The Presidency's statement issued by Garba Shehu, Senior Special
Assistant on media to President Muhammad Buhari, has only exposed why
Nigeria is in an economic recession and is floundering in all spheres.
It
is quite sad that Malam Garba Shehu does not know that oil constitutes
only 15% of Nigeria's GDP and thus a fall in the price of oil should not
lead to a collapse of the Nigerian economy as has been experienced
under President Buhari.
If Garba and his boss are willing to
learn, the Jonathan Foundation and the Peoples Democratic Party can
arrange a course for them to be tutored on the subject-how to grow your
economy to be the largest in Africa. We make bold that we are
experienced in that area.
When Mr. Shehu says "There is nothing
to show for the revenues earned, no major capital project was
completed, neither power generation, road development, rail or
agriculture benefitted from the windfall earnings" he only further
exposes his intellectual laziness and failing memory.
Obviously
Garba Shehu has forgotten that when his boss was commissioning the
Abuja-Kaduna 187KM fast railway that enables Nigerians work in Abuja and
live in Kaduna, he was forced to admit that the project was conceived,
built and completed by the Jonathan administration.
At that
event, President Muhammadu Buhari said about the $1.5 billion project
and I quote "This project was conceived by a previous administration,
started by the last government".
My question to Mr. Shehu is this-who is a liar between him and his boss?
I
also urge Garba Shehu to take note of the fact that the only Federal
University in his boss's home state of Katsina was built by the Jonathan
administration in addition to 13 other universities and 165 Almajiri
schools built all over Nigeria. For people who don't value education, I
am not surprised that they see this as "nothing to show"!
It may
also interest Garba Shehu to note that the Jonathan administration
revived the moribund Nigerian Railways Corporation to the extent that
the loquacious Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi was forced to
confess on December 15, 2015 and I quote "In fact, I think we have a
problem; most people don’t believe that the railway transport is
functioning in Nigeria.
I didn’t even know, until I started this tour, I
never knew that the railway was functioning, it was even from his
(MD’s) speech that I learnt that there are some coaches or services that
go to Kano or Port Harcourt or elsewhere."
These are just a few of the infrastructural legacies of the Jonathan era.
It
is quite surprising that Garba Shehu now praises the former Central
Bank of Nigeria Governor, His Royal Majesty, Muhammadu Sanusi II.
Nigerians
have not forgotten that it is the same Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, now
Muhammadu Sanusi II who carpeted the economic policies of the Buhari
administration, saying that under the Buhari administration, and again I
quote, “There is one rate for petroleum marketers, there is interbank
rate, there is another for money market operators such as western union,
money gram, there is bureau de change rate and there is a special rate
you get when you call the CBN for a transaction."
My other question to Garba Shehu is this, how will an economy not collapse when you have multiple exchange rates?
Malam
Garba and his boss continues to show that they are in over their necks
by their statements. For instance, Garba says "At the inception of the
current administration, 21 States were unable to meet their salary bills
and the spectre of workers arrears had commenced. The PDP solution was
the raid the Ecological Fund and selectively grant N2Bn each to the PDP
States."
Is it that Garba Shehu and his boss do not know that
Nigeria is a federation and that the Federal Government cannot control
the states? No wonder they are against restructuring and want to throw
the report of the 2014 National Conference into the dustbin.
We
have already proved that the accusation re the Ecological Fund is a lie
and it shows desperation on the side of the Presidency to rehash it.
When
that notorious liar, Nasir El-Rufai first made the accusation, we
showed, with documentary evidence, that core PDP states like Akwa-Ibom,
where the then chairman of the PDP Governors Forum comes from and Ekiti
state which was the only PDP state in the Southwest, did not benefit
from the Ecological Fund. Meanwhile, 10 states which were of the then
opposition All Progressive Congress did.
Apparently, when Garba Shehu and Lai Mohammed speak, they speak their native language, lies!
Mr.
Garba Shehu would do well to remember that his boss promised Nigerians 3
million jobs every year. Rather, according to the Nigerian Bureau of
Statistics, 4.58 million jobs, created by the Jonathan led PDP
administration, were lost in his boss's first year.
Laughably,
Garba Shehu cites the fight against corruption and the terror war as
major achievements of the Buhari administration.
How can Garba
Shehu reconcile his so called anti corruption war with the fact that
Nigeria has made NO PROGRESS in Transparency International's Corruption
Perception Index under Buhari and in the latest CPI Transparency
International said and I quote "Some other large African countries have
failed to improve their scores on the index. These include South Africa,
Nigeria, Tanzania and Kenya."
On the alleged terror war,
Nigerians will recall that President Muhammadu Buhari said that Boko
Haram has been technically defeated.
My question is how can a
defeated Boko Haram now have the ability to kidnap policewomen and oil
explorers? How can a defeated Boko Haram attack military formations? How
can a defeated Boko Haram carry out more suicide bombing a in the last
eight months than at any other time in Nigeria's history.
Has
Garba Shehu forgotten that on July 6, 2017, the World Economic Forum
named Nigeria as the fifth most dangerous country in the world? Or that
on the 4th of February 2017, the United States Congress cited Nigeria as
"the most dangerous place for Christians in the world"?
Garba
Shehu can continue living in his fool's paradise but he should give
Nigerians more credit than to issue the pathetic tissue of lies that he
called a response to former President Jonathan's comments at this past
weekend's non elective Congress of the PDP.
Dr. Jonathan spoke
generally about the positive impact of the PDP administrations on the
lives of Nigerians and specifically on some of his exemplary
achievements that made life better for the citizenry. He spoke about his
reforms in the electoral process, transport, rail services, industrial
and automotive policy, as well as the transformational impact of many
other policies like YouWin, Youth Enterprises with Innovation (YouWin),
bank verification number (BVN), the treasury single account (TSA) and
the e-wallet system which were all measures designed to fight
corruption.
The time for propaganda is long gone. Any body who
wants to differ should speak to those issues raised, and not boasts
about accomplishments that are not visible. The succeeding
administration has been on the saddle for more than half of its
four-year tenure.
This is the time for it to display its
scorecard, especially since the blame game no longer connects with
Nigerians. At some point under the PDP oil price fell to as low as $30
dollars and the party never cited that as a reason for non-performance.
It
is up to Nigerians to determine if they are better or worse off today
than they were in 2015, when former President Goodluck Jonthan left
office.
Finally, I urge Garba Shehu to go back and read Malam
El-Rufai's memo to President Muhammadu Buhari where El-Rufai said, and I
quote, "In very blunt terms, Mr. President, our APC administration has
not only failed to manage expectations of a populace that expected
overnight ‘change’ but has failed to deliver even mundane matters of
governance outside of our successes in fighting BH insurgency and
corruption."
Reno Omokri (Bestselling author of Facts Versus
Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years: Chibok, 2015 and Other
Conspiracies)
for former Dr. Goodluck Jonathan
President of Nigeria 2010-2015.
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