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100 DAYS OF PRESIDENT BUHARI IN OFFICE, WHAT HAS HE DONE?

from: 06 . 09 . 15
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100 Days In Office: Buhari’s Footprints Are In All Sectors – Shehu

President Muhammadu Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu tells GEORGE AGBA in this interview that the president has, within the 100 days he has spent in office, set milestones in all the sectors in the country that would revamp the bad economy he inherited from the immediate past Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government.

The few months you, the president’s men, have stayed in Aso Rock is enough to discover certain things past presidencies didn’t do correctly that need correction in the current administration. Can you spare some hints in this regard?

We are here in the media section of the presidency. Before the coming of this administration, we heard of accounts of so many things around government, including a part of the State House relaying on drawings from security votes. From day one, the president informed Femi and I that media work under him must be funded through the regular budget, and that it is illegal to draw from security votes. This is a wise decision and I believe that by the time the ongoing investigation into the security department is complete, Nigerians will be shocked by the scale of waste and possibly, misappropriation that has taken place in that single sector.

We are witnesses to his refusal to accept N400 million worth of cars. He said ‘no; these ones that I met are just still good enough.’ So, you can see that there are a lot of wastage that he has found in this place and he has been cutting it down. Whatever is sent to the State House management and whatever you need, go and look at the appropriation properly. We are not going to have a situation where emergency funding will be required from time to time. Everything must be duly approved and follow due process. He is a very austere president; he lives it, he preaches it and he promotes it.

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding President Buhari’s 100 days in office in terms of his achievements. The presidency has also come out to say that the president didn’t promise any specifics in this regard during his campaign. Even at that, does it mean that he has not achieved anything so far?

Milestones have been achieved. Of course, it is important that peace has come to the country. The Boko Haram, which represented the most important threat that this country had ever faced is about being vanquished. It is being degraded and completely in disarray now. They have lost central command, and what we are witnessing now is the tottering activities of a dying insurgency. Even the Defense headquarters has assured that the end to it is in sight. Hopefully, before all of that is over, there will come some good news to Nigerians in regards to the Chibok girls. So, we have been looking good as far as that one is concerned. One of his earliest actions was the relocation of the command center and the creation of the Multinational Joint Task Force to create a ring around the insurgents with the cooperation of the Lake Chad Basin Commission.

The results are beginning to show immediately, because that had the effect of bringing the leaders of the campaign in direct contact with the theatre of the war. It has yielded such excellent results that even the Lake Chad Basin Commission which had existed in paper has been given life. Now, Nigeria has given funds; there is an active headquarters in Njamena and they have been given support in terms of transportation, barrack accommodation and weaponry. That it has helped to reduce the threat to enable where there is a clear indication that the end of insurgency is in sight.

You are aware of one of the commitment that we have obtained from the G7 group of countries which also includes the United States of America. Now they have already shown readiness to supply needed equipment and weaponry. They are also willing to support Nigeria to restore damaged infrastructures. This is talking about markets, places of work, bridges and roads. So, in terms of the overall security architecture of the country things have substantially been enhanced and the president’s position of providing a safe environment for daily life and for investment to thrive is gradually being put in place.

That is on security. What about the economy?

You have seen how the president has faced the issue of unpaid salaries. Shamefully, even a part of the federal government could not pay salaries. Even some states of the federation could not pay salaries for one year. Now, how can you even fight corruption in that kind of situation? It is very clear that the president saw this emergency and he has squared up to it, and funds have been issued through the central bank to states that owe workers and these things are being liquidated. So, the country gradually is trekking and walking back to that milestone.

We already have a framework in place for the revival of the economy. We have a situation which the naira, the national currency which had been wobbling for quite some time is being stabilized with some of these policies that have been taken in blocking some loopholes that have led to the drainage of foreign exchange. The president said this country can produce enough rice to serve the national population and even exported abroad. The moment he made the call some persons in the country have risen to it and they are already mapping out how local needs can be met. The importation of some things are totally unnecessary; things like tooth pick made from things that are locally available. But because people with some foreign taste would rather buy what is abroad and ignore what is home grown, it has been killing the economy. So, the president has restricted access to foreign exchange through the Central Bank to those importers who engage in frivolity rather than bring into the country equipment machinery and technical manpower required for the country’s benefit in industrialization.

You can see how much power has been enhanced. Electricity in the country has been generated at a level that has never been seen before. As we speak now, the country generates more power than can be absorbed by local consumption. We realize that there is a decay in the distribution system and that is the next challenge the government believes it should tackle. As it is now, there are parts of the country- some cities in the country- that are witnessing almost 24 hours unbroken supply of electricity and some managers of the electricity companies are saying this is achievable for the entire country in a short period from now.

Has any remarkable thing been done in the oil sector in terms of the milestones you are talking about?

