Comments Over Cancellation Of Buhari’s Zamfara Visit, Shameful, Disgraceful — Presidency

The Albino Foundation Public Notice

 By Ruby Leo

The presidency has described as disgraceful and shameful some comments which allegedly attacked President Muhammadu Buhari for cancelling his visit to Zamfara due to bad weather last week.

It will be recalled that President Buhari had scheduled to visit Zamfara State after commissioning BUA Cement Plant in Sokoto on Thursday but the visit was cancelled due to bad weather.

The comments were allegedly made by the Peoples Democratic Party PDP.

Cancellation of the visit attracted condemnation from the country’s leading opposition political party, the PDP, which contended that the President should have traveled to Zamfara from Sokoto by road if he was concerned over the plight of the people.

Responding the Presidency in a statement, titled “Elaboration of the reason the Presidential visit to Gusau was postponed”, expressed sadness that the bankruptcy of issues’’ had forced the PDP ‘’to hang on to life by only telling lies.’’

The statement, signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity,  Garba Shehu, read: “The Presidency wishes to give  further clarification on the circumstances of bad weather which forced the cancellation of the visit to Zamfara State on Thursday of President Muhammadu Buhari, in spite of the great interest generated nationwide on the planned visit.

“As briefly explained by the President in a special broadcast to the people of the state, the sudden deterioration of the weather was the sole and only reason for the cancellation of the visit.

“It is not unusual for flights to get cancelled when there is bad weather, whether this is arising from wind or rainstorm, fog or haze as we had it on Thursday over much of the northern towns including Gusau, capital of Zamfara State.

“Many of these cities are known to suffer from low visibility during the cold season as we are now in.

“A kilometer of visibility is usually a standard landing minimum requirement but in the case of Gusau on the day in question, this minimum requirement of 1,000 meter was down, fluctuating between 300-400 meters. Clearly, this was unsafe in the absence of precise instrument approaches that provide guidance for the pilots. The flights into Gusau were, in view of this, cancelled.”

It further said, “Criticism of the President, in particular the one by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for not proceeding with the journey, Sokoto-Gusau by road, a distance of about 200 kilometres shows, either a lack of understanding of presidential movements especially for a party that held that office for sixteen years, or an act that smacks of mischief. Whatever be the case, there must be a limit to trivialization.

“All over the world, Commanders-in-Chief, serving or even those that have left office cannot hop into a car and go anywhere they want, at any time of the day. In the United States for instance, a law going as far back as 1958 prevents past Presidents from travelling on public roads without assured security.