Book Launch Controversy: Bashir Ahmad Defends Halima Buhari’s Remarks

Former aide to the late President Muhammadu Buhari, Bashir Ahmad, has dismissed claims surrounding remarks made by Halima Buhari at the recent public presentation of From Soldier to Statesman, a book authored by former Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, describing them as a deliberate misrepresentation.

Ahmad said his intervention was not a commentary on the content of the book, but an effort to correct what he described as a distortion of Halima Buhari’s words, delivered at the book launch where she spoke on behalf of the Buhari family.

The former presidential aide in a statement on his social media handle yesterday said,  “I say this again for the avoidance of doubt, I am not commenting on the newly presented book,” Ahmad stated, “I am only correcting the deliberate misrepresentation of remarks made by Halima Buhari.I was present when she delivered the remarks.”

According to him, Halima Buhari’s address was a measured and reflective assessment of leadership, governance and the human burden of public office, made strictly within the context of the book presentation, which reviewed the Buhari administration.

He noted that a specific portion of her speech had been selectively quoted and circulated in a manner that stripped it of its original context. He cited the relevant passage, which he said had been distorted: “Leadership, especially in a country as complex as Nigeria, is never as straightforward as it looks from the outside. It involves trade-offs, compromises, and, very often, imperfect choices. My father was not unaware of the criticisms levelled against him. He knew that many Nigerians felt that more could have been done, or done differently. He heard the voices of those who were disappointed, just as he heard the gratitude of those who felt their lives had improved.”

Ahmad stressed that anyone who listened to or read the full address would clearly understand that Halima Buhari’s remarks were balanced and fair, acknowledging the differing views Nigerians hold about her father’s tenure.

He added that she openly recognised that debates over the legacy of the late president Muhammadu Buhari would continue, as is natural in any democratic society.

Ahmad warned that isolating a paragraph from a lengthy speech and linking it to an unrelated controversy was misleading and unfair, not only to Halima Buhari and the Buhari family, but also to the memory of the late president.

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