Fellow Nigerians, let me confess that in over 30
years of writing no President has ever reacted
directly or positively to my constant admonitions,
lamentations or commendations. Rather, most of
the time, their aides, cronies and acolytes used
to fire darts and barbs at us from every
direction. We were called unprintable names that
our parents did not give us and by now we are
so used to being abused and harassed by those
who can never learn useful lessons from the
past. You can thus fathom a guess as to how I
must have felt when Femi Adesina’s call sneaked
in on me like a thief in the night.
I had written an article titled “A Desperate Memo
to President Buhari” in which I tried to let the
President feel the pulse of the people, especially
those who felt he was being too sluggish about
running the affairs of state. This memo to the
President came on the heels of an earlier
intervention titled “In Search of Patience” which
unfortunately failed to achieve its objective. My
mission had been to persuade my fellow citizens
about giving the President some time to settle in
before they start complaining about the pace and
tempo of governance. I soon realised that rather
than the dust settling down matters actually got
exacerbated. In the desperate memo, I then
attempted to tell the President some home truth
about the things he could do urgently and
without much ado. I took that chance because of
the fact that I knew him to be a voracious reader
of news, especially if it pertained to him. The
gamble certainly paid off.
The President and his key aides read the
“Desperate memo” which had gone viral. A
particular online newspaper chose to
sensationalise and slant the story in a manner I
never intended or envisaged. Their version was
garnished with salt and pepper by exhuming an
old picture of mine in which I had cried for my
mentor, Chief Moshood Abiola, and it was now
tilted and titled “Dele Momodu Weeps for
President Buhari”. If the idea was to draw a
wedge between me and the Presidency, it
actually backfired and failed woefully to paint me
as someone who has dumped President Buhari
within weeks of attaining power. One influential
man in the Presidential villa, Nura Rimi, actually
saw the post and felt sufficiently alarmed that a
key supporter like me should not be allowed to
turn his back on the Presidency. He mentioned
his fears to Special Adviser Media, Femi Adesina,
a childhood friend and brother from our early
days at Ife. They decided to intimate the
President on the necessity to reach out to me
immediately. The President gave his instant
approval.
I was away from the country when I received
Femi Adesina’s call. My initial reaction before
answering was that he was going to complain
and grumble like most of his predecessors who
only called whenever they felt you had written an
unsavoury piece about their principal. At the very
best, they would engage you in meaningless
rigmarole, or issue veiled threats, by accusing
you of being paid by their enemies. But Femi was
refreshingly different. After exchanging
pleasantries, he said “Bob Dee, the President
would want to have a one-on-one meeting with
you after reading your latest article.” The
message sounded too unusual to be true
because I had always seen Nigerian Presidents
as the most unreachable human beings on earth.
I told Femi I would be more than happy to head
back to Nigeria to meet a man who has restored
hope and dignity to every Nigerian.
The only problem was how to find a slot to
squeeze me into the President’s over-tight
schedule. I waited for about a week without an
appointment and then suddenly I got a text from
State Protocol: “Good morning sir. A window for
you to see Mr President on Wednesday 15th July
between 14.45 and 15.00hrs in his office has
been created. Kindly note accordingly… SCOP” A
similar text was also forwarded to me from
Femi. I was pleasantly surprised when I received
a written notice of audience from Permanent
Secretary, State House, Engineer Nebolisa O.
Emodi. Subsequent follow-up calls were made to
my Lagos office as reminders to me.
The level of professionalism and efficiency
displayed was commendable. It was a radical
departure from the past when I met a previous
Nigerian President in London and was invited to
meet him in Abuja. I came for the appointment at
the scheduled time but was unable to see him
for days. The Chief Security Officer at the time
was not so friendly. He took me into his office
and lectured me on all the no-go areas of
discussion in the Presidential Villa, which
rendered my visit totally useless.
The Aso Rock I returned to last Wednesday was
virtually transfigured. All the security checks
were professionally handled. The guys were strict
