President Muhammadu Buhari had said he could no longer wait for May 29 handover day for him to return to his Daura home in Katsina state.
The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has stated that the President and his team will leave the seat of power peacefully on May 29, 2023, and not “deteriorate”.
President Muhammadu Buhari had said he could no longer wait for May 29 handover day for him to return to his Daura home in Katsina state.
The ‘President-elect’, Bola Tinubu is scheduled to be sworn in on May 29, 2023.
Adesina, in his article titled, 'The Good In Goodbye,' released on Friday noted that attempts to sit tight in office by Ibrahim Babangida, the late Sani Abacha and Olusegun Obasanjo, did not end well.
He explained that if you don’t say goodbye at some stations in life, you begin to vegetate, atrophy, deteriorate, decline and wilt away. Noting that you become a problem, rather than part of the solution.
He said, “Yes, in serving Muhammadu Buhari, the honest Fulani man, deliberately misunderstood by some people, and who refuse to yield any ground, I’ve lost good friends, family people, brethren in the church, who couldn’t understand why I was loyal to a jihadist, a nepotist, and a Fulani herdsman.
“When I tell them the man is not that way, in fact, the very opposite of what they think, and they refuse to budge, I go my way. Peacefully. I give them a wide berth, which they deserve.
“But in their places, I’ve made new friends, countless, who I share the same things with. Love for Buhari, the patriot, the good man. And as I leave now, those new friends are part of the good in goodbye.
"There’s something like overstaying your welcome. If you doubt it, ask Ibrahim Babangida and his attempt to sit tight in office. Ask Sani Abacha, if you can see him. Ask Olusegun Obasanjo and his third term gambit. Ask Muamar Gadaffi, if you can also see him. It all ended in infamy, even death. But we are leaving peacefully, after spending the maximum term the law of the land allows. There’s plenty of good in goodbye.
"If you don’t say goodbye at some stations in life, you begin to vegetate, atrophy, deteriorate, decline and wilt away. In fact, you become a problem, rather than part of the solution. In life, you always need new challenges to fire yourself up, and make more wins. For me, after eight years as spokesman to a President, I must need move on. Happily. There’s good in goodbye, as I sign off on this platform in another week.
"In London two weeks ago, I and some of our media colleagues in the State House had asked the President what he would miss most when he leaves office. His response: ‘I’ll miss good people that we have worked together in the past eight years, like some of you here.’