No, Buhari has provided quality leadership – Lai Mohammed
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that five years of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) has been uneventful in the annals of Nigerian history.
The party’s spokesman, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan stated this at a press conference in Abuja yesterday.
He said the Buhari-led administration had taken loans from every part of the world within five years.
Ologbondiyan said the party had already alerted Nigerians that with the volume of borrowing places “our nation on the international auction market.”
“Under five years, President Buhari has borrowed from every corner of the world. These include external borrowing of $10.72 billion (N4.1 trillion) in 2015, $11.41 billion (N4.4 trillion) in 2016, $18.91 billion (N7.3 trillion) in 2017, $25.27 billion (N9.8 trillion) in 2018, $27.68 billion (N10.7 trillion) in 2019 as well as 2020 loans of $3.4 billion (N1.3 trillion) from IMF, $4.4 million (N1.594 billion) internal borrowing, $22.7 billion (N8.8 trillion) external loan and the recently yet to be approved $5.513 billion (N2.1 trillion) waiting before the national assembly.
“In the last five years, corruption has also worsened in government circle as shown in Transparency International (TI)’s corruption perception index.
“Federal government agencies such as the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) among others have been opened up for pillaging by the cabal in the Presidency and the APC.
“It is distressing that instead of heeding wise counsel to accept failure and avoid making false performance claims, the Buhari Presidency just yesterday released a list of recycled fictitious achievements, including very insensitive claim of having routed out bandits; even as marauders were pillaging communities and killing our compatriots in Sokoto and other states, particularly in the Northwest,” said the PDP.
The party said the APC-led federal government had taken Nigeria 60 years backward adding that the government had turned Nigeria into a wasteland with its economy devastated, national dreams shattered and the peoples’ dream crushed.
He said May 29, formerly Democracy Day before it was changed to June 12 by the president has become synonymous with the enthronement of incompetence, insensitive leadership, endemic corruption in high places and governance by propaganda and false performance claims.
He also stated that the PC-led administration had reversed all the gains achieved by the PDP for which May 29 was always celebrated.
The PDP spokesman said under President Buhari, May 29 “has become a day of grieving for Nigerians, a day for commemoration of failed promises, reversal of gains achieved by past leaders and retrogression in our body polity as a nation.
Besides, he said the administration had failed in its three major governance planks of provision of security, economic recovery and fight against corruption.
He further said the government “has ruined our productive sector, frustrated our farmers, manufacturers and small scale entrepreneurs, devalued our naira, wrecked employment opportunities for our youth, turned our once prosperous nation into the poverty capital of the world while accumulating huge foreign debts for this generation and the unborn.”
However, the minister of information and culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed said Nigeria “is marching surely and steadily to join the comity of great nations,” thanks to the president’s bold and courageous leadership.
In his ‘1st Anniversary (2nd term) of Buhari administration: A year of momentous change’ Mohammed said the president was taking Nigeria to the “next Level of irreversible change for the better.”
“The days of unbridled massive importation of food are coming to an end, as Nigeria moves to become self-sufficient in major staples, especially rice. Thanks to the provision of many platforms and improved welfare, the Nigerian military is living up to the billing in tackling insurgency,” he said.
He said as the president begins his second year of the second and last tenure, the stage was set for the implementation of the greatest agricultural revolution in the history of Nigeria.
“The unprecedented approval by the Buhari administration to inject $1.2 billion in-kind loan into the agriculture sector through the government-to-government bilateral loan from Brazil, with support from Deutsche Bank and the Islamic Corporation for Insurance of Export Credit of the Islamic Development Bank, will revolutionise our agriculture at scale,” he added.
On power supply, the Mohammed said top on the list was power, or electricity.
He said it would be an “understatement” to say that inadequate power supply, hallmarked by regular blackouts, had stifled Nigeria’s economic development.
He claimed that it was perhaps the single most formidable obstacle to the country’s economic development but added that following an agreement with German company Siemens in July 2019 to boost power supply in Nigeria, the stage was set for the perennial power problem to become a thing of the past.
“Under the three-phase agreement, Nigerians will enjoy 7,000 megawatts of reliable power supply by the end of 2021 (phase 1), 11,000 megawatts by the end of 2023 (phase 2) and 25,000 megawatts in the third phase.
“To put things in perspective, Nigeria’s current power generation capacity is more than 13,000 megawatts, but only an average of 3,400 megawatts, reliably reach consumers,” he added.
Mohammed who also addressed a press conference in Abuja said although the President came to power on ‘change’ mantra, the change was never easy adding that “the birth of a new nation comes with pain.”
“With the bold and courageous leadership provided by the President, Nigeria is marching surely and steadily to join the comity of great nations. Change is never easy, and the birth of a new nation comes with pain.
“We thank Nigerians for their support and perseverance, and hereby reassure them of the administration’s unrelenting commitment to making life more meaningful for the citizenry.
“President Muhammadu Buhari was elected in 2015 on the strength of his promise of change.
“Nigerians, who are satisfied with his performance, especially in the cardinal areas of fighting corruption, tackling insecurity and revamping the economy, overwhelmingly re-elected the President in 2019,” he added.
