By Bolaji Tunji
On
Monday evening, news filtered in that newly sworn in American president, Donald
Trump would hold a telephone conversation with holidaying or recuperating
(depending on the information you are working with) President Mohammadu Buhari.
Apart from the surprise announcement, Nigerians were equally eager to see
whether the conversation would hold and not another of the propaganda that
Nigerians have been fed with in recent time, to prove that the president was
and is still ‘hale and hearty’, according to the acting President, Professor
Yemi Osinbajo
 |
| President Buhari and APC National Leader, Tinubu |
The
conversation eventually took place. As with everything that had been
subjected to social media scrutiny and query by Nigerians, doubts were raised
about whether President Buhari actually spoke with the American president.
Nigerians had cause to doubt whether a telephone conversation took place. Weeks
after the president left the country on an extended 10-day leave, which was
supposed to culminate with him seeing his doctors, the issue that
dominated the cyberspace especially when the president decided to extend his
stay without a clear cut date of return was his health status. Information had
filtered in that the president had passed on. It wasn’t as if anybody was
wishing him dead, but his health status had been shrouded in so much secrecy
that it was difficult to know what to believe.
Who
would blame our people? The experience with former President Musa Yar’Adua is
still fresh in the memory. After several weeks and months of hide and seek, the
citizen eventually got to know that President Yar’Adua was dead. It was a fact
that could no longer be hidden.
So with President Buhari, Nigerians were still unconvinced that he was still
alive. They thought they were still being taken for a ride in the usual way, in
spite of assurances from different quarters.
But I
have issues with the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Buhari. Even
when those who surrounds the president are saying differently, Nigerians needed
assurance from the president himself, they wanted to know the problem with him.
They found it difficult to accept the information from Aso Rock media managers.
You can’t blame them, once beaten, twice shy as it’s often said. All they
wanted was assurance, they wanted to hear from the president. It was a simple
enough thing to arrange.
They
wanted the president to speak to them. They wanted to see him ‘live’. But they
were disappointed. The APC, the president and his media minders didn’t see any
need for it. It was a display of sheer arrogance, that the people do not
matter. It is surprising that the president equally decided to keep quiet and
didn’t feel the need to speak with the people, unless Nigerians are still not
being told the entire truth about his health status. You could have a lot of
people visitin. It does not indicate anything. People have visited some people
like that they pay their last respect? It does not mean everything is perfect.
