The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, has disclosed that the president’s visit to Imo State on Tuesday was preceded by trepidation following the state of insecurity in the South East.
He said apparently unsure of their safety, families, friends, relations and well-wishers of those on the entourage of the president were full of prayers for their safe return.
He said they all, therefore, felt relieved upon their safe return.
Adesina made the disclosure in his syndicated weekly column, From the Inside …Friday with Femi Adesina, published in FrontPage.
His words: “A lot of trepidation had preceded our trip to Imo State. Family, friends, relations, well-wishers were full of prayers, with some even wondering why we were going into such area in the first place. They were all very relieved when we came back in one piece.”
The presidential spokesman who berated those behind the continued terrorism in the South East of the country wondered the resort to violence against the people they were said to be fighting for.
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“I think those agitating for one thing or the other should change strategy. Engage. Convince. Dialogue. Play better politics, that would emancipate your region. Stop the orgy of bloodletting, because even your own people are tired. They are like men and women in servitude and subjugation. They wanna be free. That was what we saw in Owerri, and it’s a perfect picture of what is happening in the entire South East region,” he said.
Adesina said from his observation during the visit of the president to Imo, the people of the South East were tired of the shackles characterized by the incessant sit at home and endless attacks.
Said he: “You know what I saw in Owerri and environs? A people fed up with shackles, waiting to burst loose, and enjoy their liberty once again. ‘Man is born free, but everywhere, he is in chains,’ (Rousseau, in The Social Contract). Owerri people cast off their shackles, came out singing, dancing, and welcoming their President. That was what they wanted, and it was what they got.
“Who first puts a people they say they want to liberate under bondage? They cabin and crib them every Monday, (Ghost Monday, they call it, when no business must be done), at huge social and economic costs. And any other day the leader of the separatist movement currently standing trial also appears in court, they compel the people to sit at home, to their disquietude and sorrow. Tuesday was one of such days.
“But did all the people stay at home? Not so. They were tired of being turned to slaves, when they were born free. You could see the excitement, the joy on their faces, as they turned out to receive their President. ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be encumbered once more by the yoke of slavery.’ (Galatians 5:1).”
Adesina pointed out that Buhari’s administration had, contrary to insinuations, done a so much to better the lot of the people of the South East.
He gave a long list of some of the development projects carried out by the current government in the South East.
