By: Tonye Barcanista
I read the statement credited to Presidential Spokesman Segun Adesina advocating that President Muhammadu Buhari, his boss should seek reelection in 2019 and even assured him of victory.
One of the problems with public administration in this country is the attitude of those around the corridors of power and their shameless sycophancy. It is only a sycophant that will suggest that a president, that not only failed woefully within two years of assuming power but also is caught up with the challenges that comes with his age as a 74 years old.
FEMI STATEMENT INSULTING ON NIGERIANS
I find it insulting on the intelligence of Nigerians that instead of the President Aide to advice his boss to consider bowing out in honor in 2019 if he wouldn’t for the sake of his ego step down now, Femi instead is already pushing him to seek reelection, thereby exposing the President to further ridicule and a potential disgraceful defeat.
For the sake of posterity, the President has been battling ill-health since the first quarter of 2016. He has gone on medical trips to London for a record 5 times and spent a cumulative 82 days for this cause between the said period and now, the longest being the 50 days he spent in the first quarter of this year 2017.
WE CAN’T CONTINUE TO FUND HIS MEDICAL BILL:
In September 2016 alone, Buhari media Aide Shehu Garba admitted that the President spent a whopping N20,000,000 to treat his ear alone, even though Nigerians believed that the money expended was in the region of £10-£50Million, yet the quoted amount is too exorbitant when one consider the high level poverty rate in the country and the fact that N1,000,000 is considered a luxury for an average Nigerian. More worrisome is the fact that the President men never showed invoices or receipt to back up their N20,000,000 claim.
Only a couple of days ago, government spokesman Alhaji Lai Mohammed came out to tell Nigerians bluntly that the administration will not disclose what was expended on the President in his 50 days medical sojourn in the UK, a statement any rational being will consider insulting considering that the administration came on the change mantra and pledged transparency, as well as the existing Freedom of Information Act that was passed and practised during the PDP administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
We cannot afford to be paying from the meagre resources of the country for the unending health challenges of the President. It is a shame that even the President admitted of returning to London to continue where his doctors stopped and Nigerians money in the range of millions will be expended on that trip. Such a lifestyle cannot be sustained for another 2 years not to talk of an additional 4 years.
BUHARI’S 2019 EXIT IS SACROSANCT
I wish to add that Nigeria constitution grants executive power on the President, it therefore means that the President must up and fit to perform his mandate, there is no room for part time or ceremonial presidency in Nigeria and we can’t smuggle it in. It is either the President quit and face his health challenge or he remains in power and honorably bow out at the expiration of his mandate in 2019, this is what Nigerians expect of him, this is what is fair to him.
The President must bow out in 2019, he has made history by leading the country as both a military man and a civilian, he has made history has the first opposition politician to defeat a sitting president and ruling party in Nigeria, but he has largely failed in his duties, his health is posing a big challenge both to him and to the purse of Nigeria, the only honourable thing is for him to exit after the expiration of his term in 2019. Anything other than this will lead to his disgrace at the poll in 2019. Nigerians are prepared for this patriotic task.
May God Bless Us All And Bless Nigeria will
By: Tonye Barcanista
