undoubtedly the most frequent former
Nigerian leader in the Villa since the
inception of President Muhammadu Buhari’s
administration. He has visited the President
in his office in broad daylight with
journalists seeing him and he has also
visited Buhari many times in his official
residence away from the prying eyes of
reporters.
Lately, whenever he decides to visit during
working hours, he has been very friendly
with journalists. He will crack jokes with
them and even dance as the case may be.
So as information filtered in on Monday that
the former President would be visiting
Buhari by 1pm, we knew we were in for
another unique treatment by the Ota farmer.
So at about 12.40pm, we moved from our
Press Gallery operational base to the
forecourt of the President’s office in order to
lay ambush for the man.
At exactly 12.54pm, the Service Chief’s Gate
was opened and a black Toyota Sports
Utility Vehicle marked ABJ425 PY was seen
approaching us. The cameramen quickly
focused on the vehicle. As the SUV came to
a stop, a policeman quickly opened the rear
door and Obasanjo, decked in a blue
agbada and cap to match, alighted. One of
his daughters also alighted from the vehicle.
Obasanjo, a retired army general, looked at
the way all the cameras were focused on
him and said, “I like this guard of honour
that you mounted.” He exchanged
pleasantries with us briefly and entered the
President’s office.
While he was still inside, the President of
the world football governing body, FIFA,
Gianni Infantino, who was on a two-day visit
to the country also arrived to meet with the
President. Infantino’s appointment with
Buhari was scheduled for 2pm. So his
arrival gave us the hope that Obasanjo
would soon come out.
Not long after, the former President
emerged from the President’s office and
came directly towards where we were
waiting for him. For us, that was an
indication that he wanted to talk. There
were instances that no matter the effort we
put into it, he would just jump into his car
and wave at us.
On why he visited the President, Obasanjo
reeled out the countries he had visited lately
and how he decided to come and intimate
Buhari of the outcomes of his missions to
those countries. “I am visiting this time
because I have some messages for the
President. Not too long ago, I was in Liberia
and The Gambia and I have messages these
two countries would want me to deliver to
the President. Also, only yesterday
(Sunday), I came back from Seychelles
Island where I attended this year’s Annual
General meeting of Africa Export
Development Bank. And there are aspects of
the proceedings that I think I should update
the President,” he said.
We felt we should utilise his visit to the
maximum by getting good story, so we
asked him to react to the allegations and
counter allegations on alleged budget
padding currently emerging from the House
of Representatives viz-a-viz his earlier
position that the National Assembly is filled
with “rogues and robbers.” We got a
winding answer that, simply put, meant he
stood by his earlier comment.
Obasanjo obviously did not want to answer
any further questions. He showed this by
making a gesture that seemed he wanted to
kiss the microphones. As we laughed, he
turned his back and made to leave. I
succeeded in getting his attention back
when I told him that I suspected that he
was enjoying his trips to different countries.
He stopped, turned back and said,
“Travelling is a good education. What you
will learn about a country by visiting that
country for two or three days, you won’t
learn by reading books.”
Then, the former President rushed towards
his car. As he sat down, just before his
security detail could shut the door, I fired
another salvo. This time, I asked Baba Iyabo
the time that he would consider slowing
down in his activities. He looked towards
my direction again and asked that I repeat
the question as if he did not hear me well. I
suspected that it was a strategy to quickly
prepare an appropriate answer for me. I
also used the opportunity to modify the
question so that it would be milder in case
he wanted to give me a bashing. By the
time I repeated the question, a quick answer
did not come handy, so he resorted to a
prayer. Pointing to me, Obasanjo declared
like a pastor (after all, he studied Theology),
“May God not allow you to slow down now!”
We all shouted a loud “Amen!” as his
vehicle was being driven out of the Villa.
What manner of help from Nigeria to
Germany?
Saturday last week, President Muhammadu
Buhari joined other world leaders to
condemn the shootings which recently
rocked Munich, Germany. According to a
statement by his Special Adviser on Media
and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, the
President sent his condolences on behalf of
the Federal Government to the families and
friends of the victims.
Maybe if the statement had ended at that, it
would not have attracted the kind of
criticism that trailed it. The statement
further quoted the President as assuring the
German government that his (Buhari’s)
government was ready to assist in any way
possible to defeat planners and executors of
such crimes. “The President also assures
the people of Germany that Nigerians as a
people are standing with them at this time
and are ready to assist in any way to defeat
the planners and executors of such crimes,”
it read.
Not a few people were surprised that
Nigeria which still needs all the help it can
muster from friendly nations to tackle its
myriad of problems could be promising to
help the “almighty Germany” to solve its
problem.
It will be recalled that shortly after he was
inaugurated in May 2015, the Group of
Seven (G7) industrialised countries had
invited Buhari to come to its summit with a
wish list. G7 is a forum of the world’s seven
most industrialised countries of United
States, United Kingdom, Canada, France,
Germany (which Nigeria wants to help), Italy
and Japan which meets annually to
deliberate on global economy, governance,
international security and energy policy.
Top on the list of requests the President
presented to the G7 leaders in Germany was
the security issue. One year down the line,
Buhari wanted all stakeholders to believe
that Nigeria is already standing on a good
footing as far as security is concerned to
the point that it can now begin to help
nations like Germany because of the recent
unfortunate incident in Munich.
Will Buhari be sending troops to Germany or
will he be helping the country with
intelligence or military hardware? For me,
that offer of help by Nigeria to Germany was
a case of when one is knocked down by a
big problem, smaller problems will seize the
opportunity to pounce on one. Enjoy your
weekend.
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