By Godwin Etakibuebu
I am seeking your permission to this so that you will be aware that l am talking to Madam. There is more assured safety for me, in choosing this route, as bypassing you to talk to Madam might be dangerous, for a reason.
Yes, the talk we [your wife and l] are having, may be passing through this public medium though, you might meet her reading this message in the “other room”, and that might keep you wondering ‘how this journalist’s letter arrived this room”.
Now that your permission has been obtained l can commence the talk with her, without any fear of either the Director General of the DSS, the IGP of the Nigeria Police Force, or even both of them, coming after me for questioning and possible detention. I know you enough Sir that you are not that irrational person to give such order to get me questioned or even arrested. But those you “extra loyal officers” can do anything and at this age, the detention quarter that is “comfortable” for the types of Omoyele Sowore or Sambo Dasuki can never be good for me. So, thank you for granting the permission.
Madam Aisha Buhari, permit me to introduce myself to you as one of your dedicated fans and admirers, albeit a devoted one for that matter. I am your fan not for anything cynic nor for selfish reason. Neither is my dedication to you has anything doing with [my] anticipation of any hope of “harvest”, either now or in the future. But, until very recently – in fact just a few days ago, l respectful remained dedicated to you for what l thought you stood for.
I saw a very brilliant woman in you and that quality of brilliance remains. Nothing can take it away from you and I pray that any sickness which will tamper with your brain will never come close to you all the days of your life.
You are beautiful and elegant and l am not being exaggeratedly maneuvering about it or being complimentary by saying that, because that is exactly whom you are.
Your audacity in expressing yourself is not a common property of the majority, albeit women from the geographical location of your place of birth. Ipso facto, you will remain one in a million amongst women. On this, you are a woman of substance. You spoke your heart out at most times when silence would have been the preferred choice. You are so daring that some of your Fulani and Fulfulde brothers in the Villa once referred to you as “that suicide bomber from Adamawa”.
There are many other attributes of grace and favour that your Heavenly Creator bestowed on you which shall always endear you to hearts of many. You are living in Wole Soyinka [our own Nobel Laurate in literature]’s world of his iconic writing, as you fitted appropriately to the description of the character in one of his books, captioned “The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny”. You have spoken against your husband and his government many times.
It is for these glaring qualities that converted yours sincerely to become your admirer and many times without number, has defended most of your actions, ditto your person, on this page. However, some of your recent comments and actions have appeared more than just the ordinary roaring waves of the Ocean. And this has given your most addicted follower cause to rethink and re-evaluate your true personality. Let us go into those recent actions of yours that is compulsorily forcing the option of rethinking your person.
Let us start from the very latest, albeit your comments on the Hate Speech Bill and the Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulations Bill first, before we zero down to your judgmental comment/verdict on top government officials and State Governors at the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) General Assembly meeting in Abuja, this last Friday.
The first thing that must be conceded to you Madam is your constitutionally guaranteed freedom of Speech and your alienable right of association as enshrined in section 39 of the 1999 Constitution as amended. It means that when you “quickly” agree with those introducing these draconian Bills, mostly the one prescribing “death by hanging” for offenders, you were merely operating within the ambit of your freedom of speech.
However, the Nigerian people were disturbed a little about that [your] pronouncement because the Aisha Buhari they knew wouldn’t have jumped into that boat by reminding them that a law like that operates in China without adding “that in China death penalty is also the faith of those that are found guilty of corruption”.
Or Madam is it that you don’t know that any government official found guilty of corruption in China faces death by hanging? If only you had added that citation, everyone would have hailed you as their typical iconic heroine as all would have seen it as the most positive way in which you are helping your husband to fight corruption and stopping same from killing Nigeria.
That would have mobilized nearly all Nigerians behind you in fishing out all those known to have corruptly enriched themselves, both in the past and the present; because the corrupt ones are not in short-supply in the present dispensation and this would have included your former ADC –CSP Sani Baban-Inna [involved in that N2.5 billion fraud], and escort them to the hangman after trial and conviction.
But for your failure to add this most essential ingredient to the cooking of the soup, Nigerians are now skeptical and suspicious of your choice in backing Hate Speech Bill in isolation, without bringing corrupt government officials to the “arena of death by hanging”.
Let us move to your statement on Friday, November 29, 2019, in Abuja, where you came out your typical self – the smoking Aisha. Madam, what you said on Friday, like l earlier mentioned, was typically you, speaking the truth to the Authority in defense of the Nigerian people, fearlessly.
The people will always appreciate you for such boldness in defending them at all times. But something about your action which was wrongly displayed a few days somewhere else before your speech on Friday did not click. I will tell you that thing Madam but let us listen to your message to the dealers we unfortunately have in this country, parading themselves as leaders, albeit political dealers.
“People cannot afford potable water in this country while we have governors,” you said, on Friday, at the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) General Assembly meeting in Abuja, when emphasizing the evil and calamity Nigerian people are suffering from inept governance. You were not done yet as you took further audacious steps by calling on these ruthless and callous political leaders by name. Listen again to what you said.
“We should either fasten our seatbelt (meaning tighten our belts) or do the needful or we will all regret it very soon because, at the rate, things are going, things are getting completely out of hand. The VP (Yemi Osinbajo) is here, some ministers are here, they are supposed to do justice to the situation.”
But wait a moment Madam. Why did you not mention your husband’s name? Are all those you mentioned not serving under your husband – the President? That must have been a great omission because the bulk stops on your husband’s table and not that of Yemi Osibanjo. Let us leave this interrogation to continue with the running discussion.
Whoever says it is easy to roll out these facts while looking directly at the faces of the predators; which is what our political leaders are, would not be saying the truth. But you, being the real Lioness that originated from Adamawa and coming into anchorage in the Aso Rock Villa, leaves no one in doubt of what you can do. Except . . .
. . . that a few days ago, you were in Lokoja, the capital of Kogi State, begging the traumatized and battered people of that State; a people so dehumanized by a wicked and heartless governor, to vote the same governor back to power. You even added that they should forgive Yaya Bello; your adopted son maybe, and vote for him again. And not once during that campaign did you “beg your adopted son not to inflict unjustifiable but everlasting punishment” on the good people of that State.
Madam, that visit and campaign in Kogi State; which has been adequately rewarded as your preciously adopted son has returned back to power as the Governor of the State – courtesy of bullet and blood, would be seen as betrayal of the veracity of good conscience that went to equity with dirty hands, in the castigation of the governors and other top government officials. Let it be made boldly clear Madam that the argument here is not against the truth you spoke to Authority in Abuja on Friday because what you said to those “notorious men of power” remained the golden gospel truth. The point being made here is this: having known what they are – the Governors, how can you now justify what you did in Kogi State in sustaining the very worst of the worse of these same people into continuity?
The questions that you should attempt answering are these:
One, did you say that the “People cannot afford potable water in this country while we have governors”?
Two, did you say that “We should either fasten our seatbelt (meaning tighten our belts) or do the needful or we will all regret it very soon because, at the rate, things are going, things are getting completely out of hand. The VP (Yemi Osinbajo) is here, some ministers are here, they are supposed to do justice to the situation”?
Madam, my sincere advice to you is that, given all the good qualities God has endowed you with, you can help your husband; who is very sincere in all purposes and intents in leaving a better Nigeria for future generation, and help him in pulling this country from the doom of miss-governance because time for history-recording is approaching us speedily.
You can do it and tint toward that fast because posterity will inevitably be here than most of us are thinking. God bless you mightily as you embark on this onerous assignment, more for the sake of future generations, which include your children’s children.
Be assured of my esteemed regards.
Godwin Etakibuebu; a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.
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