76th Birthday: ”It Will Take A While Before Nigeria Will See Another Political Leader Like Buhari” – Femi Adesina

76th Birthday: ”It Will Take A While Before Nigeria Will See Another Political Leader Like Buhari” – Femi Adesina

Today, December 17, President Buhari turns a year older. His Special
Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, wrote this piece, listing
the reasons people love and admire President Buhari.

Read below

“That’s
him, that’s him,” the two old women, wrinkled and bent with age,
exclaimed. You could see wonderment and fulfillment in their eyes. And
as if on cue, they both began to cry.

It was in Bauchi
earlier this year. President Muhammadu Buhari was visiting to
commiserate with the people on the ravages of windstorm, which had
destroyed many homes and other property. As he waved at the tumultuous
crowd, the two women saw him, perhaps for the first time in their lives.
And so great was their satisfaction, their pure joy, that they began to
cry.

That is the kind of emotion that courses through
millions and millions of Nigerians when they behold their President, the
honest man (mai gaskiya), the man of integrity, man of accountability,
one whose word you can take to the bank. The man who loves them, and
they love and trust in return.

Don’t misunderstand me.
Not all estimated 196 million Nigerians share this sentiment. Not
possible. There are those who are passionately opposed to the President.
They are a very vocal minority, who abhor his integrity, hate his sense
of accountability, and even want him dead. But we are not talking about
those who Fela Anikulapo-Kuti called “opposite people.” On this day of
his 76th birthday, we are talking of the teeming masses who love Buhari,
and who can go to the ends of the earth for him.

Why do
they love Buhari? Or better still, why do we love Buhari? The old, the
young, men, women, boy, girl, the strong, the infirm. Why do we love the
tall man from Daura? For many reasons.

I have said it
before, and say it again. It will take a while before Nigeria will see
another political leader with such ability to pull an unsolicited and
uninduced crowd like Muhammadu Buhari. Anywhere he goes, he doesn’t have
to procure the crowd. They turn out in their numbers to see and hear
him. They will trek from Africa to China, walk from Cape Town to Cairo,
all to see, hear and cheer the man they love.

Why?

Many
reasons. He is an honest man. My father, that stern educationist, who
ran the home and the schools he administered with an iron hand, used to
tell us: “Honesty is the best policy.” That was true over 50 years ago
when he drummed it into our ears, and it is still true today. And will
remain true tomorrow, and forever. That is why we love Buhari. He is an
honest man, who will tell the truth to his own hurt.

At a
recent meeting with governors, while discussing the seemingly knotty
issue of minimum wage, the President told them to level with him. He
said he knew that general elections were by the corner, “but I don’t
like to lie to anybody. I will still like to tell Nigerians the truth,
and nothing but the truth, as to what we can truly afford to pay.”
Consultations are still ongoing.

Some people will give
you fibs, just because they want to hoodwink you, and get your votes.
They will announce that they’ve increased the salaries of fictitious
workers, even when truly they are owing many of their employees. But not
President Buhari. Nothing for him is a matter of life and death. Truth
is the best thing in a man’s keeping. Make yourself an honest man, and
there is one rascal less in the world. That is why we love the man.

Accountability.
I will never forget a promise Buhari made to the crowd at a campaign
rally in Lagos in 2011, when he ran with Pastor Tunde Bakare of Latter
Rain Assembly. Two honest men. “Every kobo that comes into the treasury
will be used for the good of Nigerians.” That’s the accountable man, who
would not dip his hands into the treasury for private gains, who will
not line his pocket at the expense of the people. That is why we love
him.

Just over a week ago, I met a man who was an
accountant at the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), when the then Gen. Buhari
was chairman. Executive Chairman, who could do anything he wanted, since
the place was awash with billions of petrol money.

“I
told him his salary would be N200,000 monthly,” the man recounted. “He
said it was too much, since he still drew pension from public coffers as
a retired General and former head of state. I don’t know how he
calculated it, but he said he would rather be paid N84,000 monthly. And
that was what he earned.”

Yet some people say don’t
follow this honest man. Till he has one tooth left in his mouth, and is
bent double over his walking stick, we will, no matter what they say.
Honesty is still the best policy. Today, tomorrow, and forever.

