Aisha Yesufu: Undressing the Auchi ‘masquerade’


The proclivity of some Nigerians to abuse noble concepts is alarming and appalling. Elsewhere, activism is a dignified enterprise and those who engage in it are translucently selfless, cerebral, purposeful and focused. But the concept of activism has been terribly bruised and abused in Nigeria.
It is common to hear about branded versions of activism in Nigeria. The categories are many and varied. Often, one hears of “emergency activists,” “hired activists,” “street activists” and lots more. And because of the extremely unstructured pattern of life in the country, it is difficult to even differentiate activists from critics. Anyone who has a personal grudge or is disgruntled with government for selfish reasons wears the badge of “rights activist” and begins to prance about making hallucinatory noise.  


Genuine activists crusade popular causes, which are unambiguously beneficial to the people. The actions tilt to pro-masses agenda. They do not personalise the struggle or hide under the veil of activism to champion self-centered interests in disguise. But Nigeria is unfortunate to have many of such fake and pseudo activists.  


The co-convener, #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) group and self-styled and accidental rights activist, Aisha Yesufu, holds the latest flag of those who defame and traduce activism in Nigeria. Her conscription into BBOG under the pretext of campaigning for the release of abducted Chibok schoolgirls was to find a convenient platform to promote a personal agenda.
Yesufu has goofed terribly and the frustration is making her restless. She erroneously thought she had struck gold by her membership of BBOG group, which she could manipulate to ascend to power. But President Muhammadu Buhari did not meet her expectations. The president disappointed her.  


The consequence is Yesufu’s nurtured and bubbling pathological hatred for the Buhari administration, his appointees and all who serve in the government at different capacities. She posits as the author of knowledge in Nigeria and so, faults everything done by government, but has no worthwhile clue on a better alternative.  
She spreads criticisms on the present government like coronavirus. And some gullible people erroneously term her watery and fluid criticisms as activism. Aisha Yesufu wakes up everyday, looking for even the most irrelevant issues or insignificant matters to parrot. She parrots on everything under the sun, even on issues she is barren of knowledge. 
Yesufu feigns the posture of pro-masses activist. But her greatest burden is identifying the distinction between activism and criticism. But she seems to be a messenger of falsehood and her only motivation is the masked pursuit of a personal agenda, evident in acting the script of external forces against her country. 


She may be out on a revenge mission, but lacks the wisdom to prosecute it decently. She only manifests in faulting everything done by the leaders of Nigeria. Aisha Yesufu has mastered the antics of blackmailing and arm-twisting the government for patronage in appointment or other ways. It is a faulty approach.


She hypocritically feigns fighting for the poor or projects herself as the voice of the voiceless. But it is outright falsehood. A pseudo activist, her hypocrisy and capitalist quest clothed with the garments of a do-gooder are fast polluting any vestige of personality in her.   
The Buhari government happens to be a victim of her unrestrained anger and frustration. So, she seeks every day to lower the esteem of Mr President and his administration in the eyes of Nigerians, but anchored on very feeble arguments and criticisms.
She hates PMB to a fault and therefore blind to reason. Her permutations using the plank of the BBOG forum was to strategically position herself to be noticed and consequently sneak her way into the administration as minister or head of a federal agency. But she was ignored and its spurred indignation. The fallout is that she finds it difficult to forgive the administration for failing to name her a minister in the same manner, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili is also mad at Mr. President. 
The irony in Nigeria is that people who obviously pursue personal agenda and vendetta posture as pro-masses crusaders to attract public sympathy. Yesufu’s case is more shameful because she uses crude tactics and lacks tact in playing the game.  


For instance, when President Buhari addressed the nation in the aftermath of the outbreak of the coronavirus in Nigeria and announced certain measures to curb the spread of the virus, Aisha Yesufu was in the news saying she is not pleased with the advice given by the president. She created the impression of someone who is an expert in pandemic management; whilst she has no idea. Is Aisha advocating that President Buhari administers Nigeria based solely on the template defined by her?

And when the Hate Speech Bill was introduced in the Senate, Yesufu pushed it back to President Buhari. She failed to recognise that the executive and legislature are separate arms of government and so, Mr. President cannot interfare with the conduct of their affairs.


In any case, in her excitement to be noticed or to blackmail the Presidency, Yesufu rushed to brand President Buhari as the number one hate speech purveyor, ludicrously citing the president’s description of Nigerian youths as lazy as constituting hate speech. What wisdom equates the utterance “laziness” to hate speech?  


And if it is not the display of barefaced insanity, what rationale should compel someone to question the decision of Mr. President directing the CBN to stop issuing forex for the importation of food? Nigeria has achieved a significant level of food sufficiency and has no reason to keep enriching foreign nations through food importation.
But in Yesufu’s wisdom, hence forex is banned on food importation, it must also apply on importation of petroleum products. In juxtaposition, can a normal person claim Nigeria has achieved self-sufficiency on refining of crude oil to service its domestic consumption?  
Not long ago, Aisha Yesufu almost had a fisticuff with the Minister of Transport, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, over the fake claims that the latter and passengers escaped kidnap by hoodlums at the Rigasa train station. 
She was not present at the scene of the incident; relied on secondary sources of information, but vouched for the concocted information as if she experienced it herself. It is the extent desperation has drenched Aisha Yesufu into a fake news monger for the simple reason of ridiculing the administration.   


 What she has failed to realise is that Nigerians now know that behind the veil-wearing woman is a notorious and lavish liar, an opportunist and a woman whose insatiable quest for money cannot be quantified.
But Aisha nailed herself. Her suspicious handling of the proceeds of the BBOG campaigns is reason the Buhari administration has maintained a safe distance from her and quarantined her from public funds. 
So, the reality of her neglect has injected an endemic hatred into her against President Buhari and all that relates to him. It’s only the president that she sees in her dreams. If she is not criticising the military in the morning, she is criticising Mrs. Buhari the next morning or the president’s ministers.


No one should be fooled by Aisha Yesufu’s antics. Her criticisms are not for altruistic reasons. Charity begins at home, but Aisha has never ever spoken about her downtrodden and impoverished people of Auchi in Edo state.
Ochogwu writes from Wuye, Abuja.

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