Let’s go trekking, uh la la la, by Clement oluwole

On May 15, 2015, I did a piece in this column entitled “A season of political trekking”.
The article was informed by the emergence of those rejoicing over Buhari’s stunning triumph in the presidential election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Their rejoicing had found expression in trekking.
It was Katsina-born Suleiman Hashimu that blazed the trail immediately Buhari was declared president-elect on April 1, 2015.
The construction worker walked his way from Lagos to Abuja, a distance of over 700 kilometres in 18 days.
Many flipped up their noses in disbelief.
The trekking fever soon spread like fake news.
Abubakar Duduwale immediately rubbished Suleiman’s feat by covering a distance of 750 kilometres from his Adamawa base to Abuja to attend Buhari’s swearing-in on May 29, 2015; Mohammed Jafaru had a better and less stressful idea.
The material for Tour de France bicycled from Kaduna to Lagos (750km) to hug the vice president-elect, Prof.
Yemi Osinbajo, in appreciation of the support the Yoruba folks gave Buhari.
Adamu Abdullahi (not to be confused with Sen.
Abdullahi Adamu) marched from Maiduguri to Abuja (800km) in defiance of the Boko Haram danger just to be part of the inauguration.
Armless Ibrahim Musa pounded the dangerous 200km KadunaAbuja Expressway with a petition to Buhari over the plight of the physically challenged.
Paul Tankwa hit the road from Jalingo to Otuoke (660km) to present an award to President Goodluck Jonathan on May 29, 2015, for being an admirable loser.
Another Jonathan fan, Oladele Nihi, also footed it from Abuja to Otuoke to appreciate Jonathan for shaming those who expected him to precipitate a national upheaval over the debacle that befell him.
The only woman sucked into the trekking syndrome, Hajiya Talatu, also put her life at the risk of being kidnapped or robbed and lumbered from Kaduna to Abuja to rejoice with Buhari over the greatest election miracle so far witnessed in the 21st Century Nigeria.
By the way, is it true that the first trekker, Suleiman Hashimu, is trekking again? He is said to be doing so in protest against the Buhari administration because the youths have been suffering.
Could it be a fake piece of news? However, the trekking syndrome has taken a different dimension.
Nobody is trekking for Buhari to urge him to contest for the fast approaching 2019 presidential election.
But it is Buhari’s 800 metres walk from his abode to the praying ground in Daura on the Sallah day that is causing the ongoing kerfuffle in the media space.
The distance covered by Mr.
President is like going round a standard football pitch two times.
Stunned by the apparent feat, the dyed-in-the-wool Buharists were quick to kick up the dust in an attempt to prove that their hero is as fit as a fiddle.
More so that he had just returned from a 10-day vacation in the United Kingdom where his critics believed he went on account of his “famed failing health”.
Consequently, the social media, in particular, has gone viral with reactions from other presidential aspirants.
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and chieftain of the APC who recently re-defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was the first to respond to the Daura feat.
He was shown in a picture trekking on a treadmill.
Someone once told me that treadmill is meant for lazy folks.
On the treadmill, you could be walking or even running from morning till night, sweating, panting and puffing, like in za oza room, without as much as progressing from the same spot! Atiku was said to have boasted Clement oluwole [email protected] 08034522101(text only) weekend BLUES Saturday 25 – Sunday 26, August 2018 No.
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In other words, he is not only fitter than Buhari but also more suitable for the job, physically.
We were still grappling with Atiku’s fitness claim when another presidential hopeful and publisher of the online medium, Sahara Reporters, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, weighed in.
He posted photographs of his participation in a marathon race some years back in faraway United States to prove that he is the most suitable man for the job if trekking, treadmilling or marathoning is a parameter for the Aso Rock presidency or is it residency? In the coming days, I expect the other aspirants like Senator Bukola Saraki, Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Alhaji Ahmed Makarfi, Alhaji Sule Lamido, Alhaji Tanimu Turaki and Sen.
Datti Baba-Ahmed to also come out to mock Buhari over his fitness level.
I am sure Mr. President did the trekking as a normal routine.
He did not expect his followers to make a big deal out of it, thus providing the opportunity for his traducers to ridicule his “legcedez” effort(s).
Recall that in the build-up to the 2015 general elections, the issue of fitness commandeered the political space.
While the fitness level of the gangling Buhari was called to question as evidenced by his frail posture, the then President Goodluck Jonathan was videoed in a gym doing press-up and high performance exercises, among which were kicking and punching the air.
If fitness level was an insurance to remain in power, Jonathan would have been sitting pretty in the Presidential Villa for the final lap of the second term of his presidency.
Maybe one should not grudge the Buharists for celebrating his 800 metres feat at this time that the next general elections are inching close.
Not many believed that by now, thunder would not have struck twice in the same place, Katsina.
The late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, also from Katsina, was a sick man on his way to the Villa during the 2007 presidential election.
He battled with the Ultimate Terminator before answering the final summons barely two years into his presidency.
Everybody also knew that the outgoing Governor of Ekiti state, Ayodele Fayose, was cocksure that Buhari would not last the distance.
He taunted with his health status and mocked his old age, not minding that mockers of old age, like cigarette smokers, are liable to die young! So, mocking Fayose is fortunate to be alive today, even as his tenure is making the final bend.
I won’t be surprised if Buhari of the old soldiers never die fame lives up to the end of his second term if he gets re-elected next year.
But come to think of it, don’t we all trek everyday for different purposes? Come on then… let’s go trekking, uh la la la!