They Did It To Jonathan, And We Suffered Under Buhari. We Must Not Let History Repeat Itself!

 

Nigeria hit rock bottom under Buhari in every aspect. On Sunday, July 24, 2022, terrorists attacked the Brigade of Guards in Bwari, Abuja. That was unprecedented in Nigeria’s history. Please note that the Brigade of Guards are the Presidential Guards.

 

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On Wednesday, July 6, 2022, five hundred terrorists in motorcycles attacked Kuje Prison and freed 900 of their colleagues.

On Tuesday, August 24, 2021, terrorists invaded the Nigerian Defence Academy and killed two soldiers and abducted one, while injuring many others. Not long afterwards, these sets of non state actors were taking photos with their arms along with influential clerics.

We had never heard of anything like ‘bandits’ in Nigeria until Buhari came along. At no time in our journey as a nation had a Governor ever boasted of paying killer herdsmen, until Nasir el-Rufai became a Governor.

 

According to the Global Terror Index, Nigeria under Buhari was the third most insecure nation on Earth. Only Somalia and Afghanistan were worse. War torn Syria was more secure than Nigeria. Please fact-check me.

In finance, we owed our highest debt ever under Buhari. If you take all the monies borrowed by Tafawa-Balewa, Ironsi, Gowon, Murtala, Obasanjo military government, Shagari, Buhari military regime, Babangida, Shonekan, Abacha, Abdulsalami, Obasanjo civilian administration, Yar’adua, and Jonathan, and combine it, it is not up to what Buhari borrowed in eight years.

 

In 2015, Buhari met a total foreign debt of $10.7 billion, of which the Federal Government owed only $7.35 billion and states owed the rest. By the time Buhari left in 2023, our foreign debt had ballooned to $42 billion.

What did Buhari do with the money? He used it to pay fuel subsidies and to defend the Naira, amongst other things.

Then, after borrowing more than any other government, the Buhari junta future-sold our oil and gas using future contracts and collected the money upfront, meaning that the Tinubu administration was not even receiving funds for the first six months or thereabouts after being sworn in.

 

Then, to further sabotage the incoming TInubu government, they borrowed an additional ₦30 trillion through the Central Bank of Nigeria via Ways and Means. Basically, they just printed money without production, gold, or anything tangible to back it up.

What they did was illegal. It contravened the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007.

 

According to Transparency International, Nigeria under Buhari was more corrupt than it was under the previous administration, having moved 13 places backwards in the CPI, from 136 in 2014 (our best outing ever), to 149 in 2021 (our worst performance ever).

If not for respect, Buhari ought to be answering questions today!

 

These reckless financial dealings had consequences for the welfare of the Nigerian people.

According to the Global Hunger Index released annually by the International Food Policy Research Institute, hunger and malnutrition in Nigeria reached its highest level under Buhari after steadily reducing under Jonathan.

 

Per the IFPRI, “The proportion of the population affected by undernutrition rose from 11.5% in 2015 to 18.7% in 2020”.

 

In terms of human rights, the Buhari administration massacred 347 Shia men, women, children, and infants on Saturday, 12 December 2015.

No other government before or after has ever perpetrated a mass killing like that.

But that was not all. We also had the hundreds of Nigerian youths allegedly killed by the FSARS under Buhari.

And then we had the Southern Kaduna Genocide under el-Rufai, in which over 10,000 people are suspected to have been killed.

 

So, if you did not sing or rap against Buhari, what is your rationale and justification for doing that now under Tinubu when things are gradually improving?

Tinubu has been abroad for only two weeks, and Pastor Tunde Bakare is giving a sermon making it look like the President is derelict in his responsibilities? Two weeks?

What did Tunde Bakare, who told us that God ordained him as Nigeria’s sixteenth President, preach when Buhari was in London for six months?

 

Don’t tell me that gaslighting story that we have never had it this bad before. That is a big lie. Things are better in Nigeria now than under Buhari.

Their strategy is being driven by the Machiavellian Nasir el-Rufai, and is based on their belief that Nigerians are emotional people with short memories and low attention spans; who can be gaslit to turn against a performing government by desperate politicians who cannot exist outside power.

 

I am a veteran of this. They did it to my former boss, President Goodluck Jonathan, and I will not sit idly by while they do it to Asiwaju.

We must not repeat history then claim that history repeated itself.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!

 

Reno Omokri