EVEN those who do not know Mrs. Aisha Buhari, the President’s wife, know that she does not eat money.
Does anyone eat money? Aminu Adamu Mohammed could not have said she ate our money. He too knows that Mrs. Buhari does not eat money.
This piece is being written so gingerly to avoid abusing Mrs. Buhari who I have been tempted to address as First Lady.
I have read where she was called the First Lady, some still did in this matter that is lying at Federal High Court 14, Abuja. I refuse to refer to her as First Lady, otherwise I could commit an offence worse than Aminu’s.
President Muhammadu Buhari, her husband, told us over seven years ago, that there is no First Lady in his administration.
Without any change of mind by the President, at least not to the knowledge of the public, the matter in court is between Aminu, a 500-level student of the Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa, who is said to be studying Environmental Management & Toxicology whose tweet on Mrs. Buhari was not what Mrs. Buhari wanted.
The Abuja court on Tuesday sent Aminu to the Suleja Correctional Centre in Niger State.
The charge against Aminu is publishing false information.
It read, “That you Aminu Adamu, male of Anguwar Sarakuna, Bauchi, Bauchi State sometime between May-June 2022 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did intentionally open a Twitter handle with the name @aminullahie Catalyst and screenshot the image of Her Excellency Hajia Aisha Buhari and wrote on it in Hausa language ‘Su mama anchi kudi talakawa ankoshi’ roughly translated to the English language to mean ‘mama has embezzled monies meant for the poor to satisfaction’ and posted same on your above Twitter handle for the members of the public to read, knowing same to be false and capable of affecting her reputation.
You thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 391 of the penal code.”
Aminu was reportedly picked from his school and taken straight to the Presidential Villa where he was allegedly brutalised, beaten, maltreated, and humiliated by security agents.
Was the beating part of the preparation to charge him to court?
The issues of guilt or not should be apportioned by the court but we can try some here.
Aminu is not guilty as he has pleaded until the court otherwise decides. Was he beaten? Was he tortured?
If yes, those who did so violated his human dignity. They should be punished.
Here is a brief list of those who are guilty in this matter. Their involvements have complicated a slim matter –
.Twitter, without whose handle Aminu would have been saved from where he would be denied medications, asked to eat whatever he is served, his freedom of speech numbered and movement restricted.
.The Federal Government for lifting the ban on Twitter without due considerations that the uses of the platform could affect the President’s wife. The consultations were not extensive enough. That the President’s wife could have been domiciled abroad at the time of the Twitter brouhaha is inadequate reason for not factoring in her interests.
.Goodluck Jonathan who founded the Federal University in Dutse under the pretence of developing Nigeria through education without a thought about the possible consequences. Imagine that the biggest headline from the university he built with public funds is about a student who had the temerity to comment on the President’s wife, a serving President for that matter.
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.All those involved in shutting down the universities for months. Aminu allegedly committed the offence about June, four months into the ASUU strike. Could he be blamed for keeping his workshop busy while the country debated the unimportance of education?
.Mrs. Buhari who looks so beautiful that we cannot but say something, even if it is in our hearts, about her. One ran into a debate where Nigerians were voting for which version of her, they preferred. One left in a hurry, dreading the possibility of security agents arriving the scene to whisk them away. We are wondering what her magic is. Definitely, she does not eat money. She has refused to “cut soap for us,” show us the way to her looks. Are we no longer fellow Nigerians?
.Nigerian public that is angry about the President’s wife using resources available to her to bring Aminu to justice. Did we expect her not to use the security agencies to find Aminu? How can we forget how powerful she is? She is the President’s wife, leader of Nigerian women, much in the same way as her husband leads.
.Students are planning protests that would mostly inconvenience those of us who did not eat money.
Money is too toxic to be eaten. Anyone so accused could get angry. Some could turn it to a joke except that in Nigeria some believe that people chop money, eat money. The President’s wife does not want her name to be associated with any of these. Who would?
Pictures of the rotten Naira notes some Nigerians are unearthing in their bid to benefit from the Central Bank’s change of bank notes is unsightly and should not be used to reference anyone, not this season, or ever.
They are more toxic than a student of toxicology could realise.
Aminu needs to take his examination. He should get a bail.
This incident reminds everyone that the President’s wife is in Nigeria and in no mood to allow anyone say anything she does not like.
If you want to say something about the President’s wife, let it be something really nice. And the cybercrime law is well and alive – the President’s wife is using it to prosecute Aminu; I almost wrote persecute.
.Isiguzo is a major commentator on minor issues
