Many audience across the globe including yours
sincerely followed the event via online live streaming. We were also given the
opportunity to ask our questions on twitter using the hashtag #CHAfrica.
Without wasting any time, I tweeted a series of questions to voice out the
concern of many voiceless Nigerians. I was lucky the chair picked one of my
tweets out of hundredths of tweets from Nigerians on twitter and read it as the
last question for the event. Mr. Richard Gozney clearly and politely mentioned
my name before he asked him “Mr. Shafi’i
Hamidu who doesn’t give his age asked; is it relevant to the election - your
age? What are you planning to say to people about your old age?” The moderator
rephrased my question to make it look nicer as he earlier mentioned, but this
is the original tweet;
#CHAfrica: What would you say to people that complain about your old age?
— Shafi'i Hamidu (@shafzon) February 26, 2015
His
response to this question was;
“Well, I am very happy that I have been able
to visit the 35 states out of 36 and I haven’t broken down. Somebody announced
me dead yesterday! I had a call from Maiduguri that somebody rushed into a friend’s
house crying; that Buhari has dead in the hospital in London, so he called me
and I laughed my head off. Ahh so certainly, I would be expecting too much if I
don’t expect people to be wishing me death. So, but I am very pleased I am fit and
my doctors have declared me fit. I’m now going back for the final onslaught on
the PDP.”
GMB Chatham House Lecture
(move to 18:07 to listen to my question)
.................................................
.................................................
Let me assure GMB and anybody reading this post that I have
long ago made-up my mind that a Buhari's government would be far better than this
chaos we are in. Many of us have since prefer the the old and focused, than the young and confused. Therefore, the reason for my question is to make sure he uses the opportunity to discuss
this issue and assure Nigerians especially those that express genuine concern
about his age. I’m happy that he responded to it in the most humorous way possible. Now it is left to the Thomases
to either stay in doubt or to believe and have faith in Papa. For those clowns
that are wishing him death and even go as far as announcing him dead in a
London hospital, I say to them; you do not have control over who lives or who
die. Our lives are in the hands of Almighty and I recommend GMB and his
campaign team to never listen to such people. They don’t deserve our time.
As for me, I have done my bit by highlighting the
concern of those with genuine intention and I’m satisfied with his answer. In short,
his answer was even more superb than I expected. I wish him more strength as I strongly
believe he still has a lot to offer to our country.
Article not edited yet, so I apologize for any typing error. Thank you.
Article not edited yet, so I apologize for any typing error. Thank you.
Shafi’i Hamidu wrote-in from the Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia.
Twitter:
@shafiihamidu
FaceBook:
Shafi'i Hamidu
nice one Shafii
ReplyDeleteYou are a good chap. Remain blest.
ReplyDeleteI suppose your question had to do more with the General's health being and fitness than age, but I'm happy with the General's reponse.
ReplyDeleteIt is only in the antics of detractors the issue of age about Buhari's candidacy, our concern as Nigerians should be how good he can be as a leader. We all know where those beliefs are coming from and, it is clear that there is a no honest of purpose.
ReplyDeleteYea I rather go with old n focus than stick to young n clueless.
ReplyDelete