Tobias Sylvester
Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, has finally addressed the rumours lingering for years in the country that his principal died during a medical vacation in London in 2017 and was replaced with Jubril from Sudan.
KanyiDaily recalls that since 2017, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has consistently argued that the man in Aso villa is not Buhari but a clone named Jubril from Sudan.
However, in his article titled: “Buhari at 78: If only we knew this president”, Femi Adesina poured encomium on Buhari, insisting that Kanu’s hypothetical submission were false.
The Presidential aide shared some stories to make Nigerians believe that the man in Aso Rock is Buhari who is celebrating his 78th birthday today, not Jubril from Sudan.
“This is Jubril from Sudan and not Muhammadu Buhari, who had died during the medical vacation in 2017, some people say. You have a clone in Aso Villa, not Buhari. Idiocy, sadly believed by even some intellectuals.
“Let me tell you a story. On the day the President finally returned to the country in August 2017, after months of absence, the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Abayomi Olonisakin, was giving out his daughter in marriage.
“I had attended the church service, decked unusually in complete Agbada, with a cap to match. From the wedding, I went straight to the airport to join the reception party.
“We formed a welcome line, as we usually do. And as the President shook each person, he had one wisecrack or the other to say. When he got to me, he took my hand and said: “Adesina, this is the best I’ve seen you dressed.”
“We both laughed heartily, and the television cameras captured it. I remember that many people asked me later what had tickled me and the President, that we laughed so uproariously.
“Jubril from Sudan? Would he know my name as Adesina? Would he know I rarely wear Agbada? How ridiculous can some people be?
“Another story. The journalist Lindsay Barret had been a long time friend of the President. One day, he sent me to give his greetings. When I did, the President said: “Lindsay Barret. I remember meeting him at the war front in 1968.
“He was covering the war. There was a day he was almost killed in an ambush, and he then described himself as a ‘devout coward,’ who was lucky to be alive.”
“Jubril of Sudan? And he remembers Barret, whom he met at the warfront in 1968? Tell it to the marines,” he said.
This is coming a few days after Pastor Adewale Giwa asked the General Overseer of Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye to tell Nigerians whether President Buhari is alive or dead.
