ASO ROCK VIDEO: HOW CAN BUHARI'S GUESTS GIVE UPDATES FROM THAT DISTANCE WITH COVERED MOUTHS?

The pressure was immense-President Buhari still hadn't addressed nigerians like his counter-parts across the world were doing almost on a daily basis and to compound his woes,there was the audio recording of a lady narrating how he and Abba Kyari were smuggled abroad in the middle of the night.There was a denial by the presidency that ended up doing more harm than good with more voices demanding proof of Buhari's whereabouts.

A nigerian news outlet,Roots TV Nigeria was reporting exclusively that Abba Kyari had been sighted at Wellington Hospital in London.It certainly didn't help that an Australian based influencer by the name of Imam Tawhidi more popularly known as Imam of Peace had taken over twitter and was trending Anti-Buhari hashtags in just a matter of minutes.In addition to the question 'When will Buhari talk to us?', was the question 'Where is Buhari?'.

His aide on new media, Bashir Ahmad had posted a picture of the President working late on Thursday night at an office in the state house but the thing is we had already been told earlier that he would be working from home.There was also a screenshot of picture details posted by Imam Tawhidi clearly indicating that the picture was actually taken on 15th January.

That was of course after Femi Adesina had gone on tv to say addressing nigerians was not 'Buhari's style'.His media team were making a huge mess of the situation and it was clear one way or the other,Buhari would have to show himself at some point.

On Saturday afternoon,a 29 second video was released along with photos of President Buhari at Aso Rock meeting with the Minister of Health, Dr E.O Enahire and the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu.They were there to give updates to the President on the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.It first has to be noted that Buhari being around to attend the meeting doesn't necessarily mean he had been at the villa all along.He has a presidential jet at his beck and call and could have been flown back secretly last night just to pose for the cameras.

Secondly,that is undoubtedly what that meeting was; Buhari posing for the cameras.Nigerians needed to think he was not only around but also working as well.Only in the typically incompetent fashion with which the President and those around him have operated, they didn't take into consideration the fact that Buhari's 2 guests who were there to give him updates wore face masks while the President himself who was supposed to listen to them had none.

In adherence to their own social distancing directive,the health minister and DG NCDC were seated at a distance from the President where it was totally impossible for them to utter anything he would comprehend with their mouths covered by face masks.The issue isn't whether the video and pictures are genuine because they appear very much so,it is about the desperation to portray Buhari as being up and doing when he clearly isn't.

If they badly needed to remedy the situation,while not type up a speech and put him on tv?.At least he won't make a mess of himself if no one asks any questions.At the UN general assembly meeting last year,he was asked about the place of nigerian youths in the country's future (perhaps to get him to remedy calling them lazy) when he took out a prepared speech and proceeded to talk about climate change.The man can at least read.

Addressing nigerians would help his cause way more than a pathetically staged meeting.The DG of the NCDC and the Minister of Health with mouths covered,were only there to act their parts and leave.

More questions are bound to spring up in the coming days.You cannot get infected if you are already infected; Does Buhari not needing to protect himself with a face mask like his 2 guests mean he already has coronavirus?.His bosom friend, Abba Kyari already has it and a Director-General of the NCDC willing to come and take part in a video skit at the request of the President is more than capable of concealing a positive status.Was Buhari flown back to London on saturday night?.

As the need to relieve the President of pressure arises,it should be noted that nigerians are not foolish.

CORONAVIRUS: BUHARI NEEDS TO BE MORE RESPECTFUL

Bowing to public opinion in virtually all cases translates to bowing to what is right.Like the all too popular saying goes 'Vox populi Vox dei' (the voice of the people is the voice of God).Nigerians had grown sick and tired of watching other Presidents not only give regular updates to the press since the coronavirus scourge started but also make themselves available for questions each time they did.

They expected Buhari to lead from the front by reassuring them personally that his administration was doing everything humanly possible to contain the spread of the virus on our soil if at all he was not going to tell them how he planned to utilize the N1trn intervention fund the Central Bank was handing him.Even his rubber stamp Senate was calling on him to speak up.

Buhari was quiet and his fellow country men didn't look like they would stop banging on his door.Then finally on Sunday 22nd March, his aide on new media, Bashir Ahmad posted a 23 second video of Buhari telling nigerians he was working together with the Ministry of Health to tackle the spread of the virus.He had bowed to the voice of the people but to be quite frank, Buhari couldn't have displayed a more blatant disregard for not only the Nigerian people but the gravity of the situation his inaction and improvidence has landed them in.Is Bashir Ahmad's twitter page now the official medium to address 200 million nigerians?.Since when did we matter so little?.

If Buhari was refusing to talk,there were ways of disguising his reluctance like a written statement for example instead of being recorded speaking for 23 seconds with no clear beginning indicating whom he was referring to and no definite end to a video that stopped while he was still talking.

For a man that has failed his people and is the singular reason why we are in this mess,Buhari needs to be remorseful and show us some respect.

Nigerians run to places like China,Italy and the US to treat ailments our hospitals can't handle.The mere fact that these places were struggling to deal with this disease is the reason why a responsive government would have restricted entry from the coronavirus hot spots after the very first case.We simply can't afford to have an epidemic here.

If you lock down a nigerian city for a week,there are people the government would have to start making plans to feed because they might have to attack and steal from those with enough food.How can a government that occasionally joins us to lament figures on how many people in Nigeria live in poverty fail to take into consideration what it would do to most nigerians if you tell them to abandon their means of livelihood and stay at home?.What about those in the rural areas?.Are we capable of catering for them just as well as we would those in the cities?.How many medical facilities and medical personnel do we even have in these places?.

