Mallam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Adviser to former President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, has said that Buhari said he had hoped that fuel subsidy removal by President Bola Tinubu’s administration would constrain a large number of Nigerians across the country from coming to see him in his hometown of Daura, Katsina State.

Shehu said this on Thursday in a statement marking 100 days since Buhari left office and handed over power to President Tinubu on May 29.

He said that rather than being constrained by the fuel subsidy removal, the large number of people including the poor and the marginalised who pick up their transport and head to Daura to see him from all parts of the country, now group themselves and share the costs to hire buses to come to see and talk to him.

Shehu said that Buhari, who according to him, has remained in Daura since he left office, receives visitors from across the country and beyond as he used to receive when he was in office.

He said, "To manage the numbers, he has a weekly program drawn for him as they did while he was in the Villa.

"Visitors are scheduled on the program but there are so many people who just start their motorbikes and cars to head out to Daura to him in the belief that he has the time to receive all visitors.

"Among his many “special guests” are party faithful, grassroots groups, farmers, artisans, artists, praise singers, nurses and doctors, religious leaders, community leaders and several other professionals. Not left out are those who benefited from the administration, one way or another.

"The other day, he was musing the decision to remove fuel subsidy by the Tinubu administration, saying he had hoped that it would lessen the pressure on him by constraining the large number of people who pick up their transport and head to Daura to see him from all parts of the country, but that he had noted that instead of them coming one by one, his friends, including the poor and the marginalized now group themselves, share costs to hire buses to come to see and talk to him.

"So while it is the case that some in the country were happy that he was no longer in office, there are some, even more that continue to cherish and admire him."

Culled from Sahara Reporters