By Edward Onoja

---

I know Muhammadu Buhari is our President. As such he should be ready to swallow insults to his office, and often to his person, masked as criticism. It comes with the terrain and leaders all over the world have to deal with it. But Nigerians can be harsher than most. Don't misunderstand me, it is not that citizens shouldn't talk, but talk should be truthful and it does not have to be vicious all the time. Sometimes, it is good to admit that we don't know it all, that our leaders may have real good reasons for doing or not doing some things. If for nothing else, for the reason that politics often come intertwined with prejudices, and among humans, things are not always black and white.

 

So President Muhammadu Buhari attended a wedding in Kano, a rare union of a Yoruba groom and a Fulani bride, and some Nigerians jump on social media in on a riot of condemnation and insults. So-called critics and activists call the President every unprintable name in the book and a few no one has written into any book. They do their best to demean his person and persona. Basically, their shots fire the same caliber bullets – Mr. President has not visited Loko, Dapchi and several other places where citizens have come to grief at the hands of insurgents or herdsmen, why is he attending a bourgeois wedding in Kano? He is therefore callous, and doesn't give a hoot for the people he is governing. 

 

 Ah-ah nah! 

Well, if I was hurting, like the people of Benue and Yobe are hurting from the deaths and abductions dealt them, I'd also want my President to visit. However, I also am not angling for harm to come to him, so I'll understand if he takes awhile coming as long as he sends ahead the people whose jobs it is to resolve my situation and fix it. 

 

 The menace of murderous  herdsmen who have infiltrated the ranks of the cattle Fulani will be contained. Like ISIS in northeastern Syria, Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria will not only be 'technically defeated', they will be totally decimated. The people whose jobs it is are on the matter, day and night. The President is not required to bear arms and join them as long as he provides them necessary logistical support. 

 

Beyond the issues of Presidential itinerary, I'm yet to see any President anywhere in the world walk, run, drive or fly into any location without security clearance from his security Chiefs. Conflict zones are unpredictable and completely out of the question until secure perimeters are established. It goes beyond landing a helicopter. The situation he's landing into is critical. It goes beyond a motorcade armed to the teeth. What he's driving into matters, and the remoter the location, the more impossible the logistics. 

 

If the possibility of mines, rocket-fire, and even ambush by suicide squads are not zero to non-existent, no President is going to be allowed in. If the Security Chiefs are not 100 percent sure no harm is lurking by land, sea or air, they are not going to okay a trip and the President cannot overrule them. It's the way these things are done.

 

I know some critics want to be assured that all is well by seeing Mr. President in Loko, Dapchi, or Mambilla, even if all he does is shake hands with the survivors and mutter condolences. But we all know all is not fully well yet. There is still some conflict on. 

 

The enhanced deployment of manpower and ordnance to quell the herdsmen/farmer conflicts in the several theatres say so. The stream of military caskets delivered to families all over the nation say our brave men and women of the military are fighting to the death under their Commander-in-Chief to destroy the last vestiges of Boko Haram. Adding a Presidential body bag to the grim tally isn't going to solve anything.

 

Which brings us to the question, if the President can't join in the fight, why should he join in the mirth? If he is not visiting Loko, Dapchi or Mambilla yet, should he be visiting Kano, and attending marriages? My answer is ‘why not?’ 

 

 

 

Isn't it still his job to ensure citizens live as normal a life as possible, by not giving in to terrorism or violence? 

 

 

 

Isn't it still his mandate to portray our collective defiance to those who would want to paralyse our society with fear through violence?

 

 

 

Isn't it still his duty to signify their inevitable defeat by carrying on with the daily demands of routine functionality, including wedding? 

 

My dear, as long as all the President does is not party all the time while serious matters of state languish, his occasional cameo appearance at events like the wedding of Fateemah Ganduje to Idrees Ajimobi is not only comforting, but appreciated. 

 

Unfortunately, some people pouring acid on the matter do not want to look at the many good reasons why the President chose to support the unity wedding with his physical presence. 

