Integrity Has Limbs and Can Walk: A Commonsense Analysis.

Integrity is a mere grammatical expression. Its impact or usefulness is in the application; otherwise, it is useless.

The First Lady, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, is a woman of grace, high charisma, and poise. Above all, her integrity is intact. In actions and pronouncements, she exemplifies the traits of what integrity is about. But you cannot readily reach the same conclusion about President Buhari. I will explain.

When the administration headed by her husband reneged on its campaign promise to pay 5k stipends to unemployed Nigerian youths, she was the first to speak out against it. At a public forum, she called on the administration to honor its campaign promises.

That's what integrity is about.

Also, she was the first public figure to alert Nigerians about the existence of a Cabal in the Buhari Administration. A Cabal, she argues, was not part of the struggles that brought her husband into power. They have not only taken control of the ship of state, but they are also engaging in dangerous maneuvering.

It takes integrity to speak truth to power.

She was the first within the APC circle to openly revolted against the administration, threatening to vote against it in the next election in the absence of noticeable improvements in meeting their campaign promises.

Integrity is about accountability - owning up to responsibilities.

In 1994 or thereabouts, General Sani Abacha, as the Military Head of State, set up the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), and General Buhari was appointed as the Executive Chairman.

Buhari later set up the Afri-Project Consortium to manage the Trust Fund. The disbursement of funds and citing of projects were out of his sights. Exemplifications of "my hands are clean" syndrome.

Is that a measure of integrity?

This essay is not about the lopsided allocations of projects and high-ranking appointments, which massively favors one region at the peril of the other. It's about his laxity and abuse of the principles of delegated responsibilities.

Integrity is mobile, dynamic, and robust.

You cannot pride yourself or your administration of strict adherence to the culture of accountability if you're not actively participating in the process. Regulatory compliance is meaningless if there are no regulators on site. You're never around and your subordinates are not on the ground.

Integrity is purposeful.

And you cannot pride yourself as an embodiment of integrity if you cannot fathom the bigotry inherent in devoting 95% of your time and governmental resources to the development of regions that gave you 95% of their votes as against those who gave you 5%.

I see no integrity here. You're the President of all Nigerians.

Above all, integrity remains simply a grammatical expression in a Buhari's world, where women are considered nothing more than bedrooms objects and kitchen-helps.

Simply put, we live in a different world from his. There's a disconnect that is evading his consciousness. I see feudalism and not integrity.

His Advisers are false prophets, running from reality and having difficulties confronting the President with the Truth.

In 2012, this author, dissatisfied with the slow pace of the PDP administration, came up with the idea of a progressive coalition; canvassing the needs for a handshake across the Niger between Southern Progressive forces and the Northern intellectuals and mavericks.

Subsequently, Asiwaju Tinubu, in concerted efforts with bogus progressive forces in the South, struck a coalition deal with Buhari and his CDC followers that culminates in the formation of APC.

They ran on populist principles and they won. But President Buhari threw Asiwaju under the Bus and handed the entire government operations to the cabal.

And as it was with Afri-Project Consortium under the Petroleum Trust Fund, so it is today with the Cabal under APC. And that my friends, is not a measure of integrity.

Now you know why I am no longer Standing With President Buhari.

Who was the head of the PTF? President Buhari. Who ran the PTF? The Afri-Project Consortium. Who ran the Afri-Project Consortium? The man died. Account close. And accountability adjourned indefinitely.

Who is heading APC? President Buhari? Who is managing the Presidency? The Cabal. Who is the Cabal? Like the famed Kaduna Mafia, you may never know. They represent a set of interests that are categorically deficient in national outlook.

You're not Presidential, patriotic, or nationalistic if you're not comfortable trusting or working with those whose ethnic and religious backgrounds are different from yours.

When President Buhari went on an extended medical vacation in the U.K., the Vice President was officially in charge, but not in charge of the Presidency. When the President returned, the headline news was not his healthy and trimmed look.

The dominant news item was the story of RODENTS invading and wreaking avoidable havoc inside of the heartbeat of our nation - our Presidential Office. Nigerians didn't get it. That was a revelation, the emptiness of our sit of power.

There is no one in charge like the American Oval Office. There is no excitement. And there is no integrity here. The place is operationally dead.

Mrs. Aisha Buhari is a woman of integrity. She is proactive. She makes informed comments, and she takes a firm stand on most issues because she is alive to her responsibilities. She has never, like her husband, forgotten the promises made to the electorates. Her empathy is real. And she is genuinely concerned. Integrity doesn't lie and it doesn't suffer any disability. It has limbs and it can walk and talk.