- Reading between the lines of a tribute that may shape Nigeria’s political future.
Lasisi Olagunju/
Now, this before we go: If you have an eye for the trivia like me, you would see the most important paragraph in the 26-paragraph “Message of Gratitude” published by the family of General Muhammadu Buhari in The Nation newspaper of Thursday, 24 July, 2025. It was inserted right after the first paragraph.
The family wrote: “It is the humble request to everyone to keep the departed soul in their thoughts and continue with their pre-decided schedules and commitments. That would be a befitting tribute to the late president.”
If I had been consulted by the Buhari family for the appropriate words to use in that paragraph, I would have donated a masterstroke proverb from the Yoruba armoury: “Bí ojú bá ye ojú, kí ohùn má yè” (if the eyes no longer align; make sure the voice, the word, does not waver). It is a poetic metaphor for loyalty beyond presence, especially potent in a political landscape where betrayal is the norm.
The second paragraph of a 26-paragraph appreciation statement is prime real estate. To occupy that space with a request to keep “pre-decided schedules and commitments” is not trivial, ordinary or accidental. In a society like Nigeria, where political statements are often padded with lethal hints, dark euphemism and dank proverbs, such a phrase is more than an appeal for calm. I read in it a signal. I showed it to a friend; his verdict is that the family of the late General Buhari, by this phrasing, had positioned his death as a pivot.
Me, I call this whole thing the politics of the ‘Second Paragraph’. In mourning, people often seek closure. In power, they seek continuity. The Buhari family, via this carefully crafted and strategically positioned line, appears to choose the latter. But continuity of what?
Between Thursday and now, I have read the paragraph repeatedly and asked: What are those “pre-decided schedules and commitments” that are so crucially important that they had to be inserted as the very second paragraph in a 26-paragraph statement of appreciation to those who mourned the dead?
In other words, the Buhari family’s demand for fidelity to commitments is curious. What are those commitments? Are the commitments political? Or are they financial? Were there unfinished political alignments or pacts tied to Buhari’s legacy? Is it about the 2027 elections now on the horizon? Or, is it another Gordian knot beckoning on the sword of an Alexander the Great?
*Excerpted from ‘Monday Lines,’ published in the Nigerian Tribune on Monday, July 28, 2025.
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