Abdullahi M. Gulloma
The Presidency has denied rumours that made round recently that President Muhammadu Buhari had passed on in London.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, said in a series of tweets on Sunday that nothing unpleasant had happened to the President.
He urged Nigerians to ignore the death reports on social media platforms and some online news sites, saying they were being peddled by vested interests in order to cause panic.
The tweets read: “Baseless rumours are trending again that an unpleasant thing has happened to our beloved President, Muhammadu Buhari. If you have received this information on WhatsApp or Facebook, disregard it because it is plain lies spread by vested interests to create panic. Nothing unpleasant has happened to the President. No cause for apprehension. Thanks for the calls.”
But who are behind those “vested interests” and why do they want to “create panic” in the land? Essentially, who want Buhari dead? The answer is simple. They are those Nigerians who, in the first place, never wanted Buhari to become President and whipped all sorts of sentiments, real and imaginary, to pollute and poison the minds of voters against him.
Of course, this group of people have reasons, even if those reasons are selfish and unpatriotic, to scare voters from electing Buhari and now that he’s been elected to cause panic with a sole aim of distracting people and government’s attention.
People in this group see the President’s sickness as an opportunity to further their opposition to his administration. But, essentially, they are the same people who have always opposed his style, integrity in his personal life and leadership and, above all, his resolve to stand in the way of what they shamefully represent – corruption.
It is instructive to note that those who want the President dead are looters of the public treasury, traitors of national interests and corrupt politicians who want to see the current seriousness and determination with which this administration is dealing with the issue of corruption fizzle.
Unfortunately, speculations about the President’s death and rumours of death have only just begun and they can only be silenced by a remarkable improvement in his state of health.
It is gratifying, however, to note that even in his absence, the country is moving in the direction he would have liked it to go. Therefore, those seeking or calling or praying for his death should have a rethink because the ideas represented by the President – integrity, accountability, purposeful leadership and patriotism, have all become well entrenched in the country’s governance process.
Never again shall Nigeria be governed by those who want the President dead or incapable of leading the country.
