Baba welcome: But while you were away…

On behalf of millions of well-meaning Nigerian patriots who had spared no concern and effort in praying for your safe return as the beloved President Muhamadu Buhari, from your recent trip abroad for medical treatment, this column is telling you welcome back home. As the gallant soldier you are, you have gone to hospital, underwent the treatment and now returned to base without your spirit flagging and your resolve to sacrifice for the country waning. You can now share with the legendary Roman Emperor Julius Caesar, his elation with the words “I came, I saw, I conquered”.

You were away for only 50 days, which is actually shorter than the regular vacation periods of many executives in banks and other economic theatres of our national life. Yet the period of your absence seemed like eternity to both your admirers and traducers. For your admirers, your absence spawned a sense of concern over the possibility of your return in good shape to carry on with the reforms in the nation’s public life. As it was before your election as president of the country, the unique selling point of your incumbency remains your image as a leader with guaranteed firmness and forthrightness. This much was amply demonstrated in your first journey to the country’s seat of power in 1983 as military Head of State.

Your return to the exalted office 30 years after; this time as a popularly and democratically elected President, testifies eloquently to the esteem the country holds you in, as a catalyst for the evolution of the country of the common dream of all Nigerians. You can, therefore, betrayed the degenerate state of appreciate the dilemma of your mind of the sponsors. For instance, admirers who naturally feared one rude joke claimed that you for the worst, as their aspirations had opened an electrical materials for a better Nigeria remained shop in London with the name threatened. Their plight was ‘PMB Electricals’. Another joke not assuaged by the rather tepid was in respect of friends asking handling of information in respect each other if ‘Buhari was hiding in of your search for healing outside their’ homes. Yet another was that the shores of the country. That may Osinbajo had appointed you as the not matter anymore now that you new Nigerian High Commissioner are back to base. It is celebration with the specific brief of receiving galore for these admirers, over and entertaining high profile the reality that the steady but visitors from Nigeria to the United tortuous march of the country out Kingdom. However, the one joke of its numerous and seemingly that conjured a rather ominous insurmountable problems, is dimension was the argument that on course. The commendable you were suffering from a ‘twenty overlapping role played by the Vice month in office’ jinx. According to President Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the sponsors, your lasting power in who acted as President in your the seat of power is not destined to absence, will remain an enduring exceed 20 months. As they argued, example of a lieutenant that knows you became military Head of State his place in the scheme of things of Nigeria on December 31st 1983 and acts accordingly without and after 20 months in August upsetting the system. 1985, you were deposed. Likewise,

As for your traducers and in the present circumstances, you scoffers, there is little merit in were sworn into office as President bothering over their enterprise on May 29 2015 and by January since your return has put paid to 2017 you ‘left’ office for medical any vile insinuation they may be treatment. Well you have returned up to. This is not to discount the hale and hearty, thereby shaming patently scurrilous import of the prophets of doom. their expressions, many of which Nevertheless, trusting your were out-rightly outlandish, and traditional sense of humour,

Finally Mr President, as Nigerians welcome you back home, this is hoping that you are fired up and ready to resume work with the characteristic pace of the crusade for a better country. From the experience of the days of your absence it is clear that those for you are more than

those against you. That is good news and given your unmatched understanding of the Nigerian persona, it is not unexpected that you will take such rude jokes, especially given the warped state of mind of the sponsors, in your measured stride as reflective of the daily frustration of Nigerians with the daily grind of life which is not helped by the unhelpful disposition of successive governments. The situation has created the state of indifference of the Nigerian public to government and its promises which in any case are not usually fulfilled. Not surprisingly even among your traducers can be found elements whose grouse with Buhari is not about your person but the fact that you represent a system where government traditionally does not work in the interest of the governed. Moreover, the syndrome has become so entrenched that they do not even believe that you can make a difference; your antecedents notwithstanding. Meanwhile, there is also the truth that many of the traducers are culprits of the series of malfeasances which your administration’s anti-corruption fight has caged.

Incidentally, the compliment of developments while you were away features more than the forgoing and includes instances that may gladden your heart, on the grounds that even in your temporary absence, your campaign recorded significant dividends. Although in the light of the endowments of information technology, the world has become a single village whereby even in London you were abreast with the happenings in the country; that should not deny this author the joy of sharing with you some trending gist that is the stuff of street level gossips. For the affected persons, being public figures and thereby proverbial masquerades, they should not have failed the society by dancing naked on the streets.

For instance, while you were away, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seized dozens of exotic luxury vehicles from the former Comptroller General of Customs Abdullahi Inde Dikko. In the same vein the former Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Power Dr Godknows Igali was relieved by the EFCC of a cache of exotic vehicles believed to have been purchased with funds ‘stolen’ from insurance money for dead workers of the defunct PHCN. However, the icing on the cake was the successful prosecution and conviction of Mr James Ngilari, the former Deputy and later Governor of Adamawa State, to serve a prison term of five years without the option of a fine. What of the discovery of the cash stash of $9.8 million in a Kaduna nondescript slum area, which the former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Mr Andrew Yakubu claims ownership of and is even in court to enforce its return to him. It is also significant that the House of Representatives, apparently concerned by the sheer quantum of the recoveries, has ordered an inventory on such properties. This is in line with your vision for Nigeria.

Finally Mr President, as Nigerians welcome you back home, this is hoping that you are fired up and ready to resume work with the characteristic pace of the crusade for a better country. From the experience of the days of your absence it is clear that those for you are more than those against you. That is good news.