Exclusive: How Buhari’s controversial Sallah speech was procured

By Nigerian Times

Despite the prevailing narrative that President Muhammadu Buhari’s sallah message was BBC Hausa Service interview Nigerian Times checks reveal that the recording of the speech was actually sent to a select group of friendly journalists in Nigeria by president Buhari’s Special Assistant on Broadcast Matters.

Findings by this paper reveal that two different recordings were released, the one sent to journalists and another one sent to mosques in the North.

In the tape circulated to mosques by Sha’aben Sharada, the President’s Personal Assistant on Broadcast Media, who was also the official that got his boss to call a Muslim group from Kano that gathered to pray for him on his first medical trip this year,clerics are heard praying for the president and also acknowledging Shadara as the source of the speech.

A source told this paper that the idea behind President Buhari speaking in Hausa language and circulating the tape to mosques in the North was to create the impression that the president had made impressive recovery as well as build a religious wall of support for himself.

The source said that as a result of this, the cabal in the presidency, which initiated the idea of the presidential sallah speech, went to great lengths to ensure that everything appeared perfect. According to the source, the cabal was becoming increasingly worried by the fact that acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinabjo appeared to be taking charge and worming his way into the heart of Nigerians hence the need to project President Buhari into the consciousness of Nigerians.

Proof of the fact that the recording may have emanated from here instead of the BBC as hacks of the Buhari Media Centre have been claiming on social media is seen in the fact that the British Broadcasting outfit, in its report of the sallah message, talked about “a tape in circulation”, a language it would not have used had it directly interviewed President Buhari.

Infact, Nazir Mikail, Head of the BBC Hausa Service in Abuja, in response to the question by this paper as to whether the BBC interviewed President Buhari,said:

“We did not interview him, we just aired the Eid message”

Aside the issue of the source or authenticity of the speech, those who concede that the voice in the recording belongs to president Buhari have raised concerns about what they considered to be a slur in his speech suggesting that his condition may have worsened, a claim the presidency has come out swiftly to deny