Buhari: I felt like absconding when I assumed office
President Muhammadu Buhari says he felt like “absconding” after seeing the enormity of the challenges facing the country when he assumed office in May 2015.
He was speaking on Thursday during a parley with participants of the Senior Executive Course 38 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPPS) at the state house in Abuja.
He again blamed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Nigeria’s economic woes.
Buhari said: “For 16 years and eight consecutive governments of the other party… there was unprecedented revenue realised, the oil projection which can be verified was 2.1 million barrels per day. From 1999-2015 the average cost of each Nigerian barrel of oil was $100 per barrel.
“When we came it fell to less than $30 per barrel and is now between 40 and 50. Actually I felt like absconding because 27 out of 36 states in Nigeria cannot pay salaries and and we know they have no other source than to depend on salaries.
“And I asked any savings? I was told there were no savings. And I asked what have you done on agriculture, power, rails, roads? Nothing. You know more than I do because you move around. I have not been moving around since after elections but you do. How many of the Trunk A (federal) roads are still good enough?
“How much power do we have although there are some elements of sabotage. I was told the money was users to import food and fuel. I didn’t believe the answer and I still don’t believe it. Until now substantial number of people in the east eat garri and groundnut, in the west pounded yam, cassava, vegetables, in the north tuwo which is made from any of the grains, millet, sorghum. They eat it in the night and warm it in the morning and eat it and take fura dinunu in the afternoon. How many of those people can afford foreign food?
“Then they said I should check out the petroleum sector. The legislature dedicated 445,000 barrels per day to the refineries and that is just 60 per cent of our requirements.
“I said OK, what of the 40 per cent? The marketers that are bringing it just present documents, papers are just stamped and monies are taken away. This is the type of things that the Nigerian elites are doing for our own country. When you go back look at your colleagues and encourage them to be truly Nigerians.”
Still lamenting…? Nigerians actually felt that their president absconded for about seven months after swearing in – with no cabinet,no motion,no commotion…
If only Oga PMB would get it that regaling us with tales of the past don’t cut it. It’s true the holy Book says that old men will dream dreams in ourdays but can we throw in some young men and maidens that can see and drive visions in this administration?
Buhari said: “For 16 years and eight consecutive governments of the other party… there was unprecedented revenue realised, the oil projection which can be verified was 2.1 million barrels per day. From 1999-2015 the average cost of each Nigerian barrel of oil was $100 per barrel.
“When we came it fell to less than $30 per barrel and is now between 40 and 50. Actually I felt like absconding because 27 out of 36 states in Nigeria cannot pay salaries and and we know they have no other source than to depend on salaries.
This monotonous point of lamentation from Mohammadu Buhari actually depicts a Man who presented himself successively for 13 good years for the oval office claiming to have the solution to all problems of the country, forgetting to attach the precondition that the prize of oil should remain 100 dollars on the average with a projection of 2.1 million barrels a day, which he is now bitterly regretting.
Mr. Integrity Governments all over the world are not elected to inherit wealth, property and solutions to problems from their predecessors but rather are there to provide adequate solutions where their predecessors were shortcoming and to create wealth for the upkeep and welfare of its citizenry. Going into the second year in office, nothing less than how far you have gone to do these is expected of you anymore period. Otherwise the idea of absconding may just be more reasonable and still timely, than unwarranted excuses.
Just for the reminder, many of those countries from whom you are soliciting for one form of aid or the other (Germany for instance etc.) do not even have oil well at all, yet remains one of the most robust economies of the world. The 18 million Euros Germany pledged you which your team could easily claim to be 18 billion Euros because you are used to easy money and inheritance, is going to come purely from task payers money nothing else.