 

 

 

They cannot see how he could be both President and still a personal or family friend to anyone. The family of the bride requested him to do them the honor of symbolically receiving the Bride Price from the groom's family and he obliged. Similarly, the family of the groom also requested Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu to present the bride price on their behalf and he graciously acquiesced. 

 

The critics for show could not see that such a high profile wedding between young persons of two different tribes, coming at a time of rising ethnic tensions in the country was the perfect opportunity for the President to not only preach unity but to be seen actively promoting it. A hundred unity rallies would not have achieved the same results. 

 

 

 

The inveterate critics must cut Mr. President some slack in this matter. His presence at Kano is not a dereliction of duty, neither is it evidence of lack of care for the Nigerian people. If anything it is one of his many ways of letting us know that he is firmly in charge and the forces of destabilisation and evil have not won, and will not win.

 

President Muhammadu Buhari is well able to attend a private event while also maintaining a firm hold on the helm of the ship of state. Take it from me, a long time loyalist of  Mr. President's, that once his Security Chiefs give the all-clear, Baba will visit every troubled spot there is and bring succour to the hurting. Above all, he will bring back every abducted person including the Chibok girls.As shown at the efforts made on the Chibok girls .He will also end all violent conflicts, including those between Animal Farmers/Crop Farmers.I know so, because I know him and his heart for this nation. 

 

I will end by advising the PDPists, the fake APCists, and all those who must criticise anything and everything the President does irrespective of merits, to refocus their energies on helping Mr. President deliver some of his groundbreaking Change Agenda.

 

If only they can lay aside bitterness and opposition without morality, maybe they will see that the President has opened the doors to next level solutions for some of the complex geopolitical and security problems facing the Nigerian nation. He has led the APC to offer Nigerians what every other government has considered no-go areas. The much sought after RESTRUCTURING is now on a silver platter, begging to be taken. Ditto STATE POLICE and COMMUNITY POLICING. 

 

Unfortunately, it has not occurred to those who have acquired dubious relevance by making these issues their strongest grouses against the President to now back him on it. They are too dishonest to acknowledge they were wrong about the Man from Daura. They dare not raise a clamour now calling on Governors as well as the Federal and State Legislatures to snatch this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and make laws institutionalising these as tenets because it would mean admitting the President is on the right track. . They prefer to dismiss Mr. President's offers as political gimmickry. Anyone can see that somebody, somewhere, does not want President Buhari to be the architect of a New Nigeria founded on sounder principles for unity into the future because it disrupts their lies that he is nothing but an old relic. But God pass una.

 

 

Mr Onoja Edward David

 

Writes from Lokoja as a concerned Nigerian Citizen

 

 

About Post Author

By Edward Onoja

---

I know Muhammadu Buhari is our President. As such he should be ready to swallow insults to his office, and often to his person, masked as criticism. It comes with the terrain and leaders all over the world have to deal with it. But Nigerians can be harsher than most. Don't misunderstand me, it is not that citizens shouldn't talk, but talk should be truthful and it does not have to be vicious all the time. Sometimes, it is good to admit that we don't know it all, that our leaders may have real good reasons for doing or not doing some things. If for nothing else, for the reason that politics often come intertwined with prejudices, and among humans, things are not always black and white.

 

So President Muhammadu Buhari attended a wedding in Kano, a rare union of a Yoruba groom and a Fulani bride, and some Nigerians jump on social media in on a riot of condemnation and insults. So-called critics and activists call the President every unprintable name in the book and a few no one has written into any book. They do their best to demean his person and persona. Basically, their shots fire the same caliber bullets – Mr. President has not visited Loko, Dapchi and several other places where citizens have come to grief at the hands of insurgents or herdsmen, why is he attending a bourgeois wedding in Kano? He is therefore callous, and doesn't give a hoot for the people he is governing. 

 

 Ah-ah nah! 

Well, if I was hurting, like the people of Benue and Yobe are hurting from the deaths and abductions dealt them, I'd also want my President to visit. However, I also am not angling for harm to come to him, so I'll understand if he takes awhile coming as long as he sends ahead the people whose jobs it is to resolve my situation and fix it. 

