Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on media. Facebook
The Special Assistant to Nigeria’s President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has condemned a statement credited to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar that President Muhammadu Buhari is “power drunk”.
Famzn News recalls that the Waziri Adamawa, who is a presidential aspirant of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was quoted as saying Buhari is “very uncompromising, power drunk (and) will not be ready to leave power without a fight.”
Reacting on Wednesday, the presidential spokesman, said it is true that Buhari is uncompromising but only “in the quest to restore probity and accountability to public office”.
Adesina said his principal is also uncompromising in “cleaning the rot Nigeria was consigned into pre-2015, thus the war against corruption is being fought without fear or favour.”
His words: “Rather than use the name of President Muhammadu Buhari to buoy his bid to get the presidential ticket of a party, whose flag has been flying at half-mast since it got roundly trounced at the polls in 2015, the former Vice President needs be told that the President is truly uncompromising, but only when it comes to looting the common patrimony of Nigerians, and squandering their riches,” Adesina said in a statement.
“Yes, President Muhammadu Buhari is single-minded in effecting change in every area of Nigerian life. So, Alhaji Abubakar is right, if that was what he meant by the President being uncompromising. But power drunk? No! And being a man ‘who will not be ready to leave power without a fight?’ Never!
“It is some political leaders we must beseech to eschew pugnacity and mind their language.
Adesina also said the president has demonstrated he is a committed democrat, “though also a retired military general (which) he has no apologies for.”
“In many ways, President Muhammadu Buhari has wielded power with decency, and as a means of serving the people, rather than for personal ends. If there’s one person not intoxicated by power, it is President Muhammadu Buhari, and scores of millions of Nigerians know this,” he also said.
“That is why they will invest him with power again next year, knowing that he won’t misuse or misapply what has been entrusted to him.”
Adesina asked Abubakar to “borrow a leaf from the decorous language employed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo” when the two argued over restructuring.
“That is the hallmark of statesmen, and not crying wolf where none exists, which is what the allegation of being uncompromising and power drunk truly is,” he said.
“Let the former Vice President be rest assured that there will be no ‘fight’ over power in Nigeria. Not under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch. The people don’t want a fight.”