but friendly about it. Some even joked about
following me on social media. In a matter of
minutes, I was welcomed into Femi Adesina’s
office by Senior Special Assistant, Media and
Information, Garba Shehu. It was a happy
reunion for the three of us old friends and I felt
very much at home. I told Femi I wanted to pay
courtesy call on the State House correspondents
before meeting the President. I always give
priority to my colleagues no matter how junior
and went round shaking hands with most of
those on duty. I promised to address them after
meeting the President.
The day was made extra-special by the presence
of the iconic diplomat and former Secretary-
General of The Commonwealth, Chief Emeka
Anyaoku, whose appointment to see the
President was just ahead of mine. A great fan of
my column, he came into the waiting lounge and
he spoke for a couple of minutes with Femi and
I. He inspired me as usual with his oratorical
skills. “Dele, I continue to read your column with
relish” he said matter-of-factly!
Thereafter, I was soon invited to climb the stairs
leading to the President’s office. Since there was
no prior agenda sent about the topic of
discussion, I had visualised the likely scenario
and rehearsed accordingly. I also jotted down
some salient points because I was determined to
maximise the 15 minutes allotted to me without
overstaying my welcome. For me, it was a rare
honour and privilege to sit down all by myself
with the President of Africa’s greatest nation. It
was important to pour out the boisterous
content of my soul in a jiffy.
As time ticked away while I waited, I engaged
myself in an interior monologue, otherwise
known as stream-of-consciousness in Literary
Appreciation. Then came the appointed time and
I was ushered into the President’s room. I was
stunned to see the President already waiting for
me by the door. Though we had met on two
previous occasions, I didn’t quite know how this
particular meeting was going to pan out because
on those occasions he was still a co-contestant
at first and an aspirant/candidate on the latter
visit in London.
I’ve met several Presidents in and out of power
but the aura is never the same. The Buhari I met
at his holiday apartment in London about four
months ago, after his speech at Chatham House,
was not the Buhari I met and discussed with last
Wednesday. The new Buhari has the power to do
and undo. As the aphorism goes, he can turn a
certified and certificated pauper into an instant
billionaire with a mere stroke of the pen, and vice
versa. More importantly, the destiny of nearly
200 million complex beings resides within his
palms. Yet here was the powerful man himself
welcoming and leading me to a chair very close
to him.
President Buhari fired the first shot right from the
second I walked through the door: “Let me tell
the truth that I was forced to see you by your
friends here…” Wow, he would rather give credit
to his aides. That was uncommon in our clime.
The President was not yet done on the issue
because as soon as I sat down, he fired another
salvo: “I don’t know if I should tell you this but I
suspect Femi is working for you!” and we both
exploded raucously. I’m loving this man more
and more, I told myself. By then, he had
inadvertently relaxed me totally and we were like
two old buddies. I had been told endlessly about
his supposed taciturnity; that you could sit with
him for hours doing all the talking while the
President would respond in only a few words.
But to my biggest bewilderment and pleasant
surprise, the President actually opened up to me
and responded to my suggestions. In short we
had a dialogue rather than the monologue I had
programmed myself to expect in a worst case
situation.
I was glad he had allowed two wonderful
photographers, Bayo Omoboriowo and Sunday
Aghaeze, to join us, as well as a cameraman
from NTA. It would have been sad to tell the
world the cordial nature of my meeting with the
President without solid evidence. This is because
he had asked everyone out after the photo-
opportunities were comprehensively dealt with. I
seized the opportunity to present a copy of my
forthcoming book, PENDULUM: A Book of
Prophesies, which is a compilation of some of my
landmark essays in the last five years or
thereabout. Not only did he show some
excitement, he actually requested for my
autograph: “Please, sign it for me so that people
could see I got the original copy from you…” he
said with that inimitable tinge of childlike
innocence. I couldn’t believe this was the same
over-demonised Buhari who had been
superfluously described in lurid colours by
political opponents. If he was play-acting before
me, then he must be a damn-good-actor, I
