The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that the public outburst by Nigerian First Lady, Aisha Buhari, against presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, is indicative of incompetence of President MuhammaduBuhari.
It is “another sad commentary that further exposes President Muhammadu Buhari’s incompetence and why government has failed in his hands,” the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said in a statement in Abuja.
According to the main opposition party, the development has also exposed President Buhari’s failure to lead and enforce an organised governance structure, and that the governance of our nation has been ceded to the chaotic and selfish whims of a cabal.
It added: “It is indeed appalling that under President Buhari, our once productive and highly organised Presidency has been bastardized and reduced to Kunle Bamtefa’s soap opera, Fuji House of Commotion.
“Instead of governance, the Buhari Presidency has continued to serve Nigerians and the international community with tragicomedies that make mockery of leadership.
“Nigerians can now further see why nothing works under the Buhari Presidency; why the administration has remained shambolic and plagued with policy summersaults and executive recklessness; why our economy has remained comatose and why our nation has been dangerously drifting to the brinks under President Buhari’s watch.
“Indeed, the Buhari Presidency has proven to be a huge national embarrassment and a big problem for our nation.
“Never in the history of our nation has the office, essence and symbol of Nigeria’s Presidency been so stripped and ridiculed.”
The PDP urged President Buhari to “immediately put his house in order and save the nation further embarrassments under his very incompetent, disorderly and messy regime.”
The wife of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), Aisha, had on Wednesday said the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, now takes orders from Buhari’s powerful nephew, Mamman Daura.
In a statement she personally signed on Wednesday, Mrs Buhari said it was Daura that ordered Shehu to issue a statement to say that the office of the first lady had been scrapped.
Aisha, in the statement she issued very early on Wednesday, said, “I recall, sadly, that it was the same Garba Shehu, who claimed that the government would not allow office of the first lady to run. He was later to confirm to one of my aides that he was instructed to say so by Mamman Daura and not the President. This antic attracted the anger of Nigerian women. He didn’t realise the fact that the first lady’s office is a tradition which has become an institution.”
Mrs Buhari said when she returned from her long visit to Europe, she granted an interview to the NTA at the Nnamdi Azikwe Airport, where she revealed that it was Daura’s daughter, Fatima, that leaked a video showing her protesting the excesses of the Daura family.
She alleged that rather than do his job and clear the air, Shehu ensured that her media aides and some members of staff of the NTA were suspended because of the interview.
Aisha added, “To make matters worse, Mr Shehu has presented himself to these people as a willing tool and executioner of their antics, from the corridors of power even to the level of interfering with the family affairs of the President. This should not be so.
“The blatant meddling in the affairs of a first lady of a country is a continuation of the prodigal actions of those that he serves. We all remember that the chief proponent appropriated to himself and his family a part of the Presidential Villa, where he stayed for almost four years and when the time came for him to leave, he orchestrated and invaded my family’s privacy through a video circulated by Mamman’s daughter, Fatima. The public was given the impression that on arrival into the country I was locked out of the villa by Mr President. Garba Shehu as the Villa spokesperson, knew the truth and had the responsibility to set the records straight, but because his allegiance is somewhere else and his loyalty misplaced, he deliberately refused to clear the air and speak for the President who appointed him in the first place. Consequently, his action has shown a complete breakdown of trust between the first family and him.
“Mr Shehu was privy and part of the plan and its execution and he was shocked when he realised that I had publicised my return to Nigeria and cleared the air on the many rumours that took over social media. A job he was supposed to do but kept mute to cause more confusion and instability for his principal and his family.
“Garba then, vented his anger on the NTA management insisting that the media crew to my office must be sacked. He succeeded in getting them suspended for doing their job. I had to intervene to save the innocent staff from losing their means of livelihood by involving the Department of State Services in order to ascertain roles played by key actors in the saga.”
Thefirst lady, therefore, asked Shehu to resign as his loyalty was not to the President but to an unelected nephew of her husband.
She said there was a ploy by Shehu and his ilk to start a smear campaign against her and her children.
She said, “Based on Garba Shehu’s misguided sense of loyalty and inability to stay true and loyal to one person or group, it has become apparent that all trust has broken down between him and my family due to the many embarrassments he has caused the Presidency and the first family.’
