The recent comments of the First Lady, Patience Jonathan, have once again brought the issue to the front burner of political discourse. Vanguard’s Emmanuel Aziken gives an insight into the health challenges of the Katsina-born retired general.
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Dementia is an ailment of the old and it was not surprising when the First Lady, Patience Jonathan, at a campaign rally in Lokoja last Tuesday, warned Nigerians about the prospects for Nigeria if an old man like Maj Gen Muhammadu Buhari (retd) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is elected president.
“Wetin him dey find again? Him dey drag with him pikin mate. Old man wey no get brain, him brain don die pata pata,” Mrs Jonathan was quoted as telling enthusiastic supporters of her husband before doling out rice, meat and brocades in thankful appreciation of the women.
The assertion remarkably did not go down well with the Muhammadu Buhari campaign organisation which in response urged President Goodluck Jonathan to warn his wife for taking the campaign away from the issues of concern to Nigerians.
Alleged degradation
Whether President Jonathan cautioned his wife on the matter, no one can say. Buhari has himself not personally responded, neither has his wife, Aisha Buhari, spoken out on the alleged degradation of her husband’s mental faculties.
Irrespective of Mrs Jonathan’s remark, the issue of Buhari’s age and mental alertness is a matter for anyone wishing to lead a country of more than 170 million people.
It is thus not surprising that Buhari’s handlers and associates are prompt to assure the citizenry of the mental alertness of the candidate.
“If you watched or listened to the Chatham House lecture, you will not condone anything of that sort that the PDP people are saying of him. Especially the question and answer session where he interspersed his answers with humour,” an associate of the general told Vanguard.
“He is someone that listens a lot and would wait until the end of a discussion before giving a response. He is very diplomatic and tactful, and when he speaks, he is very deliberate in his choice of words as you saw with him at Chatham House,” the associate, a member of the APC’s presidential campaign council said.
General Buhari has also sought to reach out to voters in other ways, moving out from his caricature as a taciturn conservative who only associates with fellow Fulanis.
Remarkably, the general has been almost reticent on responding to suggestions of him being a religious fanatic, only saying that he had more Christian associates than Muslim in the army.
Gen Sam Momah (rtd.), a Christian who worked as principal staff officer when Buhari was General Officer Commanding of one of the army’s divisions said: “If anybody is trying to input that Buhari is a religious bigot, just know that the person is playing naked politics, far from the truth.”
The Chatham House lecture was only one opportunity for Buhari to show the world that he is not the kind of person that his political adversaries have sought to project.
In a number of other ways, the candidate has also rebranded, including in his dress and political strategies.
Several dimensions of the new-look Buhari, it is understood, were worked out by Governor Chibuke Amaechi, the director general of his campaign organisation. Indeed, the appointment of Amaechi was the first indication of Buhari’s determination to branch out from the stereotype he had been used to.
Meanwhile, the umbrella body of the Igbo nation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo (Lagos state chapter), has Said."
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