President Muhammadu Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has described him as a stingy but generous man, who does not throw money at things or allow misappropriation of public funds.
Speaking in a statement on Friday, December 17, he said;
“The President lives in a modest house in Daura, Katsina State. He has been everything possible, held positions which could have made him stinking rich: Governor of a territory which now covers six states. Minister of Petroleum for over three years. Head of State. Chairman of Petroleum Trust Fund, with billions of naira in his care.
A civilian President, running out his second term of four years each, in another 17 months. And yet he remains a man of modest means. Let me tell you a story. Have you been to the Buhari home in Daura? Modest, modest, modest, is what the structure shouts at you, as you approach.
It is said that President Buhari had used a carpet in that house for almost 20 years. He knew every bit of furniture and fittings like the back of his hands. And then, one day, in his first term as President, he visited home, and a new carpet was in place. Who changed my carpet?
That was the first question he asked, as he stepped into the house? Imagine the President of Africa’s most powerful country, the largest economy on the continent, having time to ask about a carpet that had become old and threadbare? But that is Muhammadu Buhari for you. Simple man, if ever there was one
Stingy but generous. President Buhari is very thrifty. He does not throw money at things, and as his media adviser, I can tell you. He even pokes fun at himself, saying; “don’t you know I’m very stingy?
True. He doesn’t waste public money. He won’t misappropriate, and neither would he let you, if he knows about it. But when he needs to give, he does. I have personal experiences, which I’ve related before. I won’t repeat them, lest some people ask me to bring part of it, as they’ve done before. Lol.”