thought to myself coolly.
We went into our discussions proper after the
general interlocutions. I told him why I wrote the
“Desperate Memo” to him; Nigerians were
getting restless and impatient; they expect an
instant miracle; the momentum he gained during
the election was nose-diving and affecting his
super-brand; the opposition was already
creeping in and trying to take advantage… and
so on. The President said he was aware of
people’s expectations but they should exercise
some patience as they would realise his vision
and mission as events he was directing begin to
unfold. He sounded like a man who knows what
most of us don’t know. He’s the man in the
driver’s seat and only he can see the blind
spots.
I told him it is important to us that he succeeds
because our opponents don’t believe things can
be done better. I reiterated my belief that he
cannot hand over Nigeria to typical politicians to
run because they will wreck the entire process.
I’m certain his Party is going to witness another
combustion soon when he begins to assemble
his team because political leaders prefer their
lackeys to competent professionals. In spite of
Party supremacy, he should not allow them to
dump some garbage at his doorstep. He must
insist on nominations that meet his avowed
standards.
I suggested he should involve Nigerian
academics in governance like he did as Head of
State when he appointed Tam David-West,
Ibrahim Gambari and others as Ministers before
President Ibrahim Babangida repeated the same
style by appointing Wole Soyinka, Olikoye
Ransome-Kuti, Bolaji Akinyemi, Tai Solarin,
Sunday Olagunju, Sam Oyovbaire, and others in
various capacities. I theorised that the relative
success of INEC is attributable to the fact that
Professor Jega brought in many Professors who
did not have the propensity for accumulation of
wealth.
I told the President that he should do everything
possible to carry the youths along. I suggested
he could move a few of his important public
functions from campus to campus. I mentioned
how American Presidential debates and major
Presidential interactions are often held in a
university community with students in
attendance. I observed that this helps to inspire
the youths in no small measure. Any government
that has the youths behind it will ultimately
succeed.
The aspect of my submission that gave the
President amusement amidst the seriousness
was when I spoke about the importance of
searching for bright women to bring on board:
“Sir, I think women are better managers of
people and resources for several reasons…” I
posited that a woman cannot marry two or three
men simultaneously but a man can have four
wives and ten concubines at a go and this would
encourage corruption. I also elaborated further
by stating that women are more afraid of going
to prison than men. The President was filled with
mirth and exploded in laughter whilst
acknowledging the sense and sagacity of my
words.
The President confided in me that his three
biggest worries are insecurity, corruption and
power. He spoke a bit about how he planned to
address these issues. Finally, as he saw me off
to the door, he spoke about his efforts at
combating crime and terrorism and had kind
words for the Chadians in particular. He felt
proud about Chadian interventions on behalf of
Nigeria. He would love to see such cooperation
from other African countries.
On the whole, I had spent more than my allotted
time of 15 minutes but I believe both of us
concluded that we had a good and fruitful
discourse. Before I departed, I promised the
President my support and assured him that I
would always alert him of sensitive developments
needing his immediate attention through my
articles and Column.
May God grant our President favour to do
that which he fervently desires for Nigerians
and Nigeria! God bless our na
www.thisdaylive.com/articles/an-afternoon-with-president-buhari/214882/

Just the link

He is busy doing the lifting let's wait

Dharniel:
Just the link

updated

Faba:
He is busy doing the lifting let's wait

thanx for d understanding

Bob Dee, as always you have put certain issues that Nigerians nay the opposition have misconstrued in the right perspective.
For those who don't have an inkling of PMB making statements about his person, this article will open your eyes to the kind of president we are fortunate to have.
PMB's coming to power is divinely scripted and thus will succeed despite the efforts of the wailing wailers, ranting ranters and lying liars in association with gullible and sentimentally demented Nigerians.
Nigeria shall be great again through this common sense revolution sweeping across the land.

Cc: lalasticlala, ishilove

Ok