Femi Adesina, the spokesperson to President Muhammadu Buhari, has claimed that more Nigerians are attracted to his boss than former Nigerian leaders, Obafemi Awolowo, Aminu Kano, and Nnamdi Azikiwe.
This said this in an article published on his Facebook wall on Thursday, titled, ‘The essential Buhari: VP Osinbajo got it!’
The presidential aide argued that Buhari is credible, hailing Vice President Yemi Osibanjo for painting the Buhari well at an event in London.
He also quoted Osinbajo as saying that Buhari is “possibly Nigeria’s most popular politician that we have had in generations”.
Adesina said, “I am old enough to have seen our colourful and even swashbuckling politicians in action. I have seen the great Obafemi Awolowo. The charismatic Nnamdi Azikiwe (Zik of Africa). Shehu Shagari. Amino Kano. M.K.O Abiola. Bashir Tofa, and many others in action. But I have not seen anyone with the kind of attraction, magnetic pull, that Muhammadu Buhari has. And that is round the country, north, and south. People swarm round him as bees do to honey.
“I have been round the country with the President. I have also been to several countries of the world with him. I have not seen any other Nigerian leader, past or present, with his kind of allure, pull, fascination, magnetism. And that is why VP Osinbajo is right to have described him as possibly “the most popular Nigerian politician that we ever had in this generation. (sic)”
Awolowo was a Nigerian nationalist, political leader, writer and principal participant in the country’s struggle for independence. Although he never served as President of the country, he is widely referred to as ‘the president who never ruled Nigeria’.
Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe was a Nigerian statesman, political leader and the first President of the country, serving from 1963 to 1966. Considered a driving force behind the nation’s independence, he came to be known as the “father of Nigerian Nationalism”.