Abuja
Buhari Was Uncomfortable With Politics, But He Believed In Rule Of Law, Says Amina Mohammed
Buhari Was Uncomfortable With Politics, But He Believed In Rule Of Law, Says Amina Mohammed
Buhari was uncomfortable with politics, but he believed in rule of law, says Amina Mohammed. Amina Mohammed, deputy secretary-general of the United Nations (UN), says the late former President Muhammadu Buhari was uncomfortable with politics but swept his feelings aside for governance.
Buhari died on Sunday in London and was buried in Daura, Katsina state, on Tuesday. He was president from 2015 to 2023.
Mohammed, who served as minister of environment under Buhari from 2015 to 2016, eulogised her former boss in an interview with Channels TV.
She recounted how the late former president played an advisory role in encouraging her to take up the UN appointment as its deputy secretary-general.
“We were sitting in a meeting in Marrakesh at a climate meeting, and Ban Ki-moon came over and said, ‘We think that the new secretary-general is going to ask you to come and be his deputy,’ and I said, ‘No, it’s not possible; I’ve come home, and I’m serving’,” she recalled.
“And then, I had a discussion with him (Buhari) to say that I really needed his support and if they came to ask him, he shouldn’t say yes. He said, ‘Of course not. We need all our people back here in the team to serve Nigeria; we need the best’.
“So, I felt very confident and left Marrakesh for India, which was my next trip. And in India, I got a call from the current secretary-general to ask if I could be his deputy secretary-general.
“So, I said with a lot of confidence, ‘I can’t. I can’t leave the service that I have, and I’m committed to President Muhamad Buhari.’
“So, he said, “will you allow me to speak to him? I said, ‘Of course, you can speak to him’.
“I have to tell you, I was very confident that my president would say no. So, I left India, I went home, and they said the president was looking for me.
“I went and sat in front of him, and he talked to me for a long time about service, and I just thought, ‘My God, I know where he’s going’.
“And at the end of it, after explaining why these things mattered in terms of representing the country. He said, ‘But of course, the decision is yours’. And in my head, I just thought, ‘My goodness me, of course, the decision is not mine’.
“In our culture, when a man of that status, one that you look to as a father, speaks to you, know that he wants the best, and so the only thing you can say is ‘Yes, sir’.”
‘BUHARI WAS UNCOMFORTABLE WITH POLITICS’
When asked about the legacy Buhari’s administration bequeathed to Nigerians, Mohammed noted that Buhari was convinced about sacrificing for the good of the nation.
“I think first and foremost is that this is an officer and a gentleman who went through from a military role to a democracy. He dropped his uniform, and he embraced democracy,” she said.
“I don’t think he was always comfortable with politics, but what he did was try and try and try again.
“He believed in the rule of law, and he believed in a system that even if it was imperfect, he would keep trying until he got to where he needed to get to. And it was God’s will that he would be the president at the time he was.”
Mohammed said she wanted Nigerians to note that, like Buhari recognised, progress does not happen overnight.
“The struggle of Nigeria is what I think he leaves—is that you don’t give up on this country; it’s the only one you have, and it is not perfect, but it’s up to us to do that nation building,” she said.
“And he was sometimes very excited and looked to see the potential and pushed us, but he was also at times disappointed in our responses in terms of what we were going to do and whether we were ready to go that last mile.

Buhari
“And I think that what we have to think about is that he gave it his all. Whenever he was asked to serve, he served, and we have to think about that.
“To serve is not an easy thing to do. It is a sacrifice—enormous sacrifice to his wife, to his children, to his family, and to his lifestyle, because remember, he was also not a person who was always out there.
“He was very much one that kept his own council and a very small gathering of trusted friends and family.”
Mohammed said Buhari stood for the courage of his conviction, adding that the late former president never wavered in the time she worked with him and encouraged Nigerians to embody the same morals.
Abuja
FCTA Confirms Antivenom Stock, Warns Negligent Hospitals, Gives Emergency Lines
FCTA Confirms Antivenom Stock, Warns Negligent Hospitals, Gives Emergency Lines
FCTA confirms antivenom stock, warns negligent hospitals, gives emergency lines. The FCTA said all public hFCTA confirms antivenom stock, warns negligent hospitals, gives emergency linesospitals have sufficient antivenom after singer Ifunanya Nwangene’s death at FMC Jabi. Dr. Adedolapo Fasawe warned facilities to follow protocols or face sanctions, stressing that early treatment is critical.

