Last night’s secretive and rather abrupt trip to London by Nigeria
President-Elect Muhammadu Buhari caught several of his political
associates unawares, several of them learning about it only when we
broke the story.
Asked if the President-Elect had any health issues that may have
required urgent travel overnight, they insisted he appears to be
healthy.
Meanwhile, sources have told SaharaReporters that the efforts by the
Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, to speak with
Buhari aboard the British Airways aircraft failed abysmally as the
President-Elect only greeted her during the boarding process and then
quietly settled into his seat 2K in First Class.
The embattled Minister, SaharaReporters learnt, had somehow booked
herself into seat 3K, seating directly behind Buhari on the six-hour
flight.
Our sources said she rose up a few times and tried to stir up a
conversation with the President-Elect, but that he only nodded and let
her get back to her seat without permitting any dialogue.
The flight arrived Heathrow in London at 2:15p.m. local time, but the
passengers didn’t disembark until 2:45pm due to delays at the airport.
Other Nigerian dignitaries in the First Class compartment of the
flight included the chairperson of the National Electricity Commission,
Sam Amadi, as well as Senator Philip Adida, Segun Awolowo, and Hakeem
Bello-Osagie, who sat in 4K directly behind Diezani.
When the airline crew announced passenger disembarkation, Buhari
asked if Diezani had any of her bags in the overheard compartment so he
could step out of her way.
It then turned out she had occupied the entire overheard compartments
with several of her carry-on bags, traveled with two of her aides also
in First Class. Buhari was reportedly traveling with only one aide.
The Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK, Dalhatu Sarki Tafida, met Buhari at the airport.
As SaharaReporters reported earlier, Minister Alison-Madueke was
originally scheduled to travel to the UK next Tuesday as she is billed
to address the Nigerian Senate on Monday regarding the fuel scarcity
crisis.
Our source disclosed that upon learning of Mr. Buhari’s trip, she
booked herself on the same flight in the hope of an opportunity of a
direct discussion with the man who takes over the governance of Nigeria
one week from today.
Her Ministry, reputed as being one of the most corrupt, is likely to be among the first to come under Buhari’s scrutiny.
Source: SaharaReporters
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