President-elect Muhammadu Buhari, victorious at the polls,
opened up to Weekly Trust in an all-access interview, wherein he
relaxed, revealing previously unknown sides to his personality against
the backdrop of his Daura home. Excerpts:
Weekly Trust: It’s
about a week to the inauguration and we believe you are terribly busy,
but you still had to come back home. What does Daura mean to you?
Muhammadu Buhari:
This is where I was born and raised. I have nieces, nephews, cousins,
first and second generation and I have schoolmates here. I believe after
the inauguration there will be a lot of work and maybe for several or
many weeks, I may not be able to come here even if I wanted to. I have
my farm, orchard and animals that are very dear to me, that I would like
to say goodbye to.
WT: You are talking of weeks, which suggests that every few weeks you will want to come home and reconnect with your roots?
Buhari:
Especially when Ramadan is a few weeks away, yes. Normally, while I was
busy in Kaduna, I always visited Daura on the first week of Ramadan. I
don’t spend Eid-el Fitr here but always come at the beginning and the
end of Ramadan. I don’t think being the president would stop me from
doing that.
WT: You must have a routine when you come
to Daura. We understand you have a sister you visit and obviously your
orchard as well. Do you also go round and visit friends?
Buhari:
I used to, but recently it has become difficult. I sometimes wonder why
children don’t sleep early enough these days. I normally want to go
visiting before 9:00pm, but if I go children are still awake, and they
keep on shouting my name. And by the time I come out from any of the
houses, there is always a crowd – mostly children – outside shouting my
name. I only visit a few places, my late brother’s house to visit one of
his widows and of course, my sister and sometimes my sister-in-law and
then I head home.
WT: This suggests that there is a big
weight on you, as you are popular at home and certainly in the rest of
the country. Do you feel it is too much responsibility to be this
popular?
Buhari: I don’t know. I suspect it must have been
earned over time, right from when I was in school. When I come on
holidays, my colleagues used to come and stay, spend the evening up till
midnight sometimes. Other than once in 1956 when I was in form six, I
never spent my holidays outside my hometown.
After I left school and
because of my military career, I didn’t have time. I joined the army and
I was commissioned in 1963. My first posting was to Abeokuta and from
there I went to Zaria, came back for another course in Kaduna, then back
to Zaria. I went back to Abeokuta, the 2nd Infantry Battalion, then I
was posted to Lagos Garrison to be in charge of transport when I was
still a lieutenant. From there I was posted to Apapa, then went back to
the 2nd Battalion after the coup in January 1966. I then came back to
Kaduna with the battalion I started with in Abeokuta. Then I fought the
civil war, after which I went to Staff College in India, came back, got
posted to Port Harcourt under General Theophilus Danjuma. I was then
posted back to Lagos as Commander of Transport in Apapa. So it went on
and on. But whenever I got time, I always came back home.
WT: What
is the longest time you have stayed in Daura, especially when you were
Head of State and afterwards when you settled in Kaduna?
Buhari:
I don’t think I ever spent more than three weeks at a stretch in Daura.
Even when I come, surprisingly, I go to Zinder in Niger Republic if I
want some peace and quiet, because people don’t know me there. And
sometimes I drive to Maiduguri, because then I wasn’t known there. I
could recall one of the times, Ismaila Gwarzo was either the
commissioner or deputy commissioner of police, I drove there to the Rest
House in Maiduguri and there was no accommodation. Gwarzo was there
with his wife, so he gave me an apartment of his. I don’t stay more than
three weeks at a time because it would be too much for me after I was
commissioned.
WT: For the period when you were Head of State, did you find the time to visit Daura?
Buhari:
Don’t forget I was Head of State for only 20 months. I was removed and
detained for about three-and-a-half years. After detention, I had to
stay home.
WT: Should the people of Daura expect any favours from you?
Buhari: I don’t think they would, because even when I served under the military, if they expected favours they were disappointed. Nobody in Daura got an oil bloc.
I think they have agreed to live with it. And they have been very kind
and understanding, because when I came out of detention nobody came and
demanded anything from me. Basically they know what I have – my farm,
the few animals I have and so on. They didn’t notice any difference
while I was Head of State, so when I came out of detention they knew I
didn’t try to help myself, so nobody was expecting anything from me.
source: www.dailytrust.com.ng/weekly/index.php/top-stories/20562-e-x-c-l-u-s-i-v-e-i-n-t-e-r-v-i-e-w-the-buhari-you-didn-t-know
No comments:
Post a Comment