Aisha Yesufu, co-convener of advocacy
group, Bring Back Our Girls, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari, who
is on medical leave in London, to resign immediately.
Yesufu said this in a two-minute video clip posted on her official Twitter handle on Friday.
She said, “When are we going to realise
that this Acting President (arrangement) is really not just working out?
Things are stagnant in Nigeria. For crying out loud, the President is
sick, the President is not capable of discharging his duties as
President. Why can’t he resign?
“Sickness can happen to anybody; nobody
is wishing the President bad. The fact that he is sick does not mean he
is going to die today or tomorrow; even someone who is as healthy as I
am can drop dead. That is life.
“But for crying out loud, for how long
are we going to wait and keep watching everything go into disarray? Who
is going to sign the budget? We don’t know. The report on Babachir Lawal
(SGF), what is happening to it? Why are we being held to ransom?”
The activist said even though Buhari had
handed over power to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, who has since become
the Acting President, the latter would not be able to perform his
duties properly because of the politics of Nigeria.
Yesufu said Osinbajo lacked the power to
take decisive actions like sacking errant public officials because he
would not want to rock the boat or take politically incorrect steps.
She said even though no human being was
immune to sickness, Buhari’s case was peculiar because the lives of
millions of people were in his hands and he must thus put the needs of
the nation ahead of his own.
Yesufu added, “It’s not about you, Mr
President. Can you just take some time off to take care of yourself? May
God give you good health, may God have mercy on you. What you are going
through is from God and people go through it in different ways, but
please, Mr. President, do not allow this to keep the rest of us in
bondage.
“And for us Nigerians, it is time we
woke up. The Acting President cannot do anything because he wants to be
seen as a good man. We need to take our country back. Let the President
resign and if he cannot resign, let the National Assembly do the right
thing and let us have another President.
“It is not about President Muhammadu
Buhari, it’s about Nigeria and right now, Nigeria is suffering and we
cannot continue to allow this. Please, we have a lot of people who are
supposed to be sacked but they cannot be sacked.”
However, the Special Adviser to the
President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, on Friday said he
stood by his earlier position on the calls being made by individuals for
the resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari.
In an interview with our correspondent,
Adesina said those making the calls were only expressing their personal
opinions, which they were entitled to.
He said about 15 million Nigerians voted
massively for the President and the calls by a few Nigerians could not
therefore override the mandate given to Buhari by Nigerians.
Adesina said, “I have addressed this issue before and my position has not changed.
“The calls for the President’s resignation are mere opinions. They are not the gospel.
“This is democracy and freedom of speech is in the constitution, so they are entitled to their opinion.
“Like I always say, 15 million Nigerians
voted for the President during the presidential election. If 10 or 15
people are calling for his resignation, they cannot override that
mandate.”
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