The appointment of the new Group Managing Director of the NNPC has heralded reforms in that sector like the closure of all the accounts other than just one approved by the federal government. This is what they had used to siphon money from the country. Look at crude oil theft that had spread for quite a while; even where documentation is made, you have situations where oil is being sold abroad and the proceeds are deposited in accounts other than those of the government of the federation. Now, a lot of that is also being contained. The president has encouraged that there should be the restoration of the refineries and pipeline system which he left intact when he served as petroleum minister and later as military head of state.

His believe is that the whole idea is to discourage corruption. That is why they allowed the decay in the refineries and the pipeline system so that cronies would be given licenses to start the exportation of crude oil and the importation of refined petroleum products. This is a country that had refined enough crude, enough petroleum products to meet local needs and even export hundred thousand barrels per day. So, there is a cleanup, not only in the financial system and the oil sector, but even in the environment itself. You can see what he has ordered in Ogoniland which has received wide acclaim from all over the world. As I speak to you now, even the United Nations has indicated interest that they wish to join Nigeria to support the activity that is going on in the area.

The Amnesty programme which is near completion has been given a shot in the arm. You know that with the appointment of a new administrator so much has changed. The beneficiaries have been talking on radio that for the first time, they are getting their allowances in full and steady. Before the coming of President Buhari, some said they were given half of their own monthly allocation.

What about the issue of corruption, which happens to be the prime in the President’s agenda?

Speaking about corruption, you know that this idea of single treasury account is perhaps the greatest weapon that anybody can wield against corruption in the public service. Before now, corporations like the NNPC didn’t even know how many accounts they had. The president has ordered that queries be answered within 24 hours, and that is certainly going to change things because from what he found on the ground, people didn’t give a damn about queries. They were some that were left for years without being responded to. But the era of impunity is long gone now and things are changing for the better.

Following the visit to the United States, we also have the pledge by the U.S. government to support Nigeria with the intelligence and information concerning not only security but the economy. America told Mr. President that they believe that up to N150 billion of Nigeria’s wealth had been stolen and efforts are ongoing to see how much of this we would recover. If this country is able to recover a substantial part of this money, it will still be a game changer; it will change so many things in the country.

The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the country’s economy under President Buhari is worse than ever. This is not a good one for a president who is just 100 days old in office. What would you say about this?

President Buhari is not new to coming to the leadership of Nigeria at a time the economy is at a much trying moment. When he came as military head of state between 1983 and 1984 oil price had been sunken to 8 -9 dollars per barrel. What we are dealing with today is a situation where it was down to $23 from about $120. There are fears that it will even go down further because with the lifting of sanction on Iran, Iran is going to become a bigger player in the market that would affect whatever it is that Nigeria is going to sell in the market.

The economy is being managed in a way that even when oil price is going down, the country’s foreign reserves are rising. Under the PDP, oil prices had risen to a level they had never reached. I am talking about the Jonathan administration. They met a country with a fat foreign reserve, with apparently no foreign debt but they squandered that money that they inherited. You would remember that when former President Obasanjo warned that they should save for the rainy day, they asked him to shut up because it was already raining. They spent all that money; they piled up debt all over again for a country that was celebrating freedom from debt.

So, the economy that they handed over to President Buhari is a rotten economy; it is tottering and the president is just trying to put things together. With all that is going on, including the war against corruption and the retrieval of the stolen funds, I am convinced that by the time the actual prosecution starts PDP will not have the moral feet on which to stand in this country. When all of those things are out it will be a scandal and shame for anybody to raise his hand and say I am a PDP member in Nigeria because they have mismanaged every opportunity this country had got and the have lost the moral feet on which to pontificate on any matter, whether it is the economy or the social system.

 

But the PDP is alleging that the war against corruption is selective and that it is targeted at certain perceived political enemies. What is your take on this?

The president doesn’t select for EFCC or ICPC or whoever. He doesn’t talk to the judiciary on what to do and he will not do that. Let me tell you, if President Buhari was meddlesome, everybody in this country is seeing the persecution of former Governor Rotimi Amaechi; what they are doing to him in Rivers; the humiliation which he is being subjected to without any basis at all by a government that is thuggish, by a government that conspired with the police to steal a popular mandate. They have turned the system against a man who has worked, not only to put Rivers back on the part of viable development, but has also given this country the best through his performance as the director general of the Buhari campaign team that for the very first time in the history of this country and many countries in Africa, succeeded in defeating an incumbent administration. I am saying these things to show that if Buhari is a meddler, the first thing he would probably have done is to ask the judiciary that is being used to persecute Governor Amaechi to stop doing that.

But he is having faith in the fact that the truth, in a contest with falsehood, will prevail. If the president cannot stop the persecution of his fellow compatriots – members of his party who have contributed to his emergence as a leader – why would anybody say that he is going after him? It is absolute rubbish. Let me tell you, PDP wants to derail the ongoing investigation and prosecution that are about to start on the matter of the recovery of stolen funds. This war against corruption will not be deterred. It will continue and he who has taken from the treasury that which does not belong to him will be forced to return it.

 

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