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Aishat Buhari confirms husband doesn’t rule Nigeria.

Published

5 years ago

December 14, 2019

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When I publicly voiced my concerns in 2018 that Muhammadu Buhari was too cognitively and physically ill to have the capacity to govern Nigeria and that the country was being ruled on his behalf by an unorganised and unelected gaggle of corrupt cronies and family members, some people didn’t believe me.

But his wife’s unprecedentedly stinging public censure of presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu and Mamman Daura, Buhari’s nephew, on December 11, 2019 provides evidentiary grounding for what most of us have always known and said: that Buhari is too weighed down by dementia and physical infirmity to even control his immediate family, let alone rule a country of nearly 200 million people.

In my January 19, 2019 column titled “Buhari’s Physical and Mental Health is now a National Emergency,” I noted the following:

“On November 23, 2018, for instance, I tweeted that a doctor who has met Buhari during a personal, non-medical visit told me he was troubled that Buhari appeared to evince tell-tale symptoms of dementia (of which Alzheimer’s disease is a type), which is often characterised by repetitiveness, unawareness, mental deterioration, impaired memory, diminished quality of thought, slurred speech, and finally complete helplessness.”

“A friend whose dad has dementia and who has also met Buhari in the recent past had earlier told me Buhari reminded her of her dad whom she forced to retire, adding, sadly, that Buhari’s dementia is way worse than her dad’s is. She was, and still is, concerned that Nigeria has no president. She’s right, and the evidence stares us every day. Buhari barely has any awareness of his existence, much less the requirements of being president…

“People around the president are intimately familiar with his considerably diminished sentience and his notoriously declining short-term memory.

As a consequence, he is being taken advantage of by several people close to him. Aso Rock insiders say Buhari doesn’t remember anything, so no one even obeys his instructions–if he gives any at all. The last person to see him gets him to do whatever they want. Someone from the Presidential Villa told me it’s precisely because of this fact that governors frequent the Villa several times in a week; they are in a race to be the last people to see the president before he takes decisions and signs off on them.

“If you think with Buhari as president Nigeria has a president, you should sue your brain for non-support; you’re NOT thinking! We have a national emergency on our hands. Buhari appears infirm both in mind and in body. Without a doubt, other people are ruling on his behalf, and his own wife hinted at that when she said her husband’s presidency had been hijacked by a three-man cabal.”

Aisha also told TVC’s, “Journalists’ Hangout” that she doesn’t have private conversations with her husband. “There is no pillow in the villa,” she said. “No, because we are always busy listening to one story or another. I think the people he puts in the cabinet, they should just sit up and do the needful. That is why it is not good to have godfatherism.”

A lot of people were flustered by the revelation that she has no access to her husband. But I am not.

I actually hinted at that in my October 22, 2016 column titled “Aisha Buhari and the Evil Aso Rock Cabal.”

Here’s what I wrote:

“This [her BBC Hausa interview chastising her husband’s government] can only mean that although Aisha is formally married to President Buhari, she is actually isolated from him. This is consistent with what I’ve heard from inside sources about the relationship between the first couple. Buhari is held hostage by an evil, sneaky, corrupt, vulturous, and conniving cabal that ensures that his wife doesn’t see him even in the ‘kitchen,’ the ‘living room,’ or ‘the other room.’

“The BBC interview was Aisha’s vigorous ventilation of pent-up anguish against a cold, calculating, and corrupt cabal that has made Buhari a stranger to his own wife.”

And I had written about Aisha’s December 11 revelation that Garba Shehu and other Aso Rock media aides have no access to Buhari and take directives from Mamman Daura and other unelected Buhari cronies and family members.

In my August 26, 2017 column titled “Garba Shehu, Presidential Villa Rodents and Bad PR,” I wrote the following, which Aisha just confirmed:

“First, it’s obvious that both Adesina and Shehu don’t have a robust, direct access to the president. Directives don’t seem to always come directly from the president to his media aides. It’s usually, it would appear, from the president to a tortuous labyrinth of surrogates before it gets to the media team. Most of the times, it’s actually influential people connected—or thought to be connected—to the president who dictate what the presidential media team says to the public.