Whether due to a 'disease no dey kill black man' mentality or out of sheer wickedness,Buhari sat back and did nothing even when an overwhelming number of nigerians were calling on government to ban entry from high risk countries.A third case was confirmed just hours after the first 2 were testing negative and we were coronavirus-free.The only logical explanation to Buhari's refusal to fight the world's biggest health scare with travel restrictions despite most countries having done so was that he wanted to deal with a problem we would rather not have instead of preventing it.

A lot of nigerians were ecstatic when his coronavirus committee eventually announced an entry ban from 13 highest risk countries but when we were told barely an hour later that we had recorded 5 new confirmed cases at once from persons coming in from the UK and the US, you just had to see it what for what it really was-a damage control measure intended to absolve Buhari of blame.People would be too carried away with news of the ban to go hard at him for refusing to shield us from these easily preventable 5 cases; by far the highest we had ever recorded at once.

On a sunday people were waiting to see if the President would at least suspend his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Garba Shehu for not only posting an invite to a gathering of Barewa College old boys a day earlier in flagrant disobedience to the government's call for such events to be discouraged but also for attending as keynote speaker,Buhari chose the twitter page of his aide on new media to hand us a 23 second bumble on his government doing its best to tackle coronavirus.

It is important no one laughs too hard at the 'Covik 1 9' sound bite to forget that the man who made us all sitting ducks to this virus feels throwing a 23 second video through an aide on twitter would pass for an address to the good people of this country.Such disrespect must not be tolerated.

THESE TOP NIGERIAN ARTISTES BADLY NEED A HIT..

Music is a very professionally run business overseas.Labels have carefully thought out pre and post release plans after they have decided on what time is best for artistes to drop new songs.

And in determining such perfect time,a lot of considerations are weighed.From the most common-the buzz or release schedule of bigger acts to the most curious like weather season of the year.

Knowing when to do what is just as key in these times as having the talent itself.Yemi Alade's Oh My Gosh remix with Rick Ross came 4 months prior to her Woman Of Steel album and had everyone's attention.The video of her Shekere song with Angelique Kidjo released just last month is boosting her stock right now but if she had released it right after the song with Rick Ross as a pre-album video,it would have done her body of work a whole lot of good instead of just the artiste as it is currently doing.Be that as it may,not everyone is lucky enough to have a Shekere help out when the chips are down.

Below are 4 top nigerian artistes that badly need a hit.

WIZKID

Nigeria's most loved musician has always had a very loyal fan base that will hype even the worst of songs out of proportion on social media but the plain truth is that Wizzy's numerous misses are starting to take a toll on his career.He has not had a bonafide hit for quite some time and with the insane last 2 years Burna boy has had,he has lost the number one African music export tag.Wizkid's biggest undoing has to be releasing an unimpressive EP on the back of poorly accepted singles.If ever anyone was reluctant to jump into hasty conclusions as to the dire times Wizkid was facing,that EP cleared their doubts.

BURNA BOY

In an article i wrote on Burna boy years ago,i said he lacked the enchanting appeal of Wizkid and Davido and that unlike both who were guaranteed to still have fans around even when the music isn't good,Burna boy enjoys no such luxury.

His fan base stretches across that of every other artiste around.They may not love the man seperated from the music but they sure love the music.To put it another way,people who love Burna boy are fans of good music and once that is lacking,everyone is off.He has been criticized for his last 2 songs; Money Play and Odogwu with the case of the latter being particularly sad because it came right after Burna boy's twitter rant about being the best since Fela and Africa's music messiah.For a guy that most people were indifferent about outside the music,he stacked the odds against himself.

The award season is over and with the exception of maybe the headies which may have a slot or two for his African Giant album,he has to define his destiny going forward.Like we've seen happen with Wizkid when he was in the global spotlight,there will be a couple more international features and then it will start to go downhill if he can't get back to making songs like he used to.

NAIRA MARLEY

The Marlian movement caught fire when Naira Marley was neck deep in his travails with the EFCC and when he was released on bail,everything he touched turned to gold.He was no longer the artiste with just a hit song bigger than he was (Issa Goal).He had arguably the biggest song of 2019 in Soapy and also had the streets vibing to Mafo but then the demystification of Naira Marley started when he chose to drop an EP that wasn't well accepted.He has videos out for the 2 best tracks of that project in Tesumole & Tingasa featuring his signee,C-Black and if there is one thing i can say with all certainty,it is that each very much had the potential to continue Naira Marley's winning streak if released as a single.He is more involved these days with helping his Marlian Records artistes have a solid footing in the industry but then a waning artistic reputation isn't helping his cause.

NINIOLA 

The Akpata sisters-Teni and Niniola are the closest contenders to Tiwa Savage's number one female artiste title and while Teni would escape being on this list on the back of the decent impact her Billionaire song has made despite both her debut EP and current single, Marry being heavy misses, Niniola hasn't come close to making appreciable impact since Designer featuring Sarz.

She was not only the hottest female artiste in the country when the This is Me album dropped in 2017,she wrote her name in gold for introducing the Nigerian audience to the afro-house music genre.

Last year she released Broda Sodiq and Omo Rapala; both great songs that didn't hit the expected heights and though some fans have always chosen to over look impact and focus on quality, her latest single with Femi Kuti titled Fantasy makes it practically impossible to under-play the Niniola situation.She needs to get as much love as she used to.Just a hit would heighten the frenzy round the Niniola name and ensure her good songs don't go to waste.