One week after the inauguration of Muhammadu Buhari as president and Yemi Osinbajo as vice president, both men are yet to settle into the presidential villa, the country’s seat of power.
Goodluck Jonathan, the immediate past president and Namadi Sambo, his deputy, had taken Buhari and Osinbajo on a familarisation tour of the villa a day before handing over. Buhari and Osinbajo, after the inauguration dinner at Aso Rock, have been operating from different locations.
President Buhari has been performing his duties at the Defence House, official residence of the president-elect where he met with the National Security Adviser on Tuesday. The Defence House is a federal government owned guesthouse located opposite the PDP Campaign Headquarters (Legacy House) in Maitama. Former head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha, was rumoured to have been poisoned at the Defence House before his death.
On his part, Osinbajo has been operating from his private residence in the Asokoro area of Abuja. Buhari does not reside at the Defence House, situated in the Mataima area of the federal capital territory (FCT). He only hosts visitors there, and returns to his private residence at Aso Drive, still in the FCT.
A source at the Presidential Villa who spoke to BREAKING TIMES on Friday noted that the President’s refusal to vacate his Defence House residence is unsettling and disrupting the smooth flow of governance.
According to the source, key security, protocol and media staff have been “rendered redundant” at the Defence House where they have to “report daily on a schedule that keeps everyone practically idle”.
In a similar development, a state house correspondent confirmed to TheCable that “Nothing happened at the defence house today (Friday).”
“We were told to go to his [Buhari’s] residence at Aso Drive for some assignments only for us to get there to discover that they had finished. We went to the mosque after we left the house and it has been very quiet since then. We heard this might continue for another two weeks or more” the source disclosed.