“I recall an incident in late 2015 that left me in no doubt that the president’s media team members don’t enjoy the respect usually accorded to presidential spokespeople. I was having an argument with someone close to the Buhari presidency over something, and he suddenly said, ‘I will tell the president’s media team to issue a statement to clarify this.’ A few hours later, a statement was issued expressing the exact sentiments of my interlocutor who isn’t even officially a part of the government. That blew me away.

“So, basically, the presidential spokespeople are mere errand boys of Buhari’s shadowy surrogates and a motley crowd of official, semi-official, and unofficial power brokers who pull the levers of power in the presidency.

“No public relations person, however smart he might be, can function optimally in the kind of politically toxic and factious environment that the Buhari presidency exemplifies.”

I warned Nigerians in the run-up to the 2019 election that if they voted APC, they were voting Mamman Daura and Abba Kyari, not Buhari who is barely aware of his own existence. People who thought I was merely being mischievous are now coming to terms with what I said.

For selfish reasons, Aisha won’t reveal the true state of her husband’s health, but she’s opportunistically railing against someone who is taking orders from people who hold the real power. As they say, nature abhors a vacuum. If Buhari can’t exercise power, others will exercise it on his behalf and in his name.

If Nigeria weren’t the dysfunctional theatre of the absurd that it is, the revelations from Aisha Buhari would be regarded as a national emergency.

The National Assembly would have constituted an independent team of medical experts to examine the state of Buhari’s physical and mental state.

Prof Farooq Kperogi

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President Trump Signs Executive Order To End Birthright Citizenship

Published

8 hours ago

January 21, 2025

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United States President, Donald Trump, has signed an executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship — a right guaranteed by the US Constitution and affirmed by the Supreme Court more than 125 years ago.

On Monday, Trump issued a blitz of executive actions to start reshaping federal immigration and border policy, many of which are expected to face significant legal challenges.

“As commander in chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is what I’m going to do,” Trump said in his inaugural address.

CBS News reports that the US government has long interpreted the US Constitution to mean that those born on American soil are citizens at birth, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution says, “All persons born or naturalised in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

But Trump directed federal agencies to stop issuing passports, citizenship certificates, and other documents to children born in the US to mothers who are in the country illegally and fathers who are not citizens or legal permanent residents, or to mothers who are temporary visa holders (and fathers who are not citizens or legal permanent residents).

Trump said his edict, which would not apply retroactively, should be enforced in 30 days. But just hours after it was issued, the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups filed a lawsuit challenging the action in federal court.

He also cited extraordinary presidential powers to effectively suspend US asylum law, accusing migrants of staging an “invasion” at the southern border and endangering public health.

He authorised officials to “repel, repatriate, or remove” migrants, suspending their “physical entry” into the US through his constitutional powers. The far-reaching order essentially allows the U.S. government to stop adhering to American asylum law until Mr. Trump issues a “finding that the invasion at the southern border has ceased.”

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You’ll Soon Learn Your Lessons – Prof Akinyemi Tells Kemi Badenoch

How the daughter of a professor of UNILAG, her father who was a medical doctor, a girl who went to the international school at UNILAG would make it sound like she was selling groundnut and selling water in Lagos to advance her political career.

Published

10 hours ago

January 21, 2025

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Former Nigerian Minister of External Affairs, Prof Bolaji Akinyemi, says Britain’s Conservative party and Nigeria-raised Kemi Badenoch will soon learn her lessons that “you don’t throw your people and your culture under the bus”.

Prof Akinyemi, a former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), said Badenoch was making a mistake denigrating Nigeria on the global stage to “advance her political career”.

