President BuhariMore than a month after leaving Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari spoke to his spokesman on Saturday for the first time.
Mr. Femi Adesina celebrated the phone call on his Facebook page, highlighting the exact time his phone rang and how he began the conversation with President Buhari.
So elated was he, that when the President mentioned his name, he screamed.
“At exactly 2.43 p.m today, Saturday, February 25, 2017, my phone rang. Who was at the other end? Tunde Sabiu, personal assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari. “Hold on for Mr President,” Tunde said.
“And in a matter of seconds, the very familiar voice came: “Femi, how are you?” (He calls me Adesina most times, but today, he opted for Femi) I screamed :”Mr President, I have missed you. How are you sir?” He first laughed. That familiar laugh. Then he said: “I am still resting. Thank you for holding out against mischief makers.” I said it was my duty, the very least I could do, adding how happy I was to speak with him. “How is your family?”
“I said we were fine, and he asked me to extend his greetings to them.
“I hope to call you again, ” Mr President said, and I bade him farewell, adding: “Best wishes, sir.”
Mr. Adesina said it was a unique moment for him to speak with the President for the first time since he left on January 19.
“It was a defining moment for me. For more than a month, I had always spoken with aides who are with the President in London. Not once did I ask them to take the phone to him, deliberately so, because I didn’t need to speak with him to validate the fact that he was alive. And since he was on vacation, he had a right to his privacy.
“Of his own volition, President Buhari spoke with me. It made my day. Even if he hadn’t done so, he would have remained my President, my leader, and my man. Any day,” he said.
Mr. Adesina, who has been granting interviews to local and international media houses, has always insisted the President was well even though he had not spoken to him directly.
Another spokesman Garba Shehu, who was no so lucky to speak with the President, also celebrated the phone conversation on Facebook. He said President Buhari also spoke with the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed. It was also the first call with the man who is supposed to dish out government information.
In a post titled “a day for the Presidential Media Team”, Mr. Shehu said the media team was extremely delighted by the presidential call from London.
“We are thankful to the President, Muhammadu Buhari GCFR for sparing the time to make calls to the Media team.
“The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed and the Special Adviser, Femi Adesina responded to the calls, exchanged greetings and thanked him for calling.
“I had an SMS from him thereafter because I missed my call! I humbly join them to say thank you, Baba Buhari!!
“We are together with other Nigerians of all faiths, in praying for his safe return,” he narrated.
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