"Muhammadu Buhari for crying out loud, you've gotten the best of this world. "Alorro" things that you have, most people cannot even dream to have that. For most people it's just a dream, some cannot even afford to dream. You've been President twice you said it yourself, you have reached the peak of your career as military man and as a politician. For crying out loud President Muhammadu Buhari can you allow each and every one of us, 140m Nigerians, or is it 170m or whatever number we are, the opportunity to equally reach the peak of our careers?" - 'Activist' Aisha Yusufu, BBOG Convener
Above is the bizarre opinion of Aisha Yusuf, a pseudo-activist and major shareholder of the 'BBOG business franchise', which she released to the public to sell a false idea of incapacitation against President Muhammadu Buhari in an organised bid to have him resign. The visibly agitated 'activist' almost popped out of my iPad screen while throwing 'Che Guavera' punches to press home her pedestrian beliefs. If anything, Yusuf's 'less-than-Nollywood' display was more a publicity stunt than show of concern for our collective wellbeing as I will analyse and prove shortly.
Much as Aisha Yesufu have a right to express her opinion on President Buhari, she have a duty to express such opinions to cohere with logic and commonsense if the objective is to make sense in the context of societal development. Her lack of grasp of the most basic tool of an activist - the constitution - left no one in doubt as to her unpreparedness for the business of activism. So far, she has given Nigerians more reasons to doubt her sincerity than to align with her thoughts. Let's review her earlier outings to put her latest stunt in its real context.
Not long ago she was spearheading an agitation meant to harass President Buhari and the Nigerian Army into action in regard to the release of the Chibok girls. Yusuf and her cohorts went about the business of the Chibok girls release without the slightest appreciation of the sensitivity and delicate nature of a hostage situation even to advanced societies. The FG succumbed to the 'vuvuzeling' persistence of the BBOG and arranged a visit to the Sambisa jungle for select members of President Buhari's administration and some of members of civil societies and pressure groups to prove the government was well on ground and working hard to rescue the Chibok girls.
Funny enough, despite Aisha Yusuf's disbelief about government's efforts to rescue the Chibok girls, she was reluctant to take FG's offer to verify her doubts. The fist clenching local 'Che Guavera' had to be cajoled into taking an offer for a seat on the well protected military jet arranged for the Sambisa visit for an on the spot assessment of the troops and plans deployed for the operation.
She finally succumbed and took the offer but not without some silly conditions which I cannot readily recall. They went, they saw and they returned safely. However, I'm yet to hear her account of the visit; I'm yet to hear if she has confirmed her doubts about the operations. I'm yet to read her apology to the FG for doubting its sincerity just as I'm yet to read her apology to her gullible followers for misleading them on the Chibok girls saga. But for Mrs. Obi Ezekwesile who expressed satisfaction with FG's efforts to rescue the Chibok girls, Nigerians wouldn't have known the post-Sambisa visit opinion of the BBOG pundits. Yusuf was mute as a mule while the success of the visit lasted. Perhaps, she was overwhelmed by the excellence of the arrangements she saw first hand in Sambisa.
BBOG is a political franchise - a launchpad for political visibility and possible relevance. Members of the group were recharged by the appointment of a member of the group, Mrs. Hadiza Bala Usman as the MD, Nigeria Port Authority. What other members of the group refused to appreciate however, was the fact that Mrs. Hadiza Bala Usman is a social activist-cum-politician with tentacles reaching the farthest recess of the APC hence, could be said to be deserving of whatever comes her way from this administration. This is more so when her role as a member of President Buhari's presidential campaign team is considered alongside her credentials and astuteness. This basic political calculation is yet to register with the 'yet-to-be-settled' remaining members of the BBOG.
It's not coincidental that Aisha Yusuf came out breathing fire about President Buhari just few days after the successful rescue of another batch of the Chibok girls. One will be left wondering why Yusuf's latest outing was not about celebrating the success of her pet project - the Chibok girls - but about the 'incapacitation' of the man behind the successful rescue. How ironic!
Even to the inebriated, Yusuf's unprovoked attack on President Buhari was nothing but cunning display of excessive obsession with political visibility on one hand, and a consuming desperation to settle scores with the President for not noticing political overtures like BBOG on the other. It has nothing to do with the collective wellbeing of Nigerians and everything to do with the political wellbeing of Aisha Yusuf as an investor in the APC project. What has President Buhari's having the best of this world got to do with issues that are purely constitutional? Is it not petty asking the president to resign just so that 170m Nigerians could explore their dreams?
We need to ask Yusuf, did President Buhari prevent any Nigerian from exploring his/her dreams aside those that chose to do so dubiously? What's not working in the system that's making this woman restless? I thought her 'activism' was activated by the inability of the previous administration to locate and free the Chibok girls. How's President Buhari's administration not working when not only were most of the Chibok girls rescued but the region they were held captive also fully liberated. Somebody is really not thinking and not feeling anything to make it known to the public.
It's rather bizarre that Yusuf chose to see President Buhari's sacrifice as nothing but a leisure trip rather than a necessity induced tasking contribution of an old man to rescue a situation that serially defied solution. Must we see the presidency as the bed of roses she painted it for which, in her estimation, 170m Nigerians are dreaming to sleep on and enjoy? With 'activists' like this, I doubt if Nigeria need oppressors and dunderheads to stagnate!
By the way, is Aisha Yusuf more concerned about Nigeria than the authors of our constitution? She was smart to know her kite won't fly using the constitution as a propeller hence, she refused to touch the constitutionality aspect of the situation. She should have told Nigerians what the constitution says about an ailing president undergoing treatment. She should have also told Nigerians how she arrived at the purely 'medical' decision that the President is incapacitated. It was sheer bunkum to sit behind the comfort of a phone camera and feed the public opinions that are way below standards obtainable in beer parlor and suya joints.
If it were the demands of the constitution for President Buhari to resign even without reason, I'm sure majority of the 170m 'dreamer-Nigerians' on whose behalf Yusuf is restless will agree with me that he won't wait for an out-of-business pseudo-activist like her to advise him before he do what is expected of him. That technology made it easy for people to showcase their ideas shouldn't be taken without assessing the risks involved. While the cheapness provide cheap means of gaining popularity, it's also a cheap means of gaining notoriety. Activism is a sharp double-edged sword that should not be toyed with by people who are having difficulties designing their dreams to rhyme with reality.
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