 

 The menace of murderous  herdsmen who have infiltrated the ranks of the cattle Fulani will be contained. Like ISIS in northeastern Syria, Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria will not only be 'technically defeated', they will be totally decimated. The people whose jobs it is are on the matter, day and night. The President is not required to bear arms and join them as long as he provides them necessary logistical support. 

 

Beyond the issues of Presidential itinerary, I'm yet to see any President anywhere in the world walk, run, drive or fly into any location without security clearance from his security Chiefs. Conflict zones are unpredictable and completely out of the question until secure perimeters are established. It goes beyond landing a helicopter. The situation he's landing into is critical. It goes beyond a motorcade armed to the teeth. What he's driving into matters, and the remoter the location, the more impossible the logistics. 

 

If the possibility of mines, rocket-fire, and even ambush by suicide squads are not zero to non-existent, no President is going to be allowed in. If the Security Chiefs are not 100 percent sure no harm is lurking by land, sea or air, they are not going to okay a trip and the President cannot overrule them. It's the way these things are done.

 

I know some critics want to be assured that all is well by seeing Mr. President in Loko, Dapchi, or Mambilla, even if all he does is shake hands with the survivors and mutter condolences. But we all know all is not fully well yet. There is still some conflict on. 

 

The enhanced deployment of manpower and ordnance to quell the herdsmen/farmer conflicts in the several theatres say so. The stream of military caskets delivered to families all over the nation say our brave men and women of the military are fighting to the death under their Commander-in-Chief to destroy the last vestiges of Boko Haram. Adding a Presidential body bag to the grim tally isn't going to solve anything.

 

Which brings us to the question, if the President can't join in the fight, why should he join in the mirth? If he is not visiting Loko, Dapchi or Mambilla yet, should he be visiting Kano, and attending marriages? My answer is ‘why not?’ 

 

 

 

Isn't it still his job to ensure citizens live as normal a life as possible, by not giving in to terrorism or violence? 

 

 

 

Isn't it still his mandate to portray our collective defiance to those who would want to paralyse our society with fear through violence?

 

 

 

Isn't it still his duty to signify their inevitable defeat by carrying on with the daily demands of routine functionality, including wedding? 

 

My dear, as long as all the President does is not party all the time while serious matters of state languish, his occasional cameo appearance at events like the wedding of Fateemah Ganduje to Idrees Ajimobi is not only comforting, but appreciated. 

 

Unfortunately, some people pouring acid on the matter do not want to look at the many good reasons why the President chose to support the unity wedding with his physical presence. 

 

 

 

They cannot see how he could be both President and still a personal or family friend to anyone. The family of the bride requested him to do them the honor of symbolically receiving the Bride Price from the groom's family and he obliged. Similarly, the family of the groom also requested Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu to present the bride price on their behalf and he graciously acquiesced. 

 

The critics for show could not see that such a high profile wedding between young persons of two different tribes, coming at a time of rising ethnic tensions in the country was the perfect opportunity for the President to not only preach unity but to be seen actively promoting it. A hundred unity rallies would not have achieved the same results. 

 

 

 

The inveterate critics must cut Mr. President some slack in this matter. His presence at Kano is not a dereliction of duty, neither is it evidence of lack of care for the Nigerian people. If anything it is one of his many ways of letting us know that he is firmly in charge and the forces of destabilisation and evil have not won, and will not win.

 

President Muhammadu Buhari is well able to attend a private event while also maintaining a firm hold on the helm of the ship of state. Take it from me, a long time loyalist of  Mr. President's, that once his Security Chiefs give the all-clear, Baba will visit every troubled spot there is and bring succour to the hurting. Above all, he will bring back every abducted person including the Chibok girls.As shown at the efforts made on the Chibok girls .He will also end all violent conflicts, including those between Animal Farmers/Crop Farmers.I know so, because I know him and his heart for this nation. 

