After weeks of lacerating criticisms over not visiting troubled spots across the country, President Muhammadu Buhari has concluded plans to visit the four States of Benue, Zamfara, Yobe and Rivers States, his office has said.
Over the last few days, an ardent critic, Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State; and former supporter and Buhari’s Vice Presidential candidate in the 2011 elections, Pastor Tunde Bakare, have criticised the President for attending marriage ceremonies and APC meetings in Kano and Daura while neglecting to visit mourning citizens and troubled areas.
In another published material, a public commentator, Dr. Umar Ardo, was less complimentary.
A statement fro. Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, on Tuesday reads: “In view of recent terrorist attacks, criminal activities and communal clashes in some States leading to tragic loss of lives and kidnapping of 110 schoolgirls, President Muhammadu Buhari immediately tasked the Armed Forces and other Security agencies to compile comprehensive reports on the various incidents.
“Having received and studied the Reports, the President has decided to undertake an on the spot assessment of the various occurrences and to meet and console the communities affected.
“From today, March 5, he will visit Taraba, and subsequently Benue, Yobe, Zamfara and Rivers States.
“President Buhari has been receiving daily briefings, and has been in constant touch with the Governors, and has been updated with situation reports.
“The President calls on all Nigerians especially those in the affected areas to cooperate fully with the Security Agencies to enable them curb the spate of crimes, bring those responsible to justice and prevent further occurrences.”
Dr. Ardo, a known associate and former aide to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar wrote:
“Truthfully, and with all sincerity and humility, I cannot understand how President Buhari thinks and reasons. He failed to come to Adamawa and commiserate with the people when 142 of its indigenes were brutally murdered in a single day; yet he can come and watch a contraption in the name of anti-corruption Summit just to massage his ego. He failed to visit Zamfara when 45 of its people were massacred in broad daylight; yet the next day he was in his village wining and dining with people including the governor of Zamfara state without a word from him on the previous day’s horror. He failed to visit Bauchi when 25 of secondary school students died in a ghastly motor accident at Gaya on their way to an excursion. Yet he will be available to give his own son a fatherly welcome on his return from treatment in Germany after a motorcycle accident in Abuja. He failed to visit Yobe since the abduction of over 110 Dapchi school girls; yet he will visit Kano to please Ganduje and Ajimobi by attending their children’s wedding. He claims to be fighting insurgents, yet he cannot stand by soldiers when he opted to visit edo state on the same day that the gallant Col. Abu Ali was buried in Abuja. No better honour would have been done to the slain officer than the presence of the C-in-C at his burial; and no better signal, demonstration, encouragement and morale buster for the Armed Forces than such an act. But to PMB, a visit to Edo is more important.
“These are but just a few among many such callous and insensitive acts of President Buhari since coming into office. No wonder, Nigerians rejected him in three consecutive elections; and now that Nigerians have seen through him and know the kind of person he truly is, the illusion that he was a kind and humane person who cares for and greatly gives hope and reduces the pains of the poor is now removed.
“Clearly, the key actors who brought in Buhari in 2015 after three failed attempts upon this assumption did not take into account the natural law of human character and personality. Unlike the laws of Physics which see every object from the prism of ‘the further the smaller and the closer the bigger’, the reverse seems to be the case in terms of the human character and personality. This, indeed, turned out to be evidently true of General Mohammadu Buhari. Once elected in as President, Buhari came close to people, and all the distant larger-than-life perceptions, assumptions and admirations of him simply vanished. Today, Buhari has become just another ordinary man! The old age did not bring in the expected wisdom in leadership; the high positions earlier held did not improve his understanding of issues of governance; the past experience did not serve as lessons for the present. On the contrary, the old age created an impregnable stubbornly character that is impervious to reason; the high positions earlier held seem to oil the ego of arrogance; while the past experience serves as an impetus to do just as he pleases with power believing that nothing will happen. In consequence, the Nigerian State has today become worst off for it in several areas of governance.
“Given these and many more, it is my contention that Buhari’s presidency is doing more harm than good to the Nigerian State.
“Certainly, something must urgently have to be done to safe this country from an inexorable drift and destruction. Nigerians arise!”