WHO ELSE SPOKE TO PRESIDENT BUHARI?

By Osondu Ahirika

“Osondu”, have you heard?” Aniekeme Finbarr asked me. A jubilant shrill in his voice. Nonchalantly, I quipped, “Heard what?”, “President Buhari had a phone conversation with POTUS, Donald Trump, he is indeed hale and hearty!”

Finbar was disappointed, his exuberant announcement barely elicited a chuckle from me.
“And you believe that?”, I asked with hardboiled cynicism. “Hmmm! What do you want me to say?”, Finbar fired back, his excitement evaporating.” Well! Which one is easier done, to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven or to say rise up! Take your pallet and go home?”. I asked. Finbar was staring at me with deep introspection, a million questions in his bright eyes. “P.M(as we fondly call him), which is easier, to speak for a minute to newsmen or Nigerians or to have a call with Donald Trump?”, I asked. Finbar got the drift. He is a very smart pal. He smiled, then said, “is it easier to speak with POTUS Trump?”

I decipher where that Trump calls Buhari narrative dovetailed to. US President Donald Trump, had a busy day of diplomacy , speaking by phone with five world leaders on Saturday, January 28, 2017 barely a week after assuming office.
The list was star studded having most significantly Russia’s Vladimir

Putin and Germany’s Angela Merkel on the list. Others were, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, French President François Hollande and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. So, Buhari and supposedly, his South African counterpart are part of history, being the African Presidents to have spoken with Trump on phone. Waoo!

“Ok oo! I am still awaiting a Trump tweet on his telephone chat with President Buhari, like he did about the others. The world is getting used to Trump’s style of running his international diplomacy through highly anticipated phone calls and his famous tweets.
Thankfully, Senate President, Bukola Saraki has adopted the latter. Saraki tweeted, “Happy to have spoken with NGRPresident @MBuhari tonight. He was in good spirits and Joked about my working late into the night, as usual.”

There are other people Mr President spoke with. He commiserated with the Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung on the death of his wife, Mrs Briskila Dalung in a phone call. Nneka Anibeze, the Special Assistant, Media to the minister, who broke the news to Nigerians, said the President prayed God to grant the soul of the departed eternal rest and expressed shock at the death of Mrs Dalung which came at an unripe age. President Buhari also prayed that God would forgive her sins and give the family she left behind the fortitude to bear the loss. He called from London.

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo who says he was not under any kind of pressure to resign, also spoke with Buhari. Osinbajo told State House correspondents he had a long telephone conversation with the President who is currently on a medical leave. He disclosed that he briefed the president on the state of the nation including the on-going mass protests in the country.

When the amazon, Portia Anthony wondered why the Acting President, who is a Pastor and Professor should lie as she suspects, I sidestepped her suspicion to remind her that, Father Abraham did charge his wife Sarah, to lie to Abimelech, king of Gerar, she is his sister, lest he be killed(see Genesis 20:2). Therefore, we should leave Acting President Osinbajo alone to do the needful.

Speaker Yakubu Dogara will not be outdone in the series. He said also had a telephone discussion with President
Muhammadu Buhari, who he said talked about what the Executive/ Legislature must do to ensure food security for all Nigerians. Hmmm!

Then, there is 84 year old Hajiya Rakiya, the only surviving elder sister of President Buhari, who said, she speaks with the President on daily basis. She however appealed to Nigerians to continue to pray for the well being of the President, instead of spreading rumours about his health.

The pathetic odd one out, is the Special Adviser to Mr President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, who in a Television interview said he speaks with the President, but not directly. Hmmm!

I didn’t want to make further comments on this Mr President’s medical vacation, the third since he assumed office in May 2015.
But, it is apparent, his spin doctors and the cabal raping Nigeria with propaganda and manipulation will not let sleeping dogs lie and take all Nigerians to be idiots or fools.

My brother and friend, Moses Eskor even spoke to Mr President. On his facebook timeline, he did break the news and invited me to do same. He even sent me the Presidents private direct line. However, the line is perpetually on user busy, following the long hours of call, others, who are online, are usurping. I am still hanging around for my line to make the call and get picked by Mr President.

All these call claims reminds me of the story of Ali and the Angel, which I read way back in the early eighties. Let me lift an abridged version of that text.

The politics behind the telephone conversations of President
Buhari sounds like a fable chapter in one of the Oxford English Course series titled, Ali and the Angel.” There was a particular conman in a village called Ali. He told the villagers that he had an angel in his house that could only be seen by those who are not sinners. So anybody who went to Ali’s house without seeing the angel is regarded as a sinner. Ali only put a chair in a room with a pair of shoes which he claimed belonged to the angel.

He told the villagers that anybody who was clean and sin free would see the angel but anybody who was a sinner would not see the angel but would only see his shoes. Because human nature
is so deceitful that nobody wants to be called a sinner, those who visited Ali’s house to see the angel pretended to have seen him though none saw any angel. Each of the villagers would come
out and tell the next person that he saw the angel.” Only a man who doesn’t want to look important and relevant will say he has not spoken to President Buhari directly on phone.

Apologies to Brother Adesina.
So who will be the next to come out and tell us, he spoke with Mr President on phone from the impregnable fortress of Abuja House London?