 

I will end by advising the PDPists, the fake APCists, and all those who must criticise anything and everything the President does irrespective of merits, to refocus their energies on helping Mr. President deliver some of his groundbreaking Change Agenda.

 

If only they can lay aside bitterness and opposition without morality, maybe they will see that the President has opened the doors to next level solutions for some of the complex geopolitical and security problems facing the Nigerian nation. He has led the APC to offer Nigerians what every other government has considered no-go areas. The much sought after RESTRUCTURING is now on a silver platter, begging to be taken. Ditto STATE POLICE and COMMUNITY POLICING. 

 

Unfortunately, it has not occurred to those who have acquired dubious relevance by making these issues their strongest grouses against the President to now back him on it. They are too dishonest to acknowledge they were wrong about the Man from Daura. They dare not raise a clamour now calling on Governors as well as the Federal and State Legislatures to snatch this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and make laws institutionalising these as tenets because it would mean admitting the President is on the right track. . They prefer to dismiss Mr. President's offers as political gimmickry. Anyone can see that somebody, somewhere, does not want President Buhari to be the architect of a New Nigeria founded on sounder principles for unity into the future because it disrupts their lies that he is nothing but an old relic. But God pass una.

 

 

Mr Onoja Edward David

 

Writes from Lokoja as a concerned Nigerian Citizen

 

 

About Post Author

By Edward Onoja

---

I know Muhammadu Buhari is our President. As such he should be ready to swallow insults to his office, and often to his person, masked as criticism. It comes with the terrain and leaders all over the world have to deal with it. But Nigerians can be harsher than most. Don't misunderstand me, it is not that citizens shouldn't talk, but talk should be truthful and it does not have to be vicious all the time. Sometimes, it is good to admit that we don't know it all, that our leaders may have real good reasons for doing or not doing some things. If for nothing else, for the reason that politics often come intertwined with prejudices, and among humans, things are not always black and white.

 

So President Muhammadu Buhari attended a wedding in Kano, a rare union of a Yoruba groom and a Fulani bride, and some Nigerians jump on social media in on a riot of condemnation and insults. So-called critics and activists call the President every unprintable name in the book and a few no one has written into any book. They do their best to demean his person and persona. Basically, their shots fire the same caliber bullets – Mr. President has not visited Loko, Dapchi and several other places where citizens have come to grief at the hands of insurgents or herdsmen, why is he attending a bourgeois wedding in Kano? He is therefore callous, and doesn't give a hoot for the people he is governing. 

 

 Ah-ah nah! 

Well, if I was hurting, like the people of Benue and Yobe are hurting from the deaths and abductions dealt them, I'd also want my President to visit. However, I also am not angling for harm to come to him, so I'll understand if he takes awhile coming as long as he sends ahead the people whose jobs it is to resolve my situation and fix it. 

 

 The menace of murderous  herdsmen who have infiltrated the ranks of the cattle Fulani will be contained. Like ISIS in northeastern Syria, Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria will not only be 'technically defeated', they will be totally decimated. The people whose jobs it is are on the matter, day and night. The President is not required to bear arms and join them as long as he provides them necessary logistical support. 

 

Beyond the issues of Presidential itinerary, I'm yet to see any President anywhere in the world walk, run, drive or fly into any location without security clearance from his security Chiefs. Conflict zones are unpredictable and completely out of the question until secure perimeters are established. It goes beyond landing a helicopter. The situation he's landing into is critical. It goes beyond a motorcade armed to the teeth. What he's driving into matters, and the remoter the location, the more impossible the logistics. 

 

If the possibility of mines, rocket-fire, and even ambush by suicide squads are not zero to non-existent, no President is going to be allowed in. If the Security Chiefs are not 100 percent sure no harm is lurking by land, sea or air, they are not going to okay a trip and the President cannot overrule them. It's the way these things are done.

 

I know some critics want to be assured that all is well by seeing Mr. President in Loko, Dapchi, or Mambilla, even if all he does is shake hands with the survivors and mutter condolences. But we all know all is not fully well yet. There is still some conflict on. 

