Ekiti State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and their ilk have been sending feint to Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State over a supposedly trip to the United States of America, USA, by the wife of Major General Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha, on August 3 2016, but they are fighting a lost battle.
In the event leading to the hypothetically trip, Fayose had said that Aisha played a role in Jefferson bribery scandal. The ebullient governor made the comment the umpteenth time. Some links were said to have been distributed to the USA Justice department to show testimony of the odious funds that were allegedly transferred by Aisha.
The fearless and indomitable Fayose claimed that Buhari should own up that he was as corrupt just as those he was witch-hunting instead of following the rule of law. Since June 20, Fayose had not said this like one having water in his mouth; he said it loud and clear!
In the words of Fayose, “Even the President cannot claim to be an angel. The estate he built in Abuja is known to us. His wife was indicted over the Halliburton Scandal (sic). When that American, Jefferson, was being sentenced, the President’s wife was mentioned as having wired $170,000 to Jefferson. Her name was on page 25 of the sentencing of Jefferson. We can serialize the judgment for people to see and read.”
Nigerians cannot rule out the fact that Governor Fayose is brave, outspoken and a man who has refused to talk like a boy when others have chickened out in the Major General Buhari-led (un) democratic governance for fear of being haunted.
We are not talking about the democratic government here, but what happens under Nigeria’s democracy under Buhari – where Buhari cajoles lawyers and judiciary apparently – not to follow professionalism in the conduct of charges against some alleged corrupt persons, but should send such persons to prison without a trial.
Remember that Buhari on April 1, 2016 said his government was not prepared to release from detention the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra and Director of the Europe Based Radio Biafra, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, for alleged treason, as well as former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, a retired Army Colonel, who is facing corruption charges.
Hear Buhari: “Dasuki, who is presently in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS), has multiple cases in court, which he must diligently face and answer. Nnamdi Kanu has committed a serious offence and therefore government is not prepared to release him based on the numerous bail orders handed down by the different courts”. In short, the governor said many things in this stead.
After Fayose made that claim against Aisha, a make-believe ‘Aisha Buhari’ passport was circulated over the media, especially the online, as the one who was the ‘culprit’ that Fayose was talking about, and not the Major General’s wife.
There was jittery in the presidency and it took them nearly two months or so to ‘package’ news that Aisha travelled to the USA, when we were being fed that she was represented at an event in the USA by the wife of Senate President, Mrs. Bukola Saraki.
But before we could open some pictures of Mrs. Saraki with the Obamas, the image launderers of Aisha started bombarding the social media with ‘Aisha pictures in the USA’. They also sent out some videos of her in the USA without us seeing her with those that matter.
The irony is that Fayose did not gamble with his stance, but it took Aisha a conduct-of-life to come out with her USA trip story. We know that both positive and negative thinking are infectious, so Fayose was right in his thinking.
The governor triumphed over procrastination, but Aisha didn’t. She showed that there could be some truth in the position of Fayose by the way she delayed, deferred, dilly-dallied, lazy, postponed, procrastinated going to the USA at the early time of the accusation.
The APC Ekiti and others insulting Fayose today ought to hide their faces in shame and apologise to Fayose. Remember that Major General Buhari and those in his bandwagon had on June 27 2016 announced that Aisha would travel to USA that day for the June 30th World First Ladies Conference holding at Colorado USA., in order to confirm that she was innocent.
Many Nigerians and onlookers were toned to that news, but what we saw were a jittered Aisha and her husband’s presidency making a u-turn. They saw that Nigerians would say ‘there is Jack in the bedroom’; hence, they told us that Aisha had left for the Saudi Arabia for lesser hajj.
Their game was a bad one! There was no need keeping the travel of Aisha to the USA for so long. An innocent person would always show action, avoidance of doubt, courage, resolve to establish his or her innocence.
Aisha’s delay before the emergence of the news that she was in the USA in August, was habitual procrastination. Fayose showed courage which was more important than the Aisha’s shallow victory.
Fayose showed a sign of thinker: maturity. Fayose never gave excuses like – Aisha – that will not take anyone far. Fayose was calm, cool, humble, but Aisha and her husband’s presidency showed procrastination and allowed excuses reign supreme.
They delayed justice and highly missed the scant trust that people had in them. Governor Fayose wears the crown of victory having not tarried on his goals in speaking out unlike those that have buried their joy for shying away, hence bearing the mark of untold story written all over them, because of fear of the untouchable Major General Buhari.
We know that Fayose’s bribery stance will continue to bang on the doors of Aisha’s heart. However, let Fayose not allow the accusations by the APC Ekiti suggesting that the rumoured trip of Aisha has exposed him as a “man lacking in integrity to hold the responsible position of the governor of Ekiti State”.
APC spokesman, Taiwo Olatunbosun was reported to have said this on August 7 2016. Fayose should therefore take comfort in Alan Garner’s “The Weirdstone of Brisingamen”, saying, we learned that the deed is nothing. It is the thought that breeds fear; and we achieve little by lingering.
Consequently, Aisha achieved nothing by lingering on the USA trip.
Odimegwu Onwumere is a Rivers State based poet, writer and consultant. He won in the digital category, Nordica Media Merit Awards 2016, Lagos; and the International Award for Excellence in Journalism 2016, Geneva. Tel: +2348057778358. Email: [email protected]