By Aliyu Askira
Kano
Senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, yesterday in a statement made available to newsmen in Kano, described a recent statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari that Nigerians “are not patient” as unfortunate, saying the President should know that Nigeria’s other name is ‘patient’.
According to the lawmaker, Nigerians, especially the masses have demonstrated unprecedented patience with the APC administration, adding that “the love of the masses for the President was beyond the ordinary, and stretching to hypnosis.”
The President, according to the human right activist cum politician, “is not as popular as he used to be but he still commands an unappreciable cult followership among the poor; the poor still see him as their messiah, they endure all pains and hardship and see it as sacrifice.”
The electorate, he noted, used to denounce his critics even when they were right, “they applaud the President even when he is wrong in the heart of many of his followers. He is raised to a saintly angelic and infallible mortal, until recently, the fanaticisms of the President’s supporters in some parts of the country has created a tyrannical atmosphere of fear and silence, people have institutionalised intolerance to contrary opinion and for one to be safe, is to be quite.”
When the President went on health vacation, according to the senator who has never pretended to be a politician but a human right activist, Nigerians prayed for him and never protested, “They even chased protesters like Charlie Boy from Abuja streets because Nigerians don’t want to hear anything bad about the President.”
President Muhammadu Buhari, according to him is the only President in Nigerian history that can whip people with koboko and they will smile and thank him for the lashes; and as such, Shehu said “it is wrong for Buhari to say that the Nigerian masses are not patient because their love for the President is the power of their patience.”
