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President Muhammadu Buhari will on Monday attend the 59th Proclamation of Republic of Niger ceremony in Tahoua, Niger.
The President who turned 75 years on Sunday, however marked the event low keyed with his immediate family, friends and personal aides, who also sent him congratulatory messages
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu said the President, will alongside the Presidents of Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania and Niger, participate in the historic event, held every year on December 18th to commemorate the founding of the Republic of Niger and creation of the Presidency.
After the ceremony, the Nigerian leader will hold bilateral meetings with some of his counterparts before returning to Abuja same day.
President Buhari will be accompanied on the trip by Governors Aminu Masari, Ibrahim Gaidam and Kashim Shettima of Katsina, Yobe and Borno States respectively.
Writing on the President’s 75th birthday, Presidential Spokesman, Femi Adelina, ruminated on his relationship with his boss, saying that the President prefers to be told the ” truth”
In a Special tribute to the President on his face book account titled ” Buhari at 75: Why God kept him alive”, Adelina recalled how the President on his assumption of duties said “Adesina, always tell me the truth. That is what I want from you. In this type of position I have found myself, it is very easy not to be told the truth. People will just tell you what they think you want to hear. But from you, I want the truth. As a General, I may argue, but please argue with me. Tell me the truth always.”
Adesina recalled how he went to inform the President about the hunger in the land and the complaint by Nigerians and the reassuring response he got from the President
“Mr President, there is hunger in the land, and people are complaining. I know government is doing its best, but I just want you to be aware,” I said.
Mr President responded: “I know, I know. I am aware of what people are going through. I have people in my own constituency back home, and I know the messages they send to me. But it is a passing phase. Our country was vandalized, and we found ourselves in this problem. But now that we are here, we will do our best. We will bring change to this country, and we are already seeing it in agriculture. This period of hunger will pass.”
“It was prophetic. The season of hunger will pass, and is indeed passing. Anyone that is honest will admit that things are looking up in Nigeria. The ravening clouds shall no longer be victorious. They shall not long possess the sky”
” I went away with one conviction from that night’s meeting: the poor matter very much to this President. He is not the type that people would tell they had no bread to eat, and he would tell them to eat cake instead. This is a friend of the talakawas, a man who loves ordinary people, and who wants their station in life to be improved. And those people know it. That is why they gravitate towards him, and repose so much confidence in him. He is their hero. Our hero”
“President Buhari turns 75 years today. But some six months back, how many could confidently say this day would come for the ramrod straight man from Daura? How many believed the President would come out of the severe medical challenge that had confronted him? It all began as a routine vacation cum medical check up in January, and few days after, the rumour mill was on overdrive. The challenge lasted till August, before the President returned home finally, and since then, he has been looking better by the day. Each time you now see him, there is a fresher glow, and you cannot but give glory to God on his behalf”
“But why was President Buhari kept alive, so much so that he is turning 75 today? Why did he pass through the sea of infirmity, and he was not swept away? Why did he pass through inferno, and the fire did not kindle against him? Big question. I don’t have the answer, but I can hazard some guesses, based on divine principles”
Adesina who also noted that the “President is concerned about Nigerians, particularly the helpless, the ordinary people” said these were the people he “dedicated his life to serving”
” When he was near unto death, those ordinary people besieged Heaven with prayers. That Christian hymn says “dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.” adding that “God truly answered”