 

The enhanced deployment of manpower and ordnance to quell the herdsmen/farmer conflicts in the several theatres say so. The stream of military caskets delivered to families all over the nation say our brave men and women of the military are fighting to the death under their Commander-in-Chief to destroy the last vestiges of Boko Haram. Adding a Presidential body bag to the grim tally isn't going to solve anything.

 

Which brings us to the question, if the President can't join in the fight, why should he join in the mirth? If he is not visiting Loko, Dapchi or Mambilla yet, should he be visiting Kano, and attending marriages? My answer is ‘why not?’ 

 

 

 

Isn't it still his job to ensure citizens live as normal a life as possible, by not giving in to terrorism or violence? 

 

 

 

Isn't it still his mandate to portray our collective defiance to those who would want to paralyse our society with fear through violence?

 

 

 

Isn't it still his duty to signify their inevitable defeat by carrying on with the daily demands of routine functionality, including wedding? 

 

My dear, as long as all the President does is not party all the time while serious matters of state languish, his occasional cameo appearance at events like the wedding of Fateemah Ganduje to Idrees Ajimobi is not only comforting, but appreciated. 

 

Unfortunately, some people pouring acid on the matter do not want to look at the many good reasons why the President chose to support the unity wedding with his physical presence. 

 

 

 

They cannot see how he could be both President and still a personal or family friend to anyone. The family of the bride requested him to do them the honor of symbolically receiving the Bride Price from the groom's family and he obliged. Similarly, the family of the groom also requested Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu to present the bride price on their behalf and he graciously acquiesced. 

 

The critics for show could not see that such a high profile wedding between young persons of two different tribes, coming at a time of rising ethnic tensions in the country was the perfect opportunity for the President to not only preach unity but to be seen actively promoting it. A hundred unity rallies would not have achieved the same results. 

 

 

 

The inveterate critics must cut Mr. President some slack in this matter. His presence at Kano is not a dereliction of duty, neither is it evidence of lack of care for the Nigerian people. If anything it is one of his many ways of letting us know that he is firmly in charge and the forces of destabilisation and evil have not won, and will not win.

 

President Muhammadu Buhari is well able to attend a private event while also maintaining a firm hold on the helm of the ship of state. Take it from me, a long time loyalist of  Mr. President's, that once his Security Chiefs give the all-clear, Baba will visit every troubled spot there is and bring succour to the hurting. Above all, he will bring back every abducted person including the Chibok girls.As shown at the efforts made on the Chibok girls .He will also end all violent conflicts, including those between Animal Farmers/Crop Farmers.I know so, because I know him and his heart for this nation. 

 

I will end by advising the PDPists, the fake APCists, and all those who must criticise anything and everything the President does irrespective of merits, to refocus their energies on helping Mr. President deliver some of his groundbreaking Change Agenda.

 

If only they can lay aside bitterness and opposition without morality, maybe they will see that the President has opened the doors to next level solutions for some of the complex geopolitical and security problems facing the Nigerian nation. He has led the APC to offer Nigerians what every other government has considered no-go areas. The much sought after RESTRUCTURING is now on a silver platter, begging to be taken. Ditto STATE POLICE and COMMUNITY POLICING. 

 

Unfortunately, it has not occurred to those who have acquired dubious relevance by making these issues their strongest grouses against the President to now back him on it. They are too dishonest to acknowledge they were wrong about the Man from Daura. They dare not raise a clamour now calling on Governors as well as the Federal and State Legislatures to snatch this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and make laws institutionalising these as tenets because it would mean admitting the President is on the right track. . They prefer to dismiss Mr. President's offers as political gimmickry. Anyone can see that somebody, somewhere, does not want President Buhari to be the architect of a New Nigeria founded on sounder principles for unity into the future because it disrupts their lies that he is nothing but an old relic. But God pass una.

 

 

Mr Onoja Edward David

 

Writes from Lokoja as a concerned Nigerian Citizen

 

 

About Post Author