President Muhammadu slammed former President Olusegun Obasanjo over the latter’s extravagant spending on power projects in excess of $16bn without there being anything to show for it.
Obasanjo had been the one with the upper hand with a slew of attacks on the President including the infamous open letter in which he said Buhari should forget about running for Presidency in 2019.
Buhari noted that the former President bragged about the money spent on the power sector but also pointed out that Nigeria’s power sector is still in bad shape.
While he did not call Obasanjo by name, it was clear who his jabs were directed at.
Buhari made these comments at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while receiving members of the Buhari Support Organisation led by the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Hameed Ali.
“You know, more than I do, the condition of roads. Some of them were not repaired since PTF days.
“No matter what opinion you have about (late Gen. Sani) Abacha, I agreed to work with him and the PTF. We constructed roads from here (Abuja) to Port Harcourt, to Onitsha, to Benin and so on.
“This was in addition to other things in education, medical care and so on.
“You know the rail was killed and one of the former Heads of State between that time was bragging that he spent more than 15 billion American dollars, not naira, on power. Where is the power? Where is the power?
“And now, we have to pay the debts. This year and last year’s budgets that I took to the National Assembly were the highest in capital projects: more than $1.3 trn.
“Let anybody come and confront me publicly in the National Assembly. What have they been doing? Some of them have been there for 10 years. What have they been doing?”