President Mohammed Buhari yesterday urged the elite to judge his administration fairly, OBSERVERS TIMES report
The president made the appeal while speaking extensively about his party, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and the promises it made to Nigerians when it was campaigning for election, pleading with the elite to be fair in their assessment of his government.
He asked them to reflect on the state of infrastructure and the price of crude oil in the international market before he came to power and what it was when he took over.
He told cabinet members to implore their friends to reflect on what his government has achieved, saying he’s doing his best with the two chances that God has given him to be in power.
He said: “The next problem I want to tell you is how we found ourselves; when I say us, I mean members of APC when we promised three things, security, economy and fighting corruption. We repeated the same thing last year.
“But I want the Nigerian elite to please encourage us and judge us fairly when we came. Between 1999 and 2014, I will like you to please check the average (crude oil) production was 2.1 million barrels per day, the average cost was $100 per barrel.
“When we came it collapse to $37 to $38 per barrel and the militants were unleashed on the administration, the production went down.
“I want you to please reflect what was the condition of the infrastructure then in spite of the earnings, the roads? There was no power and up to now, there is no power. Where did the money go?
“So, please encourage your friends the elite to reflect on what this administration has done, what APC has done, and what we have achieved. Well, I am doing my best, God has given me two chances.”
He cited his administration’s achievements in railways and the Second Niger Bridge, which he said has recorded 46 per cent completion, promising that it would be completed before the end of his tenure in 2023.
On corruption, the president said he was “doing” his “best” to fight corruption by “trying to follow the system” in contrast to his brief military regime in 1984 when he arbitrarily rounded up politicians, threw them in jail and required them to prove their innocence.
According to him, “I’m being called ‘baba go slow’ because I am now following the system.”