President Muhammadu Buhari will leave Nigeria in better economic and security shape than he met it in 2015.
The Presidency stated this on Monday night when defending Buhari against claims that he appointed security chiefs inexplicably lopsidedly over the course of the previous eight years, arguing that such claims are unjustified and that service chiefs and security agency heads cannot be chosen based on federal character or ethnic balancing.
InsideOjodu recalls that Buhari will leave office exactly one month from now on May 29, After serving eight years in two terms.
Critics claim that since Buhari assumed the position of president, the country has gotten worse, and he has been charged with favoritism and nepotism against competency and adherence to the federal character.
However, Special Advisor to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, who spoke during an appearance on Channels Television program opted that regardless of what people think, Buhari will leave Nigeria in a better state than when he arrived in 2015.
Adesina pointed out that before Buhari’s administration took office, the rebels held roughly 17 local government districts in the nation’s north, but that no council region is currently under Boko Haram’s authority.
Federal character and ethnic balancing cannot be applied to security.
On the allegation of nepotism in the appointment of security heads, where it was said that about 70 per cent of heads of security agencies are from the North, Adesina said appointment of security heads was a prerogative of the President, which should not be subjected to ethnic balancing or federal character.
His words: “Don’t subject security to ethnic balancing; don’t subject security to federal character. In fact, the constitution that prescribes federal character even gives the President some prerogative that he can appoint on his own.
“What the constitution requires of you is balancing in terms of each state being represented in terms of certain positions. Those positions are prescribed. Security is not part of it. President will always have the prerogative to appoint those he feels can help him secure the country and have the kind of country you deserve to have. I would say that the President has been able to keep to his promises.”
On the report that Nigeria had recorded more deaths under Buhari’s administration than the previous government even though security was one of the cardinal areas the administration promised to focused on, the presidential spokesman said credit should be given to the administration because the country witnessed the lowest number of deaths in 2022.
He said: “Do you also know of the report which says in the past 12 years, that 2022 was the year that recorded the least number of deaths in terms of insurgency and insecurity. We know in this country, the figure has been coming down over the years.
“No life, ideally, should be lost. One life lost is too many. When reports tell you that between 2015 and 2021 so so number of lives were lost and in 2022 the lowest figure came up, it calls for something positive, you don’t ignore it.
“Buhari is leaving the country far better and I said it from the beginning in 2015 we knew where Nigeria was, 17 local governments in this country were under the control of insurgents. NYSC could not do orientation; they were not sending people to those places. Is it what is happening today? No.
“The emirs are back in their palaces, local government chairmen are back in their offices, NYSC orientation is happening in those states, youth corpers have been posted to those states. Are you now telling me that there has not been improvement? No. Let’s be factual, let’s give the government some credit please.”
On the alleged worsening economic situation under the Buhari’s administration, Adesina also said the economy has been diversified by the government and that the economy no longer depends solely on oil.
“This government met a mono product economy, an economy that depended solely on oil so that any time oil prices crash in the international market, Nigeria crashes with it, but today it’s no longer so. Oil contributes less than 10 per cent of our GDP (Gross Domestic Product) today. Oil used to contribute about 90 per cent.
“For the first time in our history, Nigeria has a diversified economy. Diversification has long been a promise but today it’s no longer a promise, it’s a reality. I think people must credit the Buhari’s administration for that because we now have agric, we now have ICT, we now have manufacturing to an extent.
“We have so many things contributing to Nigeria GDP apart from oil. The economy has been diversified first time in over 60 years, that is something nobody will deny the Buhari administration.”