Opinion: Heeding the National Call Again, By Louis Odion
No longer speculation; this is to confirm that, God willing, I shall assume duties in the coming days as the Senior Technical Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Following reports last week of my appointment as the senior technical assistant on Media to the President, naturally, I was inundated with calls and messages from friends, associates and wellwishers. While those expressing goodwill are appreciated, I took particular note of the apprehension expressed by a good many others as to whether I had fallen for the temptation of accepting to trade the liberty of a writer for the comforting invitation to “come and eat” in Abuja.
One’s position in the last four years of engaging the public space through the agency of columnism has been that of critical solidarity with PMB. While opinions will naturally be divided on the President on the basis of partisanship, there are virtues of his that are never in dispute. Even the fiercest critics cannot deny his personal integrity, humility, forebearance, genuine compassion for the poor and the vulnerable, frugal taste, contempt for primitive acquisition and patriotism.
Unlike what happened in 2014/2015, Buhari would not have approved the $2.1b meant to buy arms to fight Boko Haram be shared like candy to the ruling party’s fat cats and obese rats, thus not only denying our long-suffering troops a fighting chance against the worse adversary the nation has ever known, but also endangering the very basis of our national existence.
There are great lessons to be learnt from Jagaban as well. The story of the Tinubu evolution is undoubtedly a profile in consistency and uncommon courage in the defence of a conviction. A true test of a man’s character is taken not in the time of convenience, but by the choices he makes under great temptations in adversity.
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