Following the claims by President Muhammadu Buhari that Nigeria is better than he it was when he came into power, various prominent groups have stepped out to refute the claims.
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) were the first to decline to the self-appraisal comment made by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Spokesman of Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, stated that Nigeria in the last five-and-a-half years of the Buhari administration is much better from a backward perspective.
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He said: “Honestly, herders who are grazing cows on the expressway in Abuja must have seen some changes and, therefore, are not living in the same country with us. It is a clash of civilisation we cannot overcome in any way.”
The People Democratic Party faulted the president for resorting to what it described as “desperate face-saving media stunts in his incongruous plea to Nigerians to accept that the situation in Nigeria is better under his watch, despite the contrary harsh reality in the country.”
The opposition party stated that every fair criticism of the Buhari administration reveals failures and a reversal of fortunes for the country.
“It is unfortunate that at a time Nigerians expected the president to be remorseful for his failures and rally compatriots for a solution, he is rather seeking an endorsement of his cluelessness,” the party said.
The National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement said the party wondered how the president “wants an unmerited pass mark knowing that under his watch, bandits, terrorists, kidnappers and vandals, who have been pushed to the fringes before he took over in 2015, have now resurged, taking communities hostage, raping our women, beheading our compatriots and foisting a reign of terror to the extent that our nation ranked as the third country with the highest level of terrorism in 2019, after Iran and Afghanistan?
“How does President Buhari sleep in the night, in the comfort of Aso Villa, knowing that because of his failures, millions of Nigerians go to bed on empty stomach; that since he took over, more than 30 million businesses have crumbled; that over 60 million Nigerians have lost their means of livelihoods resulting in excruciating hardship in our country in the last five years?”
The opposition party accused the Buhari administration of turning Nigeria into the world’s poverty capital and a beggar nation that is now borrowing from all parts of the world.
The party said “it is unfortunate that Buhari wants Nigerians to overlook the fact that he wrecked a robust economy handed over to him in 2015 with Fitch B+ rating as one of the fastest-growing economy in the world”.
It stated: “Is President Buhari trivialising the pain of a nation, which his administration plunged into the worst type of economic recession; where families can no longer afford their daily meals and other necessities of life; and where life has become so unbearable that compatriots now resort to suicide and slavery mission abroad as options?”
The party reiterated that when Buhari took over in 2015, one dollar was N160 whereas it is about N500 now.
Buhari, in assessing his administration, gave himself a pass mark for a job well done, tasking the elite to be fair in their criticism of his stewardship.
The President painted a bad picture of the economy, infrastructure as well as the security situation in the North-east as at the time he came into power on May 29, 2015.
