Special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity Femi Adesina says the best birthday gift Nigerians can give the president is to understand him.
Buhari who is currently on a seven-day private visit in his hometown Daura, Katsina State, clocked 78 on Thursday.
Mr Adesina said Nigerians would treat Buhari better if they knew him.
“If only more Nigerians knew this President. If only they knew the essential Buhari, the quintessential patriot and gentleman, they would behave differently, handle him with more care, and show him more kindness,” he wrote in an article.
The presidential spokesman added: “It’s better for a lot more cynical Nigerians to understand this President today, rather than tomorrow, for the good of the country. That would be the best birthday gift they can give him.”
Adesina said he considered it a great privilege to serve Buhari, adding that he would even work for the president for free.
Addressing the rumour about the president being dead and impersonated by a Jubril of Sudan, he said: “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 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?” Adesina asked.
