President Muhammadu Buhari has not yet recovered from the shock on how a few individuals sat down and shared $2.1 Billion meant for procurement of arms and ammunitions for the nation’s soldiers to prosecute the war against terrorists, represented by Boko Haram.
“People were entrusted and the most recent one which we haven’t recovered from is the $2.1 Billion (which) was given by the government then, to the military to buy hardware to fight the insurgency which had taken over part of the country. And they just sat just the way you are sitting now and shared the money into their own (bank) accounts. They didn’t even bother.”
President Buhari who addressed State House Press Corps at the Democracy Day Luncheon at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Monday, said that because of some legal technicalities, his government is pursuing the recovery of such money with caution.
“So we are still trying to get the cooperation of the international community and so on, and we have to do it with a lot of respect to the judiciary. We can’t go out and talk too much. We have to allow the judiciary to do their work.
“We give them the facts, the names, the countries and the bank accounts.
“If you talk too much, technicalities will come in. Then we will realize less than what we want to realize.
So please, when next you want to interrogate our visitors, try and do some research so that when they are coming next time, they will do research themselves.”
Narrating his experience before. And shortly he arrived at Aso Villa to take over the leadership, President Buhari noted that the experience of the staff, their commitment and zeal is different from what it is now, saying that 16 years in the life of a developing nation is a long time.
“When we came there were 42 ministries we cut it to 24.
This is where I pay my respect to former President Goodluck Jonathan. This is actually a privileged information for you. “He called me at a quarter past five in the evening. He said good evening your Excellency Sir, and I said good evening. He said, I have called to congratulate you that I have conceded deceit. Of course, there was dead silence at my end , because I did not expect it. I was shocked. I did not expect it because after 16 sixteen years: the man was a Deputy Governor, Governor, Vice President and was President for six years. For him to have conceded defeat even before the result was announced by INEC, I think it was quiet generous and gracious of him.
“Abdulsalam (Abubakar) recognized the generosity of Jonathan to concede deceit and said we should go and thank him immediately and that was the first time I came here (to Aso Rock).”
President Buhari said that when he came in he found out that government could not continue with 42 ministers and the paraphernalia of office so he cut it down to 24.
“We had to cut down half the number of permanent secretaries and then do some cross postings. The permanent secretaries that were there for the past five to seven years; the only thing that they know is how things were done in the previous years.” [myad]

President Muhammadu Buhari has confessed that the change mantra he introduced to turn the country around went through hell in his first year in office.
He said that before taking over the mantle of leadership properly, he had underrated the extent of rot and damage which the 16 year of Peoples Democratic Party (PD) had done to the nation’s economy and other sectors.
President Buhari said that it was only when he began to operate properly that he discovered the rot and serious damage.
President Buhari, who spoke when he hosted news men, under the aegis of State House Press Corps (SHPC) to Democracy Day luncheon at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Monday said: “I underrated the influence of the PDP for 16 years, watching from outside at eight consecutive governments.”
The President admitted that whatever he and his political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) did in the campaign could not be praticalised because of the realities they met on the ground.
“Things were even more difficult during the budget which you all know about. For somebody like me, for the first time, I heard what is called padding.
“I think we will recover by the fourth quarter of the year, from what padding means, especially for ministers who had to implement what padding contains. These were very serious development which I never knew about.
“So, really, it was a nasty experience for us. It was also a nasty experience for some of the ministers who were never in government, for them to sit down day and night to work. I saw some of them literaly lost weight because they were sleeping less and eating less. “They were Working on every kobo to be spent.”
President Buhari further regretted that Nigeria, for a long time, embraced mono-economy, relying solely on oil and forgetting about solid minerals, agriculture, making and exploring things.
He said that because of such miscalculation, “we recently just found out that we are poor because we don’t have anything to fall back on. This is the condition we found ourselves and this change mantra had to go through hell up till yesterday.
“And for you to talk to whoever came to visit us throughout that year. I wonder how each of your diaries would be, because people were expecting this change mantra in their own way.
“How do you define change? Luckily our party identified three major items: security, economy and corruption.
“Because we were not part of those 16 years, this is where we found ourselves and this is no joke.”
The President then pitied the nation’s information minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed who has to be explaining and defending government policies and action almost everyday.
“One of the men I pity is Lai Mohammed. Everyday, he is on TV explaining our performance or lack of it.” [myad]

The organized labour unions in Ekiti State have described the insinuation by the embattled state governor, Ayodele Fayose that they have been part of the sharing of the federal monthly allocation coming to the state, as a big lie.

They expressed shock over the internally generated revenue figures reeled out by the governor, which overshot and were entirely contrary to that which was ever declared by the Accountant General at any of their meetings.

In a press release issued after an emergency meeting of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress and Joint Negotiating Council in Ado Ekiti, the labour unions denied reaching an agreement with government to pay only net salary.

According to the unions, the Accountant General’s figures ranged between only N150 million and N200 million, except that of N268 million for April, the highest so far declared by him.

These, they said, were against N267 million for September 2015; N252 million for October 2015; N195 million for November 2015; N181million for December 2015, as well as N389 million, N381 million, and N302 million, respectively declared by the governor for January, February and March.

Accusing the governor of blackmailing the unions to gain public sympathy, the labour leaders said the meeting is only “a briefing” and not “a cash allocation meeting.”

They added that suggestions made by them at the meetings have never been accepted by the governor.

“So, the idea of labour leaders sharing monthly cash allocation and the governor approving does not arise. There has never been any advice or suggestion given to government by the organized labour at this forum that has ever been taken,” the unions said.

The organized labour on Thursday began an indefinite strike to press home the demand for the outstanding five months salaries of workers among other issues.

But reacting, the governor on Friday said the state government will pay salaries only to workers not on strike from the little monthly allocation that came from Abuja.

However, the labour unions asked workers to discountenance the threat by the Head of Service, Dr. Olugbenga Faseluka, that senior workers should resume work on Tuesday or face the dire consequences of their actions.

“The ongoing strike is not an ego trip or politically motivated, but about the rights of workers and pensioners who are dying daily out of hunger and frustration.

“It should be noted that Labour has neither suspended nor called off the ongoing industrial action in the state, hence we are using this medium to implore the entire workers of all categories in all sectors to stay at home and observe the strike action until the leadership of organized Labour gives further directives.” [myad]