Buhari shades Obasanjo, says nothing to show for billions of dollars spent on power
By Ebelechukwu Chukwubuikem
President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday fired a broadside at former President Olusegun Obasanjo suggesting that the nearly $16 billion spent on the power by the former president was wasted.
President Buhari’s attack on the former president came as he received members of the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO) at the presidential villa. Members of the BSO were led by Comptroller general of the Nigeria Customs Service(NCS), Col. Hameed Ali(rtd).
Former President Obasanjo in recent times has been one of President Buhari’s strongest critics. In January this year, he wrote a detailed letter to Buhari advising him not to run for a second term as he destroyed the Nigerian economy through incompetence. Obasanjo would later form what he called a coalition of patriots, the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) to start a movement that would ensure Buhari did not get a second term. Two weeks ago, the coalition merged with the African Democratic Congress (ADC) party.
In his remarks, President Buhari said those who ran Nigeria’s economy aground in the past, through fraudulent electricity projects and misuse of revenue earnings from oil, had no love for the country.
In an apparent reference to Obasanjo, who a House of Representatives probe some years back claimed his administration spent nearly $16 billion on the power sector, Buhari said:
” One of the former Heads of State was bragging that he spent more than 15 billion USD on power in Nigeria. Where is the power?”
On the mismanagement of the economy by previous administrations, President Buhari noted that the perpetrators lacked imagination and plans for the development of the nation.
“Sometimes, I wonder about those who can afford to send their children abroad for studies and yet continue to sabotage the economy, I wonder what kind of Nigeria they want their children to return to and work. There is a lot of lack of imagination. If you are working for the country, then you shouldn’t be misappropriating and misapplying public funds the way people did,” he said.
On the state of the Nigerian economy when his administration came on board, President Buhari said:
“I challenge anybody to check from Europe, America and Asia; between 1999-2014, Nigeria was producing 2.1 million barrels of crude oil per day at an average cost of 100 USD per barrel and it went up to 143 USD.
“When we came it collapsed to 37 – 38 USD and later was oscillating between 40 and 50 USD. I went to the CBN Governor, with my cap in my hand, and asked if we had savings. He told me we had only debts, no savings. Some of the roads were not repaired since the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) days.
In defence of Nigeria’s former military Head of state under whom he served as Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund, President Buhari stated:
“I don’t care the opinion you have about Abacha but I agreed to work with him and we constructed roads from Abuja to Port Harcourt, Benin to Onitsha and so on. We also touched education and health institutions,” he said.
The President noted that under his watch, the 2016 and 2017 budgets recorded the highest appropriation and releases in capital projects, with over N2.8 trillion disbursements in two years.
The President urged Nigerians to reject those bent on dividing the country along religious and ethnic lines, warning that they do not mean well for the country.
“I have said severally that we do not have any other country than Nigeria and we will remain here and salvage it together.
“We have nothing to regret. Absolutely nothing. God has given Nigeria everything. We are rich in human and material resources. Let us keep on praying to God to put people of conscience in-charge at all levels,’’ he said.
On the activities of the BSO, President Buhari apologised for not informing them before announcing his intention to seek re-election in 2019 during a meeting of the National Executive Committee of the All Progressives Congress on April 9, 2018.
He thanked members of the group for their support to him as a Presidential candidate in 2015 and all through his term in office, adding that their voluntary sacrifices were an indication of their trust and belief in the great future of the country.
Responding, Col. Ali(rtd) said the group and majority of Nigerians are passionate about a second-term for President Buhari because of his integrity, honesty, love and patriotism.
He noted that President Buhari has entrenched fiscal discipline and prudent management of resources, improved the nation’s security and delivered on his promise to revamp agriculture, as a major revenue earner for the country.
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