On Monday, the presidency released pictures and videos of President Muhammadu Buhari meeting with three “young friends”. These friends paid a courtesy visit to Buhari in Aso Rock accompanied by their wards.

Buhari’s meeting with his little friends is a presidential publicity stunt gone wrong. Reactions to it on social media show many Nigerians, especially those on Twitter absolutely do not care, and rightly so.

Nigerians got an inkling about today’s meeting following a tweet by Buhari’s personal assistant on New Media, Bashir Ahmad.

Ahmad was responding to a post by Twitter user, @dgebis, who wrote, “My niece wants to see the president @MBuhari face to face please make her dream come true. Retweet please.”

Ahmad replied saying, “President Muhammadu Buhari has read your niece’s letter. And he says: Invite Aisha to come and see me. Are we down for tomorrow?

This PR stunt by the presidency to help elevate the already battered image of the president and his administration makes little or no sense as there are many other things the president should be doing with his time, especially, on a Monday morning.

We are certain that these innocent children will not have accepted to meet with the president if they knew how lazy this administration is. The Buhari-led Federal Government has failed and is failing in its promise to provide the needed change Nigerians desire. The administration since assumption of office has played the blame game putting the woes of the country at the doorsteps of any and every person but itself.

During his time as military head of state, Buhari came up with the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) programme, a scheme he used to rein in “uncultured” and “indisciplined” members of the civil service. It’s rather a shame that Buhari currently runs a government void of decorum, discipline, and a sense of direction. The current administration, which is two years into its tenure is still one filled with in-fighting. Various agencies in the presidency under Buhari’s watch have been at loggerheads over issues that can be settled internally. These squabbles have been left unresolved and unattended to by Buhari, who many times has refused to make statements on them.

Many Nigerians who are adults now were kids during Buhari’s War Against Indiscipline in the 80s and are absolutely disappointed seeing the president is yet to discipline erring members in his administration. He is yet to make public the report of the Presidential Investigative Committee he set up to make findings on allegations levelled against suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, and the former Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ayo Oke.

Nigerians are yet to be informed what ails the president, but his media team is more concerned about setting up meetings with little friends, who have next to no idea on the failings of this presidency.

This time of all times, is no time for props and social media gimmicks. What Nigerians really want are proofs of a working government and clearcut ideas and plans on how to move the country forward.