Buhari should make Jonathan’s mistakes, says Omokri
Reno Omokri, special assistant to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan on social media, says President Muhammadu Buhari should make the same mistakes committed by his predecessor.
Omokri was responding to the warning of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, emir of Kano, that Buhari must stop behaving like Jonathan, else his government would end up the way of the previous administration.
“If we do not expand the economy through wise investment, we can end up in classical Malthusian situation. If this government continues to behave the way the past government behaved, we will end up where Jonathan ended,” Sanusi had said while delivering a lecture at the ongoing 15th meetings of the joint planning board and national council on development planning in Kano.
“We are always blaming the past administration, but we have also made mistakes in this administration. The problem is that there is nothing we are facing today that we did not know what happened. That is the truth.
“We made mistakes, many of them deliberate. We ignored every single warning. Not building roads, not building power and other necessary infrastructure that can boost the economy and development of the country.
“We are spending 30 to 40 percent of every Naira we earn servicing debt. The new borrowings were simply recycled into much higher recurrent expenditure. The GDP was growing largely due to consumers items.”
But responding on Thursday, Omokri said he would not allow anyone rewrite history, arguing that Jonathan did his best for Nigeria.
“How can anyone say President Muhammadu Buhari should not make Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s mistake?” he asked.
“Rather than avoid GEJ’s mistake, PMB should make the same GEJ mistake that made the economy grow at over 4% every year GEJ was in power!
“Rather than avoid GEJ’s mistake, PMB should make the same GEJ mistake that ensured our economy overtook South Africa’s economy as Africa’s largest economy!
“Rather than avoid GEJ’s mistake, PMB should make the same GEJ mistake that ensured Naira was stable at ₦150-₦215 to $1 between 2011-2015.
“Rather than avoid GEJ’s mistake, PMB should make the same GEJ mistake that ensured EVERY state had at least one federal university! Rather than avoid GEJ’s mistake, PMB should make the same GEJ mistake that ensured EVERY election INEC held under GEJ was conclusive!
“Rather than avoid GEJ’s mistake, PMB should make the same GEJ mistake that ensured civil servants were consistently paid as and when due!
“How can you say a man who kept inflation at single digit THROUGHOUT his tenure was a mistake? Nigerians pray for PMB to make same ‘mistake’! Let me assure anybody NO MATTER WHO HE IS, I, Reno Omokri, will not let ANYONE rewrite history. GEJ was a man who did well for Nigeria!”
So, by every state having a federal university is an achievement while the economy is based on dwindling oil price and eroded foreign reserve, imbalance trade. We should use our senses when reacting to issues, we can’t sit here and do the same mistake that didn’t make provision for the dry seasons. We all need to make things work.
If building more universities to accommodate more of our teeming youth, then let’s multiply that mistake. GEJ attended a university and understands the benefits of education hence the expansion of the number of government universities. Anybody who condemns that push is ignorant of the number of our youths out of school and the number seeking tertiary education beyond our shores, including poorer African nations. There are well over 1 million Nigerian students schooling in Ghana alone. C’mon!!
GEJ’s government came up with the brilliant idea of a sovereign wealth fund as a hedge for the rainy day. You should easily recall the deep and sometimes personal warfare waged between Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Governor’s forum on the one hand and the federal legislature on the other in response to her push for the set-up of the SWF. The governors, led by the loqacious Amechi won in court and so did our opportunity for savings evaporate. How then can we blame GEJ. Nobody should attempt to rewrite history as if those who know the truth are all dead.
I ‘m suprised you are blaming Amaechi’s Governor’s forum for lack of savings at the Federal level. I guess we should also blame Amaechi for depletion in our foreign reserves from over 60 Billion USD (when GEJ took over from Yar’adua) to 28 billion USD when he handed over to Buhari. So apart from spending all Nigeria earned during those years of high oil revenue, he also helped himself to accrued savings.