ASO ROCK WATCH: As Buhari jabs opposition parties. Two other talking points

Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari threw jabs at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and other opposition parties for losing the February 25, 2023, presidential election.

Two other stories from the presidency were also dissected within the week under review.

1. As Buhari jabs opposition parties

On April 27, Buhari stated that “a combination of overconfidence, complacency, and bad tactical moves” made the PDP-led opposition parties to lose the presidential election.

According to a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the President stated this when members of the Progressives Governors’ Forum visited him at the Aso Rock villa, Abuja.

“They (the opposition) were already telling their foreign backers that they would defeat the APC. Our party blended confidence with caution, we worked hard and won. Now, their overconfidence is creating more problems for the opposition than anyone else. They are finding it hard to convince those who supported them from the outside why they are unable to beat us,” he said.

Buhari’s statement is an unapologetic mockery of the presumed performance of the opposition parties amidst their pronounced determination to take the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) off the perch of power.

In painting the opposition parties as a band of naive noise makers, too consumed with personal pursuits, Buhari showed that he was human after all by gloating over his party’s victory at the polls.

His jabs, taken in good faith, might as well serve as a wake-up call for the losing parties to go back to the drawing board, drop their personal interests, and pursue other strategic ways of doing better in the next election cycle.

Two other talking points

2. Defending Buhari over Chibok girls

On April 27, the Presidency defended Buhari over his administration’s failure to rescue all the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls.

Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, speaking during an interview on Channels TV, Sunrise Daily said:
“But then, if a government came in when the trail was already cold and you couldn’t trace where the girls were taken, you can’t then blame it solely for not bringing them back, that would not be quite right.”

Read Also:ASO ROCK WATCH: Is Buhari leaving Nigeria better than he met it? One other talking point

Adesina’s defence may have provided a key insight into how the Presidency approached the Chibok girls issue in the early days of the administration, while Nigerians hoped for a rapid response.

Indeed, the interview opens up fresh pains and brings to fore the sad reality that the kidnapped schoolgirls may never return to the loving arms of their parents again.

All said, with the Buhari tenure coming to an end this month, it is time to admit that it would only take a miracle for the girls to see their families again.

3. Nigeria’s peace agenda in Africa

Buhari, on April 28, said that peace, and stability were central to the vision of Nigeria in Africa.

Presidential spokesman, Shehu, reported Buhari as making the remarks when he received a message from President Ibrahim Ghali of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).

Buhari, he said, emphasized that peace and stability were important to security and prosperity, noting that Nigeria’s size and resources have imposed a stabilising role on her in the continent.

The remarks, again, deepen the portrayal of Nigeria as a big brother saddled with the responsibility of holding up her African neighbours amid its own challenges.

Though Nigeria has continued to carry this self-imposed burden with some level of equanimity, it is must be said that its leadership had done little to deserve emulation by its ‘smaller’ neighbours.

Sadly, what this means is that while Nigeria thrusts its size in the face of the world, the real measure for capacity and capability has been how leaders are able to harness the human and material resources placed at their disposal.

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