FCTA
The territory has added 12 ambulances, improved ICUs, and centralized antivenom storage.
Residents are urged to use emergency lines 090157892931 or 090157892932.
Abuja
FCT Police Warn NLC Against Planned Abuja Protest, Say Proscribed Groups Plot To Hijack
FCT Police Warn NLC Against Planned Abuja Protest, Say Proscribed Groups Plot To Hijack
FCT Police warn NLC against planned Abuja protest, say proscribed groups plot to hijack. The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) police command has warned the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) against its planned protest scheduled for Tuesday in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
The NLC leadership had fixed February 3 for a solidarity rally along with members of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria and the Joint Union Action Committee (JUAC) at the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) secretariat in Garki Area 11.
The NLC declared that the rally is to publicly affirm that “an injury to one is an injury to all”, adding that the Nigerian labour movement will not abandon its members.
On January 24, the labour body declared support for the indefinite strike by workers of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), describing the action as “necessary and heroic” in response to alleged violation of workers’ rights.
In a statement, Joe Ajaero, NLC president, said the labour union stood “in very strong solidarity” with FCTA workers under the aegis of JUAC.
Ajaero described the strike as “a necessary and heroic response to a vicious cocktail of neoliberal attacks, gross administrative impunity, and a systematic violation of the fundamental rights of workers by the FCTA management and its political leadership”.
However, in a statement on Monday, Josephine Adeh, FCT police spokesperson, said the command respects the constitutional right to peaceful assembly, but noted that intelligence reports indicate “plans by proscribed groups and other non-state actors to infiltrate and hijack the protest, posing a risk to public peace and safety”.
Adeh said in the interest of public safety, the organisers should consider rescheduling the protest to prevent any breakdown of law and order and to protect lives, property, and the rights of other residents.

Police
“The Command remains committed to safeguarding all lawful activities and urges residents to continue cooperating with security agencies to keep the FCT peaceful and secure,” the statement reads.
Meanwhile, the national industrial court has reportedly issued an interim order restraining the NLC, TUC and JUAC from embarking on the planned protest.
The court had earlier ordered workers on the payroll of the FCT administration to suspend the strike.
Emmanuel Subilim, the presiding judge, held that although the matter before the court amounted to a trade dispute, the defendants’ right to embark on industrial action was not absolute.
Abuja
Akwa Ibom Indigenes Protest RMAFC Meeting, Warn Against Tampering With State’s Oil Wells
Akwa Ibom Indigenes Protest RMAFC Meeting, Warn Against Tampering With State’s Oil Wells
Akwa Ibom indigenes protest RMAFC meeting, warn against tampering with State’s Oil Wells. Akwa Ibom indigenes resident in Abuja on Tuesday stormed the venue of a meeting of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), where the Inter-Agency Technical Committee (IATC) on Disputed/New Oil Wells was sitting, to protest what they described as attempts to reopen a matter already settled by the Supreme Court.
The protesters cautioned that no individual or agency should tamper with Akwa Ibom State’s 76 oil wells, stressing that the ownership of the wells was conclusively determined in favour of the state by the Supreme Court in 2012.
They insisted that any move to revisit the issue through administrative or technical processes would amount to a disregard for the authority of the apex court and could undermine peace in the Niger Delta region.
Akwa Ibom State was formally represented at the IATC meeting by a high-powered delegation comprising leading legal practitioners, government officials and technocrats. Members of the delegation included Paul Usoro, SAN; Assam Assam, SAN; the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Uko Udom, SAN; Uwemedimo Nwoko, SAN; Emmanuel Enoidem, SAN; and a former Attorney-General of Akwa Ibom State.

Akwa Ibom Indigenes Protest RMAFC Meeting
Also on the state’s delegation were the Commissioner for Finance, Mr Emem Bob, Former Attorney General and Commissioner Justice, Barr. Ekpenyong Ntekim; the Commissioner for Information, Dr. Aniekan Umanah; Honourable Member representing Ikot Ekpene Federal Constituency, Dr Patrick Umoh, among others.
The delegation is expected to present Akwa Ibom State’s position before the committee, reiterating that the Supreme Court judgment remains final and binding, and urging all relevant federal agencies to respect and uphold the ruling.
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