Aisha: Why Buhari didn’t sack underperforming appointees

Widow of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha Buhari, says her husband did not change many of his appointees because of the fear of being referred to as a dictator.

The former First Lady disclosed this in the book  “From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari” which was launched at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Monday.

The book written by Dr Charles Omole chronicled the life and times of the late former President, his military sojourn, and journey into politics.

Aisha narrated in the book that on getting to the villa after the election, so many things changed, saying those who stood with her husband during the long years of opposition are no longer seen; “familiar faces are ‘locked out,’ their names allegedly logged by security agents and reported elsewhere.”

According to her, when she privately raised these concerns and saw no change, she spoke publicly. “campaign stalwarts on the outside; technocrats and loyalists of others on the inside; a growing gap between the promise of a movement and the reality of a government. ‘They had money; they had people; but they did not have the power to install a president,’ she says now, almost wryly. ‘They reduced Nigeria to a sitting-room meeting.”

She lamented that, “Some followed him  (Buhari) to obtain material things (money, access, contracts) and could not distinguish between ‘power’ (purpose, responsibility) and the rewards that proximity provides. In her account, the practical effects were evident: schedules shifted, meals disappeared, allies were excluded, rumours circulated that signatures were forged, and a president who feared being called a dictator hesitated to dismiss men who disappointed him.

“He had the wrong people in the right places,’ she says, ‘He didn’t change them for eight years.”

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