians still believe that the President was forced to return to the country because of the protests both in Nigeria and London and which was probably threatening to spread but it is looking like he was actually ready to return.
When he made his debut appearance at the Council chambers for the first time in about four months I did not know the reaction that followed. Ministers along the visiting D’Tigress, Nigeria’s female basketball team cheered. The girls had the look of awe and admiration for their President but I just could not read the expression on the faces of the ministers. Fear? I have no idea but it is not impossible.
The scenario that played on my mind was one that said when your father is back and you know that your elder sibling submitted a list of your gaffes to him, you smile carefully. Let me leave this alone.
Back to our main line of discourse. Each time I have seen the President since his return, he seems to be getting stronger by the day and come to think of it, for his age and the current situation I do not why many expect so much.
At the council chambers last Wednesday, it felt like it was a show of some sort. After the President walked in we sang the national anthem and as is the tradition, he asked a minister to offer the Muslim
prayers. The prayers went on for a while and some of us began to wonder what was going on keeping a convalescing man standing for that long. After the Muslim prayers, the President asked a Christian
minister to offer prayers and thankfully he just said a cut and paste prayer “God please answer all the prayers offered by my Muslim colleague, amen”. The hall went up in laughter, I think they felt the same way about the President standing for too long as everyone looked relieved when the prayer ended.
The minister of sports, Solomon Dalung made his remarks and then the President made his own really short remarks, I will come back to that.
When the team presented the trophy to the President, he collected and held it with his left hand for a while before handing it over. He stood for a while posing for pictures sandwiched by the girls, the Vice President and the team officials alongside the minister of sports.
Later that same evening, we got a statement saying that the President decided to make the long walk to his Daura residence from the helipad.
What do you make of that?
Before you ask me to get to my point, it was encouraging that every day at least there was something on the President’s schedule and I
almost got to believe that my fears may be unfounded after all. I had feared that the pace of things would slow down like the last time if
they forced the President to prematurely return to the country. Well, I must say he is actually trying to keep up with the pace of things.
Who has his many appearances helped? I think it has some form of calming and stabilising effects, knowing that the head is in place or the lion king in that new parlance is on seat definitely sends a signal.
Activities around the villa also picked up dramatically with new constructions going on in many parts of the environment. Curiously, they chose this time to also make the environment disability friendly and please do not ask me what jolted them to take this decision because I too have no idea.
After the news broke that the President would be working from home because his office had been invaded or infested by rodents, I noticed some sort of rehabilitation works going on around the courtyard just in front of the Council Chambers, the entrance to the main admin block had also been done and I decided to ask questions. I gathered that they were trying to make the vicinity disability friendly and I asked why now? Of course, did I expect an answer from the masons? Well, maybe not but I checked it out on Friday and all was neatly done.
I have finally come to terms with the fact that we are going to be on this slow pace for a while, thankfully things may not ground to a halt on the West Side. We cannot wish it away, the President is back and we pray that this time he is back for good.
Elizabeth Archibong
