ear infection. He arrived the Abuja airport at around 5:30 pm with arousing welcome from members of his cabinet. Buhari told journalists that he is hale and hearty, and ready to wrestle with anyone. On arrival, his media aide, Femi Adeshina spoke to journalists reflecting on Buhari's one year in office, his personal life, party and being Nigeria's president.
When asked on Buhari's fight against 'inherited' corruption, Adeshina said:
“I remember in the UK about two weeks ago, one foreign media asked the president – did you know it was this bad? He confessed that he knew it was bad but he didn’t know it was that bad. It has turned out very, very bad. But it is also something that the government is tackling and the president is determined to leave a saner and cleaner Nigeria in terms of accountability and probity by the way he is going. No matter what anybody says about this corruption war, no friend no foe, no retreat, no surrender. Anybody, irrespective of who he is, if he has questions to answer on corruption, he will have to answer. I hear people say that it is selective. They need to prove. He who alleges must also prove. The anti-corruption war is going on and going on very well and it has earned Nigeria a lot of respect in the international community. The third promise he made was to revive the economy.
So, I will say so far so good, the government is on course. I have used this illustration before, and I will use it again. Nigeria is like a plane that has taken off and is gaining altitude, with its nose in the air. As long as its nose is in the air, it is climbing. If the nose is down it is a danger signal.”
Aside the economy, are there some things the president discovered that you will want to tell us?
“The president has promised that the May 29 broadcast will be quite revealing and I can tell you it will be quite revealing. You also know that apart from the economy, even the inter-ethnic relationship in the country was an issue. The president met a country that had been badly divided, more than at any time in the history of this country. Because in the last days of the last administration, all the things that divided us were emphasised because they wanted to win the election at all cost. They used religion, used ethnicity, used language, used where you came from, threw everything into it. He inherited a country that was almost breaking apart. It is gradual process to put the country together. We are not there yet. We know that there are still some agitations in some parts of the country. Those are still fallout of the things he inherited.”
Is the president bothered about the trial of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who is the number three citizen of this country?
“The president answered this question sometime in the US. I was there. The question had been – what is his relationship with Saraki vis-a-vis the trial? And what will his relationship be after the trial? The president said the outcome of the trial will determine what his relationship will be. So the president knows what is going on, he is aware of his environment, he keeps tab, naturally he is not touching the issue in any way either influencing it positively or negatively. The president will not do that. Even in the choice of the leadership of the National Assembly you know he didn’t do that. So like he said, his relationship with the senate president will be determined by the outcome of that trial.”
What about his relationship with his party?
“The president recognises that the platform that brought him is the party. No president has legitimacy without a platform and the APC is his platform. From time to time he meets with the party, meets with the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party and twice in the life of this administration he has gone to attend meetings at the party secretariat. That already shows you the importance he places on the party.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
We Love Comments