See
all the positions he has held in this country. Governor of North-east,
then made up of what is now six states. Minister of Petroleum for over
three years. Head of State for 20 months. Chairman of PTF for many
years. Yet he remains a man of modest means. That is why we love him.

In
the early days of this administration, when oil prices had crashed to
as low as 39 dollars per barrel (from as high as 115 in preceding years,
stabilizing at over $100 for a long time, yet we had no savings, no
reserves), it was usually a spectacle to see the President and the then
Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, seated and apportioning funds for the
week. Depending on what was in the coffers, they prioritized spending,
just like traders with low capital base.

Nigeria had been
run into a hole. No reserve for the rainy day, and we were being badly
beaten by the rain. Yet salaries must be paid as at when due. At least
27 states could not meet their obligations, till President Buhari gave
them a lifeline. And then, one day, a counsel was given at a meeting:
“This is the time to ideally cut the strength of the federal civil
service by at least half, as we may not be able to carry the load for
long.” It made a lot of fiscal sense. But to the President, it was
nonsense. “If it lies within my powers, I will ensure that no single
person loses his or her job. Yes, it may be the right thing to do,
looking at the state of our finances, but I won’t do it,” President
Buhari said.

And you say we shouldn’t love this
President? We will love him till Africa and China meet. A confederacy
has arrayed itself against the honest man. A crooked confederacy.
Anybody that is anybody in the pantheon of questionable character is
there. Are Nigerians fools? After their eyes have been opened, will they
willfully afflict themselves with blindness again? Not on their lives!
The country will never go back to the slave market. Not after we have
known prudence, experienced accountability, and we are are inching out
of the morass in which we were soused and marooned.

For
more than five decades, mere lip service was paid to diversification of
the economy. But we remained a mono-product country. Oil. So, whenever
the price of oil crashed in the international market, we simply crashed
with it. Now gradually, and inexorably, we are on the road to a
diversified economy. Wonders are being done in agriculture. Mining is
flexing muscles. Manufacturing is showing prospects. All in less than
four years.

What of infrastructure? The sum of N2.7
trillion spent in two years. The roads are roaring to life. The rail is
snaking in. Power is powering back. Wonders are being unfolded in
different parts of the country. And we shouldn’t love this President? We
will, no matter what the naysayers say.

Hear pensioners rejoice: This is the best administration we’ve had since the advent of Contributory Pension Scheme 14 years ago.

Governor
Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State spoke at a meeting of governors with the
President last Friday. He said since the creation of the state, this was
the first time pensioners were being paid, adding that pension
liabilities have been cleared by about 40%. Just because there is a
President that cares.

Former Nigeria Airways workers.
Railway workers. Former Biafran policemen. And many others, have had
their pensions paid. And we shouldn’t love the ‘birthday man?’ They
should tell it to the marines.

When you have a heart for
men, it is God himself that keeps you alive. We have seen a practical
demonstration in President Buhari. From the brink of death early 2017,
there is now an unmistakable glow in him, evidence of good health from
the inside. It is God at work. No wonder wicked people came with the
idiocy of Jubril of Sudan. Otiose. Hollow. Products of addled minds.
That was why we ignored them, till the President himself responded to a
question from Nigerians in Poland two weeks ago.

And you
know what? Our love for this President is at no cost. No charge. Whether
we work for him, and for him, or we don’t, the real cost of our love is
no charge.

Do you know that classic song, No Charge,
made popular by Shirley Caesar and Sonia Spence? It told the story of a
small boy who decided to charge his mum for all that he considered
favours he had done her.

“For mowing the yard, five
dollars. And for making my own room this week, one dollar For going to
the store, 50 cents And playing with little brother while you went
shopping, 25 cents, Taking out the trash, one dollar, And for getting a
good report card, five dollars

For raking the yard, two
dollars, Total owed, fourteen seventy-five.” The woman looked at her
son, standing there expectantly. Then she collected the paper from him,
and wrote on it:

“For the nine months I carried you,
Growing inside me, no charge, For the nights I sat up with you, Doctored
you, prayed for you, no charge, For the time and tears, and the cost
through the years, no charge. When you add it all up, the full cost of
my love is no charge.”

For millions upon millions of
Nigerians who love this President, it is an unconditional love. The full
cost of our love is no charge. Happy birthday, Mr President.