Adesina says Buhari will not be swayed by the doomsday prophesies of pastors and marabouts

PRESIDENTIAL spokesman Femi Adesina has declared that President Muhammadu Buhari will not allow himself to be intimidated by clergymen and their prophecies as happened to General Sani Abacha when he was in Aso Rock.

Nigerian clergymen and women have made it a habit of making sweeping predictions at the turn of the year, prophesying about what might happen over the 12 month period. Both Christian prophets and Muslim marabouts predict all sorts of tragedies and calamities even January and even warn public figures not to engage in long distance travel.

Over the last week, they have been it again but Mr Adesina said President Buhari is not going to be distracted by such talk, just as he has ignored it in the past. According to Mr Adesina, there was a year when President Buhari was warned not to travel abroad but he has international engagements at the period the prophet mentioned and no accident or incident happened.

According to Mr Adesina, President Buhari is not like the late General Abacha who refused to leave the Aso Rock because he was scared of prophetic visions and predictions. He added that one cleric once told President Buhari to send emissaries to him with bags of money, so he could pray and stave off the tragedy buy the president just ignored him,.

Femi Adesina said: “It’s the beginning of a year and it’s that time you hear all sorts from futurists, prospectivists, and foresight practitioners. The good book tells us of the five-fold ministries of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.

"These are offices into which God has called some people, to lead, guide and comfort His people but unfortunately, however, some people have decided to call themselves and they go about running riot all over the place with guess work, divination and outright falsehood, all to beguile the people, pass themselves off as somebody and ultimately make filthy money. That was what the marabouts did to Sani Abacha, that he remained holed in Aso Rock.

"Between November 1993 and June 1998 that he was head of state, you could count both local and foreign trips he made on the fingers of one hand. There was a time plenty hype had been made on his visit to Oyo State, to commission the Asejire Water Scheme and the state was agog with expectations, with a holiday had been declared, only for Abacha not to show up after he had been caged by the futurologists.

“At another time, he had been confirmed to visit Lagos, to commission projects, including the Marwa Gardens, in the Alausa area of Ikeja. Col Buba Marwa was a star, a poster boy of the administration and visiting Lagos would have been good for Abacha himself and all was set as the city had been put under lockdown.

"However, at the last minute, Abacha refused to show up, caged again by the horizon scanners, who always see negative, never anything positive. It was said that in the few times the head of state ventured out of the fortress called Aso Rock, he would lock up all the service chiefs at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, until he returned so that they wouldn’t be able to effect a military coup while he was away.

Whether the story is true, or apocryphal, I don’t know. What I sure know is that the day Abacha’s time was up, it was simply up as there is no armour against fate according to James Shirley.”