News arrived via online portals, Thursday morning, that President Muhammadu Buhari’s much publicized scheduled visit to Ogoniland in the Niger Delta, to flag-off the cleanup of a region long ravaged by decades of oil exploration activities, has been canceled.
The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, will now show up in the president’s stead. No official reason was given for the no-show from the nation’s number one citizen.
Ekekeee has been speaking to sources working in the president’s media and security teams, who have since confirmed that the cancellation news is correct, but that there’s still a slight window the president would rescind the decision. Villa sources have told this medium that the president has been trying to cut down on his travels in recent times, due to advice from his doctors.
Security team furious
“The president may still show up in Ogoniland to flag off the cleanup exercise as scheduled”, said one source working in the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno. “The cancellation is still tentative. The NSA has summoned all security chiefs to the villa to impress upon the president why he should still make the trip to Rivers, if only for its significance”, one source added.
Another source familiar with the entire scenario said the president is being told that it would be pussy-footed of him not to attend the cleanup exercise, especially since the Niger Delta Avengers issued a warning that he should steer clear of the region if he intends to remain alive.
Optics
“It would appear like he is bowing to the whims, caprices and bluster of the Avengers, a slap in the face of the nation’s security architecture. As we speak, the NSA is tabling all these points before the president. The NSA is telling the president that even though his doctors are stressing that he should cut down on his travels because of his advanced age and health, this is one visit he should make because of the ‘optics’ significance for the administration. The NSA is very angry with the president at the moment”, our source disclosed.
“Everything is now predicated on the NSA being able to convince the president or not”, the source added.
Official presidency sources who craved anonymity for this story because they have not been authorized to speak on the subject, told Ekekeee that the nation would only know if the president would still be making the trip to Ogoniland or not, after a 10 O’clock meeting with state governors holding at the villa right about now.
“He may still visit Ogoniland even though the Vice President and an advance party are on their way to the region to represent him”, a villa source said.
President Buhari’s visit would have been his first to oil producing Rivers State since he was sworn in. Analysts say the visit would have also assuaged the denizens of the oil producing Niger Delta who feel marginalized by the state and who have taken to militancy and calls for a break-away sovereign state.
A sophisticated militant group who go by the name Niger Delta Avengers, has been blowing up oil and gas installations in the region; further asphyxiating a Nigerian economy grappling with falling oil prices and a weak currency.