The foremost Professor of Political Science, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday, said the UK Conservative party leader should leave Nigeria alone and focus on strengthening her party in Britain.

The octogenarian said, “How the daughter of a professor of UNILAG, her father who was a medical doctor, a girl who went to the international school at UNILAG would make it sound like she was selling groundnut and selling water in Lagos to advance her political career.

“She would soon learn that you don’t throw your people and your culture under the bus to advance your career. She is making a mistake but she would soon learn.

“After all, right now, there is even Right Wing political party in the United Kingdom that is even to the right of the Conservative Party. So, what she should be focusing on is how to regain that rightwing profile of the Conservative Party and leave Nigeria alone.”

Days earlier, presidential spokesman Daniel Bwala said Badenoch’s scathing comments about Nigeria are targeted at gaining acceptance from her party members.

In December 2024, Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima criticised Badenoch for disparaging Nigeria, saying that she is entitled to her own opinions and has every right to remove the Kemi from her name.

In 2022, Badenoch, a UK member of parliament of Nigerian descent and then UK Prime Minister hopeful, accused Nigerian politicians of using public funds for their private matters.

After her election as UK Conservative Party leader in November 2024, the Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said her office reached out to Badenoch but received no response.

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NATCOMS To Challenge NCC’s 50% Telecom Tariff Hike In Court

Published

10 hours ago

January 21, 2025

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The National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) has announced plans to contest the Federal Government’s approval of a 50% tariff hike for telecom operators in court.

This decision, according to NATCOMS, was made without adequate consultation with key stakeholders, including subscribers.

Mr. Deolu Ogunbanjo, President of NATCOMS, expressed dissatisfaction with the tariff increase approved by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in an interview with NAN.

He described the decision as burdensome, particularly for small businesses and individual subscribers.

“This will affect everyone from the biggest industry to the smallest company, such as the Point of Service (POS) operators. It will increase operational costs,” Ogunbanjo stated.

He acknowledged the financial challenges facing the telecommunications sector but emphasized that a marginal increase of 5% to 10% would have been more acceptable.

“We painfully agreed that, look, a moderate or marginal five per cent to 10% increase will be fine. We do not mind an increase if it is to salvage the industry that is helping us, that means so much to us and that is also contributing double-digit to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product,” he added.

Alternative funding options

Ogunbanjo suggested that telecom operators explore alternative funding sources, such as Initial Public Offerings (IPO), to raise capital instead of imposing a 50% tariff increase on subscribers.

“The industry operators can opt for an Initial Public Offer (IPO) for Nigerians to buy shares in their companies as a way of raising funds.

However, a situation where a whole 50% is granted for tariff hike is not cheap and it is a no! no! from us subscribers,” he insisted.

Ogunbanjo confirmed that NATCOMS would challenge the decision in court, citing the financial strain the hike would impose on subscribers already grappling with economic challenges.

NCC defends the tariff adjustment

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), in a statement signed by its Director of Public Affairs, Dr. Reuben Muoka, justified the 50% tariff adjustment as a necessary measure to address rising operational costs in the industry.

“The NCC has prioritised striking a balance between protecting telecoms consumers and ensuring the sustainability of the industry, including the thousands of indigenous vendors and suppliers who form a critical part of the telecommunications ecosystem,” the statement read.

The commission noted that while some operators had requested a 100% tariff increase, it approved a maximum adjustment of 50% after extensive consultations with stakeholders.

“The NCC recognises the financial pressures faced by Nigerian households and businesses and remains deeply empathetic to the impact of tariff adjustments. To this end, the commission has mandated that operators implement these adjustments transparently and in a manner that is fair to consumers,” the NCC stated.

Benefits of the adjustment

The NCC assured subscribers that the tariff increase would enable operators to invest in infrastructure and innovation, leading to improved service quality.

“These adjustments will support the ability of operators to continue investing in infrastructure and innovation, ultimately benefiting consumers through improved services and connectivity,” the commission added.