By Vera Chinoso Aliyu and Ada Obeleagu, YeyeNews.com, October 6, 2021
President Muhammadu Buhari is putting everything in place to ensure a comfortable retirement in Niger Republic when he eventually relocates to the country after his presidential term in 2023, a source at the presidency has disclosed to YeyeNews.com.
The source told our reporter that the current intractable banditry in Katsina is the major reason the president is considering retiring to Niger Republic. “He will possibly settle in Niamey or Maradi. Though the president prefers Maradi because of its close historical ties with Katsina, however, no final decision has been reached. He still has almost two years to go in his presidency”, the source added.
A resident of Maradi who claimed to be a cousin to President Buhari told YeyeNews.com reporter over the phone that the rumor had been going around for over two years now. According to him, “The rumor is everywhere here in Maradi. They said Buhari is coming here to live in 2023. And that he will build a railway from Nigeria so that people can easily come and visit him. That’s what they told us but we pray the railway comes so we too can easily travel to Nigeria.”
YeyeNews.com gathered that although there are some aides of the president who are not comfortable with the arrangements, they are too few and powerless to present any effective opposition to the plans. One of the aides against the plan told YeyeNews.com reporter that he doesn’t support the plan because it would be a major scandal for a president to abandon his country for another immediately after completing his term, especially to a less-developed country. “It is either Niger is safer than Nigeria or there is some motives that we don’t know about? People like us in the lower rungs don’t have access to certain information.”
An aide to a minister told Yeyenews.com reporter that the amount of money being spent on projects that will benefit Niger Republic is staggering and scandalous. “It’s either the president has some businesses or investments we don’t know about or a future one he would float after office or it is just pure wickedness rooted in incompetency”, the aide said.
When asked to explain by YeyeNews.com rerpoter, he said “What benefit is Niger Republic to Nigeria’s economic growth? Why not build rail lines to connect Lagos and Kano, Kano and Enugu and Onitsha, Onitsha and Lagos? We have to connect ourselves first to help businesses.”
However another official in the presidency who spoke to YeyeNews.com reporter took another angle. According to the information provided, the source suspects that “this plan is due to fear that the next administration maybe be antagonistic towards them. So the members of the cabal just want to strategically place the president in Niger so that all of them can run to the country for protection if they feel threatened by the next president. It is all basically a plan B for them to escape persecution or prosecution. You know no western nation will provide the kind of cover that Niger will provide. After all the president has his ancestral roots there.”
Yeyenews.com tried to get the reaction of the Presidency but no response as at press time: Ajuri Ngelale, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Public Affairs, who defended these projects in the media did not return our calls; Mallam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, did not respond to our text messages.
