Nigeria is going through the worst period of her life as a result of lack of courage by citizens to speak out and speak up. Most politicians are afraid of falling out of favour with their benefactors and as a result they allow mediocrity and maladministration to fester in the country.
Two women have been able to prove that not all Nigerians are lily-livered. Despite their closeness to President Muhammadu Buhari, they have looked him straight in the eye and said, “You are not doing well”. They chose the same channel to communicate their feelings – the BBC Hausa Service.
First, it was Aisha, the First Lady, the very wife of the President. Second, it was Aisha, a member of the kitchen cabinet of Buhari. A woman who contested governorship in Taraba, failed, and was rehabilitated by the APC government. Both women are beautiful and have a calm disposition. But when they speak, they thunder.
In October 2016, the first lady had said she may not back her husband’s re-election in 2019 unless he shakes up his cabinet.
In an interview with the BBC, Mrs. Buhari said the president “does not know” most of the top officials he appointed to office.
She said that Buhari had not indicated whether or not he would seek re-election, and that he had not told his family too.
“He is yet to tell me (if he’ll seek re-election) but I have decided as his wife, that if things continue like this up to 2019, I will not go out and campaign again and ask any woman to vote like I did before. I will never do it again,” she said.
The First Lady said some of the president’s appointees did not share the vision of his party and were appointed because of the influence of a “few people”.
“Some people are sitting down in their homes folding their arms only for them to be called to come and head an agency or a ministerial position,” she said.
“The president does not know 45 out of 50, for example, of the people he appointed and I don’t know them either, despite being his wife of 27 years,” she also said.
Aisha’s interview and the issues raised rattled both her husband and the APC family.
Now, when it appeared that the Presidency had overcome that shock, another bombshell was thrown Wednesday by a cabinet member, Aisha Alhassan, who also confessed her loyalty, preference and love for Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president and chieftain of the APC.
“Atiku is my godfather even before I joined politics. And again, Baba Buhari did not tell us that he is going to run in 2019,” said Alhassan, who is nicknamed ‘Mama Taraba’.
“Let me tell you today that if Baba said he is going to contest in 2019, I swear to Allah, I will go before him and kneel and tell him that ‘Baba I am grateful for the opportunity you gave me to serve your government as a minister, but Baba just like you know, I will support only Atiku because he is my godfather. If Atiku said he is going to contest,” she said.
She was not perturbed about the possibility of losing her job for rooting for Atiku in 2019.
“If because of what I said, I am sacked, it will not bother me because I believe in Allah that my time has elapsed that is why. Baba is not a mad man like those calling for my sack. They have been sending it and spreading that if Baba sees this I will be sacked,” she said.
Reacting to Alhassan’s observation, Femi Fani-Kayode, a former minister of Aviation, said the statement was an indication that “things have fallen apart” for the Buhari administration.
In a tweet via his Twitter handle, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), chieftain wrote: “When @MBuhari’s minister publicly says she will support someone else and not him in the 2019 election, you know that things have fallen apart.”
A public affairs analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity said the observation of Minister Alhassan may have been precipitated by the level of lies and deceit in the system.
“I must say that there is high level of insincerity in government of the day. Even the ministers who know the truth also tell a lot of lies in the open. Perhaps Aisha Alhassan must have seen through the lies and the shenanigans going on in the corridors of power and decided to vote against any attempt to bring back the President to power, who knows,” the analyst said.
Observers say that the promised “Change” is yet to be felt, except a few spark in the area of war against graft.
“The Buhari administration and APC must have felt the level of discontent in the polity and decided to throw in another huge confusion with the claim that Nigeria has exited recession. It is sheer gambit to hoodwink innocent and unsuspecting citizens into believing that there is something positive happening. There is nothing to cheer about. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) just played on the gullibility of Nigerians by claiming that Nigeria was out of recession. The report even flabbergasted the presidency,” Kayode Yusuf, a retired civil servant, said.
“Didn’t you hear the President’s comment on it? He himself was stupefied by the report that in his reaction, he said the real impact of coming out of recession will be better felt when ordinary Nigerians experience a change in their living conditions. He said ‘until coming out of recession translates into meaningful improvement in people’s lives, our work cannot be said to be done’. So, they are just playing on our intelligence and taking us for granted,” said Yusuf.
Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president and chieftain of the ruling party, advised that his party should not go into a frenzy of ecstasy over purported exit from recession.
“When all Nigerians can eat three square meals, that’s when the real recession ends. We have work to do,” Atiku said.
So, by declaring her support for Atiku ahead of 2019, Alhassan must have been disappointed, like many other Nigerians, at the way the current administration is going about the business of governance.
Zebulon Agomuo
