Efio-Ita Nyok|24 September 2016
On Sunday 18 September, President Muhammadu Buhari left the shores of the country for the 71st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meeting which began on Monday 19 September. The President is reported to have traveled with 22 of his aides and a total of about 86 delegates (markedly low as compared to former President Goodluck Jonathan who reportedly went while in power with 600 delegates all at once!) including his wife, Aisha and two of his daughters. Records have it that last year, President Buhari didn't travel with his family to the UNGA.
The idea of traveling with the first family to such high powered international diplomatic engagement especially in the midst of the recession Nigeria is currently facing is one thing a cross section of the citizenry have not been able to swallow. It has generated a lot of debates both for and against the divide.
Yesterday, Mr Kalita Joe Aruku, the Deputy Youth Leader of the All Progressives Congress APC, Cross River State chapter posted on his social media, precisely Facebook account the underlying phrase:
'When Bill Clinton as an American president was travelling round the world with his wife and daughter he was hailed by Nigerians as an exemplary husband and father but when PMB travels out with his family for the first time it becomes a crime. May God deliver you all from the spirit of hate'.
This thread of his brought him under serious backlash from Nigerians both within and without his state of origin. For instance, one Taulpaul Oselen Omonkhogbe asked Mr Aruku thus:
'Did PMB travel with his family? Was the US in recession then? Did Bill fly on the mantra of prudence in govt spending How old was his daughter then? And on which platform (certainly not Facebook) were these hailings made?'. Again, Mr Nya Offiong posed observation in support of Omonkhogbe thus: 'May God bless you, Taulpaul Oselen Omonkhogbe!!!The boy is just being himself. Kalita How can you even compare Bill and the bush rat called Buhari??? We are in recession after the illiterate Buhari brought us here and next thing he flies to the U.S with his family and loads of jobless hangers on all on tax payers' money and you come here to spew this joke??? If GEJ did this you can imagine what would have happened'. Owing to the tenor of his remarks perceived to be disrespectful to the person of the president, one APC apologist, Eyo Nsa Ekpo queried thus:
'Are we sure this Nya is Efik son? Where has he thrown away our values? What has happened to 'respect your elders?'
One Peter Efale Ayip continued in the disagreement of Offiong against Aruku accordingly in this fashion: 'First I will like you Kalita to respond to the salient points put before you by Taulpaul. After that you should as well tell us how much love you had for the office of the first lady. I remember how you guys maligned that office with unguided vituperations against the then firsf Lady. You Kalita and your APC apologist called for the scrapping of that office to cut cost of governance, how hypocritical are you that you now support the much maligned office? one can imagine what your reaction would be had GEJ made such official trips (with his family) abroad with state funds. Please quit being so hypocritical and biased, accept you took the wrong banwagon and we will welcome you back with open arms'. In response to his critics Aruku submitted that, 'You guys have penchant for diverting issues, who is talking about office of the First Lady, we are talking about family. Nobody ever criticised GEJ for travelling with his family please'.
One Ebah Viktor couldn't help when he busted out his vituperations against Aruku, 'Kalita Joe Aruku you are mad and I Ebah Viktor I'm here to tell you. Bill Clinton never attended United Nations general Assembly with his family. But your tin god buhari having failed to appoint a representative to represent us at the United nation, had to take the first family there. Now tell me when did the first family become diplomats? Nonsense. Let me just leave u to your madness'. Thinking he wasn't yet through with Aruku, Nya offiong, the former's main assailant posited again, 'I don't know why you guys always expect much from this boy, Kalita Joe Aruku. He is not an intellectual. Just an enthusiastic and excited neophyte that will never argue intelligently and would insist on being right even when his ignorance is disproved factually. What we are seeing here today is just a tip of the iceberg. How can anyone support a President using tax payers' monies to travel with his wife and children and scores of other hangers on who are neither representatives to the UN nor are they diplomats after plunging the economy into a recession!!!? And who cares if Buhari is an old man? We will speak the truth to him anytime, whether he is our father's age mate or our grand Father's age mate. If he doesn't want to be ruffled or held accountable because he is older than the rest of us, then let him go home or better still he should go and live in the Home for the aged and elderly where he will be treated like a senior citizen'.
Nevertheless, one Joseph Tsuwah, an ally of Aruku rose to the challenge of defending him, when he countered
God bless you Kalita Joe Aruku, neocolonialism is still with us. When it concerns us, it always bad but when it has to do with the west, we'll hail it. Zuckerberg came to Nigeria wearing T- Shirts and juggling on Lagos streets, we celebrated him aloof as a monument of humility and simplicity! This is the same country that roundly condemns Gov. Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state describing him as a tug because he wears T-shirts in public'.
'Mr. Oselen Taulpaul, Efale Ayip, Bill Clinton did not travel with his family when America was in recession but Obama traveled to 17 countries with his wife and 2 daughters when America's economy was deeply depressed. Pls understand the difference between these 2 terms "Recession" and "Depression". The latter expression is a worse state of things than the first. Let's be objective in our analysis of issues Mr. Effiong', Tsuwah concluded.
Interestingly, Aruku didn't respond directly to Taulpaul Oselen Omonkhogbe's earliest poser as at the time this story went to the press. Albeit,
does the reader think it fair for President Muhammadu Buhari to have traveled to this year's UNGA with the first family in the face of the recession of his country?
Efio-Ita Nyok
Is a Blogger & the Editor of NegroidHaven.org
