The drama just never ends. Life, they say, is a stage filled with all kinds of drama. Today you are up and tomorrow you come crashing down.
Change (not that of the All Progressives Congress) and God are basically the only constant factors.
So last week, the dramas continued as Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and his panel assiduously grilled the suspended Secretary to the Government Babachir Lawal, the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Ayo Oke, and other linked parties.
Yet another episode came up with the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari from the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, heightening concerns about the true state of his health despite several assurances from the presidency that he was only resting.
Earlier that day, reporters covering the State House arrived way ahead of time to see what the Council meeting would be like without a Babachir Lawal. There was actually FEC meeting without the suspended SGF who doubled as the class rep, bully and a silencing voice over the loud mix of other cabinet ministers. We sat in the council chambers discussing how his seat was vacant and how the acting SGF sat behind as a newbie. Then I noticed that someone came to brief the security detail manning the President’s sit. The Vice President arrived a few minutes to 11am, the scheduled time for the meeting and took his seat waiting for the arrival of the President. At exactly 11am the Chief Protocol Officer to the President arrived and whispered to the Vice President. Looking back now, it has become obvious that he had intimated him Mr. President would not be able to attend the meeting.
There was a look of shock on the VP’s face. He too had no idea that the President would not be showing up that day.
It is no longer secret that the President has been scarce and that Nigerians have been asking to know his whereabouts. Let me digress a little to talk about another incident that happened in the Aso Rock
when a reporter wrote about the President’s continued absence.
You see, we have all been writing about this matter, if you read this column weekly you will realise that most weeks I go as far as talking about the cover ups. The truth is I do not understand why journalists
will not be allowed to write what they see. It is a different ball game writing something that is clearly false but when truth stares you in the face, how do you pretend not to notice it? Let me leave it at
this, reporters are ruffled up each day in different quarters and the fact that some go unnoticed or unanswered does not make it alright.
No it is not. The President’s absence at the FEC meeting heightened worries by Nigerians and forced his media handlers to finally break the ice and
come up to say his doctors have actually asked him to take it easy.
This is what I have been saying all the while, no one wants him sick in fact we all want a strong and healthy President. I still am trying to figure out why the council was scanty that day, did some ministers
figure that their boss may not be able to make it or they were out of town? A lot of the seats were empty and about 15 of them were absent.
As I was about to hit the send button I realised the President was absent from the mosque. A lot of people look forward to Fridays to at least get a glimpse of him to be sure that he is alright. As it stands now? I can’t help you with the answer.
That said, BD’s seat was empty, the ministers stood around talking and exchanging pleasantries in their normal way. No one shouted them down or called them by name ordering them to return to their seats, it didn’t look like they missed BD’s presence but I think those of us in the media did miss him. He would have done something to make us laugh or he would have come right after us to bully after we wrote that the President was absent from the meeting. The acting SGF, Habiba Lawal
who is the Permanent Secretary (Ecological Funds) in the office of the SGF, sat quietly behind, did I expect that she will exert the same influence BD had over the cabinet? I don’t think so.
Something funny happened when the Vice President asked the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole to offer the Christian prayer. He prayed for healing for the President and even the SGF, leaving everyone wondering if the SGF was ill. Perhaps, he forgot that the SGF had been suspended on allegations of corruption. I saw him on Tuesday when he came to
appear before the Osinbajo’s panel and he looked just fine to me.
The week through it was a mad house at the Vice President’s wing. Journalists crowded the corridor almost on daily basis, waiting to see who was next in line to appear before the Osinbajo-led committee. Everyone wanted to hear something extra. On that day, it was the turn of the suspended NIA DG, the Acting DG, and five other directors while Lawal was invited on Tuesday. Since that appearance, we have heard different versions of invitations extended by the panel, but we are all very eager to get a peek into the report of the panel. They have met and met and met yet again, most times late into the night.
You see, Mr. BD would have saved us all some trouble if he had willingly stepped aside; I mean that is the most honourable thing to do, right? Like I said last week his case is as good as concluded and
I don’t think the committee will have a hard time deciding that. On that of the NIA DG for me, the questions are still hanging. I am hoping that in a few days more revelations will unfold. I will only
drop a hint of what I gleaned off sources. They say he actually briefed the NSA and the President about nine projects which are actually ongoing but he forgot to mention the existence of the Ikoyi
apartment and the money. How convenient right? Ok, let us talk next week.
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