I have just read President Buhari’s speech to the All Progressive
Congress members who visited him at the Presidential Villa on
Monday the 26th of February, 2018.
It is rather unfortunate that a man who once deceived the nation
with his fabled ‘integrity’ can descend so low as to spew forth very
obvious lies and a revision of history.
If nothing else justifies the Transparency International Corruption
Perception Index rating which revealed that corruption in Nigeria
has worsened under President Buhari, this latest Presidential
Speech does.
In psyching up the APC for 2019, the President, obviously aware of
the defeat that awaits him and his lying brigade, said as follows:
“It is easy to forget that we succeeded a government with a record
of unprecedented theft and systematic mismanagement. Nigeria
was fast heading for a state of collapse. It is easy to forget the fuel
subsidy fraud, arms fund diversion, depleted excess Account
savings, depleted foreign reserves, massive unpaid debts to
contractors and suppliers amidst failure to invest or even maintain
our infrastructure namely railways, roads, electricity, in spite of
having earned over US$500 billion from Oil & Gas alone, during the
16 years of PDP rule. Lest we forget, we must always remind
ourselves of the dire situation in which we came to office.”
I will now take each of these points one by one to prove that we
have a man who has no credibility in President Buhari.
First and foremost, it is true that there is “unprecedented theft and
systematic mismanagement”, but such activities are taking place
under President Buhari, rather than the preceding administration.
The Peoples Democratic Party government of President Goodluck
Jonathan dismissed Abdulrasheed Maina, the biggest alleged thief
in Nigeria’s civil service history, and declared him wanted. The
incumbent APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari
brought him back, reinstated him and gave him double promotion.
Furthermore, the President, through his Attorney General of the
Federation, went to court to block the Senate’s attempt to unravel
how Abdulrasheed Maina was smuggled back to Nigeria and given
armed guards. We already know the truth about that as revealed in
the leaked memo from the Head of the Civil Service, Mrs. Winifred
Eyo-Ita.
At a sworn testimony in the National Assembly by the immediate
past acting Director General of the Nigerian Intelligence Agency,
Nigerians were also regaled with details of how a cabal in the
Presidency tried to get him to share the $44 million Ikoyi Apartment
loot with them.
The nation has still not forgotten the allegation by the Minister of
State for Petroleum, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, whose leaked memo
revealed that the GMD of NNPC, Maikanti Baru, awarded $25 billion
worth of contracts without due process.
On the second allegation that “Nigeria was fast heading for a state
of collapse. It is easy to forget the fuel subsidy fraud, arms fund
diversion, depleted excess Account savings” the President,
characteristically, lied.
Nigeria under the PDP government of Dr. Jonathan was not
heading to collapse. As a matter of fact, the nation was projected
by CNNMoney to be the third fastest growing economy in the world
after China and Qatar in 2015. The British Government projected us
to be the fourth fastest growing economy in the world, with the
then British Prime Minister, David Cameron saying as follows:
“Yes, we’ve been hearing about China and India for years but it’s
hard to believe what’s happening in Brazil, in Indonesia, in Nigeria
too.”
Contrary to what President Buhari said, it was precisely under his
rule that Nigeria entered its first recession in 25 years just a year
after he took over a vibrant economy that was growing at 6% under
the PDP.
Nigerians will recall that the recession was self induced by
President Buhari’s refusal to name a cabinet six months after
being sworn in and his flip flopping economic policy that saw the
Naira collapse to ₦510 to $1 leading to an unprecedented capital
flight out of Nigeria.
It will further be remembered that whereas President Buhari said
he did not know what fuel subsidy is and called it a fraud, it was
revealed last December that the Buhari administration had been
paying subsidy on fuel without appropriations from the National
Assembly, despite increasing the pump price of petrol from the
₦85 per liter that President Jonathan reduced it to to the current
pump price of ₦145 per liter.
On the third allegation of “failure to invest or even maintain our
infrastructure namely railways, roads, electricity”, the facts speak
for itself.
The preceding Jonathan administration completely built the 187 KM
super fast Abuja-Kaduna railway that enables Nigerians live in
Kaduna and work in Abuja. That same administration began the
Lagos-Ibadan railway and the Loko-Oweto bridge, rebuilt the Benin-
Ore road and the Vom-Manchok road.
President Goodluck Jonathan also built and commissioned the 500
megawatts Omotosho Power Plant Phase 2 with four gas turbines
in Ondo State on Saturday October 19, 2013. He also built and
commissioned the 750 megawatts Olorunsogo power plant on
Friday the 20th of February, 2015 and on Wednesday the 25th of
March, 2015 he commissioned the 504 MW simple cycle Gas Alaoji
Power station in Aba, Abia State.
In the education sector, the PDP administration of President
Jonathan built 14 new federal universities, including the ONLY
federal university in President Buhari’s home state of Katsina, as
well as 169 almajiri schools all over Nigeria.
It will also be recalled that that administration revived the Nigerian
Railway Corporation which went moribund when President Buhari
was a military dictator in 1985.
Having listed these verifiable projects with their dates of
completion, I challenge the Buhari administration to name one
project they have initiated and completed in their three years in
office. The fact is that the only project they have started and
finished in three years is the helipad built by the Federal
Government in Daura for President Buhari’s personal use.
From the facts listed above, it should be clear to the nation that
President Buhari and the APC intend to repeat the lies and
propaganda they used to deceive the Nigerian people in 2015 such
as the President’s promise to make ₦1 equal to $1, his promise to
provide 24 hours uninterrupted electricity supply and his promise
to create 3 million jobs per annum even though 10 million jobs
have been lost since May 29, 2015.
Let me seize this opportunity to remind President Buhari that lying
is corruption and you may be able to fool some people all the time,
but you cannot fool all the people all of the time.
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