President-elect Muhammadu Buhari will be returning to Nigeria on
Thursday morning after a six-day trip to the United Kingdom in the
company of former President Shehu Shagari.
Buhari, who during his trip to the UK, met with British Prime Minister
David Cameron, will arrive onboard a British Airways flight that is
scheduled to land in Abuja around 4 am.
Shagari who THISDAY learnt, was in the UK on a private visit, was
overthrown by Buhari in a military coup d’etat 32 years ago. Both
men will be flying back to the country 24 hours before Buhari’s
inauguration as Nigeria’s fifth democratically elected president.
Shagari, between October 1, 1979 and December 31, 1983, was
Nigeria’s first democratically elected president.
Buhari had departed the country last Friday in the company of two
of his close aides, ostensibly to get away from the pressure that had
been brought to bear on him by members of his party the All
Progressives Congress (APC), state governors and varied interest
groups who had laid siege on him in recent weeks for posts in his
government.
He was said to have decided to get some rest ahead of the
inauguration before plunging into the arduous task of running the
country.
However, his trip, which he embarked upon without the knowledge
of the leadership of the APC, has caused disquiet among its
chieftains, as it was the first clear signal that the president-elect is a
man of independent thinking determined to do things his way.
Buhari in recent days has also made it known that the governors will
have no say in determining the members of his cabinet, making it
abundantly clear to them after they had submitted their ministerial
lists, that he would have no say on who their commissioners should
be.
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