President Buhari has betrayed his mentor, ex-Uruguay President—Mujica

Former Uruguay President Jose Mujica was reputed to be the poorest president in the world. With a net worth of just $1,800, a 1987 rickety Volkswagen beetle, a pet dog. And lived in his wife’s farm, away from the luxury and grandeur attached to his office.

He lived an extremely poor and austere lifestyle, in order to make his nation and citizens rich. He donated all his salaries to charity and maintained no single staff.

Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria rode on the image of this man during all his campaigns to win people’s sympathy.

He fooled people with his mean, austere appearance. Even theorized how he had been very poor and unable to afford his house rents or fuel his car. He advertised how he feeds on N20 satchet tea daily as a convincing sign of his aversion for opulence. He captured the appearance of a man who would never touch a dime not belonging to him, and who may die today of abject poverty. He presented this picture to ride on the emotions of the gullible.

In sharp contrast to the personality he presented during his struggle to win power, Buhari have shown how seriously he valued personal riches, opulence and splendour as soon as power was given to him.

Instead of living in his cattle farm in Daura like poor Jose Mujica to save money for his country, he preferred the more exotic and palatial Aso villa wherelife feels like in the paradise. Before he would agree to pack into Aso Rock with his family, he had to spend nearly a billion naira of taxpayers’ money changing and renovating everything he met on ground to make it tasteful. Quite contrary to the thrifty and austere character he made people believed he was during his campaigns.

Instead of retaining the old car which he claimed he was unable to fill fuel in order to save tax payers money and build riches for his people, just like Mujica, Buhari is now travelling in convoy of exotic cars that are worth nearly the budget of most African countries. A clear departure to the lifestyle he claimed to live.

Instead of living on his much advertised N20 satchet tea, he is now throwing costly parties all over the place. His wife has even thrown a rich party for social media urchins who helped his husband to sell the lies and propaganda that swayed emotions for him to win power. All at the expense of tax payers money. This is in sharp contrast to the lifestyle Jose Mujica and his wife lived in their poor farm to save money for their country.

In clear contradiction of the austere and poor picture of himself he presented before the elections, Buhari have shown that not all that glitters is gold. And how risky it is to give power to a notorious zealot.

Here, unlike Mujica, Buhari is living a life of opulence and extravagance instead of living in his cattle farm, thereby squandering away resources meant to develop his country, while millions of the people he rules rot in abject poverty.

Okey Igbokwe