It is very interesting that President Buhari has said that he did not sack the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, when he came in because he wanted him to salvage the terrible economy he inherited.
He also alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party left the country in tatters and challenged anyone to contradict his claim.
I hereby accept the President’s challenge and I remind him that this will not be the first time I have exposed him as a liar, having recently unveiled 20 lies in his Democracy Day speech to the nation on May 29, 2018.
In his Tafsir message delivered on Sunday June 10, 2018, prominent Islamic cleric, Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, detailed how the Jonathan administration built infrastructure all over the North including 9 Federal Universities and 165 almajiri schools. In contrast, the only project initiated, started and completed in the last three years by the Buhari government is the Daura helipad for the President’s private use.
The President should be reminded that under former President Jonathan, Nigeria never experienced anything like padded budget and the NNPC did not spend $25b without due process, neither did fugitives who stole billions in pension funds get reinstated, recalled and double promoted.
President Buhari should also note that during the Jonathan administration, fuel subsidy was far less than the ₦1.4 trillion the Buhari government is spending today. Even at that petrol was ₦87 per litre under former president Jonathan while it is ₦145 today. How can fuel price increase while fuel subsidy also increases?
Nigerians can also testify that the salaries of federal workers were been paid as and when due during the Jonathan years, unlike today when the federal government owes salaries left, right and centre. Even at that the minimum wage of ₦18,000 under Jonathan was worth $130 and could buy you two 50kg bags of rice. Today, the same ₦18,000 minimum wage under buhari is the equivalent of a mere $40 and cannot even buy you one 50kg bag of rice.
The most expensive infrastructure built in Nigeria over the last 20 years is the Abuja – Kaduna super fast railway. That project was built and completed by the Jonathan administration. It is therefore preposterous that a man who cannot name one project that he has initiated, started and completed in the last 3 years, calls the economy that Jonathan bequeathed to him terrible.
The Buhari administration has borrowed ₦11 trillion in three years, which is more money than the Peoples Democratic Party borrowed in 16 years. Yet, despite such unprecedented borrowings, the economy moved from being the third fastest growing economy in the world under President Jonathan in 2015, to an economy with the fourth worst performing currency in the world under President Buhari, according to Bloomberg, yet, President Buhari has the effrontery to paint himself as a saviour! It is Nigeria that needs to be saved from Buhari, and not Buhari that will save Nigeria!
From the foregoing, it is hypocritical of President Buhari to say that the economy was in a bad state under President Jonathan. President Buhari runs to the United Kingdom for the best healthcare money can buy at a cost of millions of dollars, something that President Jonathan never did, even though ex President Goodluck built 5 hospitals for the public nation wide and over 50 health care center for the masses.
How can an administration that cannot even provide paracetamol for the Aso Rock clinic despite over 3 billion budgeted for it under President Buhari (according to the First Lady) accuse the Jonathan administration that refurbished 10 general hospitals for the masses across Nigeria of leaving a ‘terrible economy’?
President Buhari needs to be reminded that when Bill Gates visited Nigeria during the Presidency of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, he praised the then President and the government for their management skills. After he returned, he tweeted on December 22, 2014 that “Nigeria actually had a pretty good year”. However, on March 22, 2018, when the same Bill Gates visited Nigeria under the failed leadership of Muhammadu Buhari he said the Buhari government’s economic plans were “inadequate”, “does not address Nigerians’ needs”. He thereafter described Nigeria under Buhari as one of the worst places in the world to be born. And this is the man who is now pointing a finger at Dr. Jonathan, unaware that four are pointing back at him.
Finally, let me remind the President that people only compare themselves to the best and the reason he has this strong psychological need to compare himself to former Presidents Jonathan and Obasanjo is because he suffers from a chronic case of inferiority complex.
There are four habits that people do not want to see in their leaders. These are:
* Complaining
* Comparing
* Criticising, and
* Condemning.
Unfortunately, it is as if President Buhari went to the school of bad leadership to learn these negative traits.
*Reno Omokri is a former Special Assistant on New Media to President Jonathan
- DISCLAIMER: All opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author, and do not represent the editorial policy of The Herald Nigeria