By CHIEF Bisi Akande, former APC chairman and ex-governor of Osun, has hailed the late Muhammadu Buhari as “an angel in human flesh” – a description many Nigerians may find rather ironic, given the biting poverty, insecurity, fuel queues and a collapsing economy they endured throughout his eight-year rule.
Leading a delegation of political associates to Kaduna, Akande mourned Buhari’s passing with glowing tributes.
“Maybe he was an angel coming in human flesh,” he said with conviction.
For ordinary Nigerians, however, that “angel” presided over record inflation, a naira that fell like a pack of cards, and a nation where basic survival became an Olympic sport.
If Buhari was, indeed, an angel, then his wings must have been clipped somewhere between the endless fuel subsidy debates, the unending ASUU strikes, and the chilling rise of kidnappings and banditry.
Akande recalled his last meeting with Buhari in Daura, saying the former president looked “healthy, robust and very strong.”
Nigerians might argue the same could never be said of the country under his stewardship, which looked anything but robust.
While political allies describe him as patriotic and selfless, many citizens remember a leader under whose watch millions slid into multidimensional poverty, and who often seemed more at home abroad than addressing the burning crises at home.
As Akande prayed with the family, Nigerians might be tempted to pray too — not for Buhari, but for themselves, as they continue to live with the consequences of his “angelic” administration.
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