Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, said the people of Owerri are fed up with shackles and are waiting to burst loose and enjoy their liberty once again.

According to Adesina, this was one of his observations during the visit of the president to Imo on Tuesday.

Adesina added that what was seen in Owerri is a perfect picture of what is happening in the entire South East region.

The media aide said the people of Owerri could not hide their joy when they saw President Buhari and that proves that they are tired of the group who declared a sit-at-home order before the arrival of the president.

He said;

It was not a triumphal entry. It was not designed to be. It was just a duly and legitimately elected President visiting a part of the territory he presides over.

 

President Muhammadu Buhari’s working visit to Owerri, Imo State on Tuesday, September 13, 2022, had no measure of braggadocio, bravado, or vainglory. Count the man out of such conceit. A father was just visiting his children, despite rattling of the sabre by some misguided folks, who had ordered everyone to stay at home, and shun the August visitor.

 

The President was in Imo, and what a breath of fresh air the visit turned out to be. Despite a ‘Sit at home order,’ which is often enforced by mayhem and murder, a good number of people turned out to welcome the President. Men, women, boys, girls. Those who didn’t congregate at the venue of road commissioning, and at the precinct of the newly rebuilt State House of Assembly, and the Government House, were in front of their houses, waving to the convoy, as the President drove past.

 

You know what I saw in Owerri and environs? A people fed up with shackles, waiting to burst loose and enjoy their liberty once again. “Man is born free, but everywhere, he is in chains,” (Rousseau, in The Social Contract). Owerri people cast off their shackles, came out singing, dancing, and welcoming their President. That was what they wanted, and it was what they got.

 

Who first puts a people they say they want to liberate under bondage? They cabin and crib them every Monday, (Ghost Monday, they call it, when no business must be done), at huge social and economic costs. And any other day the leader of the separatist movement currently standing trial also appears in court, they compel the people to sit at home, to their disquietude and sorrow. Tuesday was one of such days.