Mixed reactions continue to trail President Muhammadu Buhari’s maiden presidential media chat with a selection of journalists from four media platforms held at the presidential villa seven months after his inauguration as Nigeria’s helmsman.
In the two-hour chat broadcast live on several television and radio network stations Buhari answered questions on national issues including his fight against corruption, the whereabouts of the Chibok girls, to the recent Army-Shiites clash.
Buhari came to power after winning the March 28 presidential election, defeating the former president Goodluck Jonathan and was sworn in May 29, 2015.
His party the All Progressives Congress (APC) promised Nigerians change and since he has been trying to bring all those who reportedly looted the nation’s treasury to justice.
In his reaction, Femi Fani Kayode, the former minister of aviation, in his reaction said he is not impressed with President Buhari’s performance. According to him, the president has turned himself into a judge and jury.
“Anyone that watched the chat and still believes we are operating a democracy where the rule of law prevails is insane. Buhari has turned himself into a judge and jury and he attempted to justify the flouting of court orders by his security agencies.
But, a United Kingdom based public affairs commentator Susan Eyo hailed President Buhari’s factual responses to questions availed him.
“On the Chibok girls I am at peace with his honest and frank responses and it will help everyone concerned with foreclosure on this matter.” She posted on her facebook wall.
Similarly, Lagos based Businesswoman Modupe Jessica Bewaji said the President showed a deep understanding of Nigeria’s contemporary issues as against the notion that he is aloof and unbending.
Another former Minister and ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ co-convener, Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili, described as shocking the statement of President Muhammadu Buhari in his media chat that he has no credible intelligence on the whereabouts of the Chibok Girls.
Speaking on Channels Television breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, this morning, she noted that having spent 625 days in captivity, the statement was a blow and a sign of the total collapse of the Nigerian state when the whole apparatus of government could not have any trail of the disappearance of 209 girls who went to school.
“We met with the President on July 9, and the President said his government would exhaust all ways to ensure the Chibok girls and the other abducted people would be found. After that meeting in August, the Chibok Community sent a reminder on the need to communicate effectively. We did not hear from government.
“And in November, I had a meeting with the Vice President, and I told him that since the President made a pledge in his inauguration that there would not be a defeat of Boko Haram without the rescue of the Chibok Girls, it was heartwarming.
“When the government gave the December 31st as date to end the Boko Haram insurgency, we had a date to hope for, but the statement of the President was just a crushing blow for us all especially the families of the Chibok Girls who have no foreclosure,” she said.
The former Minister stated that there would not be any rest and that her organisation will keep fighting because it is unacceptable for the government to give up.
She noted that since April 2013, she has stayed on this matter because she had garnered enough evidence to show that the girls are real and were actually missing.
Dr. Ezekwesili said that we are in the era of cutting edge technology, and there is no way with concerted effort that information could not have been garnered on this issue. She said it should be of concern to Nigerians that young girls were being turned into suicide bombers.
She dismissed reports that the girls being used as suicide bombers are the Chibok Girls because the age range of these bombers have been put at 10-13, which puts them far younger that the Chibok Girls who were 14-16 years at the time they were abducted.
Asked why she has not moved to other issues apart from the BBOG matter, she said it has always been part of the group’s mission, noting that it put out a powerful statement when a video came out on soldiers running away from Boko Haram. It also took up the issue together with Femi Falana, SAN when some soldiers were court marshaled. Now it has come to fore that the soldiers were correct in their action because the funds were not judiciously used.