Few months ago, President Buhari said he is not in a hurry to do anything, noting that he would rather reflect and continue with his clear conscience. This he said at the presidential villa while hosting leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to a dinner.
“I keep telling people that while I was in uniform, quite reckless and young, I got all the ministers and governors, and put them in Kirikiri. I said they were guilty until they could prove their innocence. I was also detained too. I decided to drop the uniform and come back. Eventually, I am here. So really, I have gone through it over and over again. This is why I am not in a hurry virtually to do anything. I will sit and reflect and continue with my clear conscience,” he said. He, however, stressed that he was very much aware of the problems in the country and that he would always reflect on the historical antecedents before he got to power.
Buhari also said leaders of APC are closer to Nigerians than he is, as he has been locked up at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja. “don’t allow anybody to talk of ethnicity, it is not true,” he said, dismissing insinuations in some quarters that he is playing ethnic politics, especially with appointments.
Here we have it, he said it himself, “I am not in a hurry to do virtually anything”. So when next you think about why things are not working in this country, just remember that over the years, we have had presidents who are not in a hurry to do ANYTHING, hoping that they hold on to power as much as they can.
Ibrahim Babangida spent eight years as head of state at Aso Rock. He pledged at different times in his regime to return power to “the people”. But he never did. Somehow, he always found a way to dribble himself out of the maze of his own mendacity. IBB was eventually forced out of power. Then came Sani Abacha, who claimed he wanted to restore order in the country, after which he would give way for a democratic government. Abacha became Nigeria’s most brutal dictator. Olusegun Obasanjo, out of prison became president in 1999. He spent eight years in power, but suddenly felt he was the best thing that happened to the country and so wanted a third term. Umaru Musa Yaradua, a good man, was dying and even died, but the forces in Aso Rock still wanted his ghost to hold on to power.
Even though I am spiritual, but not superstitious, I am tempted to believe there must be something supernatural about power and closeness to it. Amidst the tales of the spiritual side of the Villa, (stories were told about how convoys ran into ditches and lives were lost), these leaders would rather die in the villa than be out of it. A former presidential aide even attested to the fact that while he was in Aso Rock, every principal officer suffered one tragedy or the other; according to him, it was as if you needed to sacrifice something to remain on duty inside the environment.
Aso Rock is the coven of interests where presidents go to live and die.
Any politician who says ‘’I will spend only one term in office’’ is a congenital liar.