The presidency is angry with the leaders of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) over the falsification of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Change Agenda Scorecard.
The Presidency specifically advised the Centre to rise above petty partisanship and stop misleading Nigerians “with blatantly false propaganda and misinformation to serve ulterior motives.”
Reacting to an article entitled: “Seven Months After, President’s Change Agenda Scorecard written by Idayat Hassan,” the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, said it is very mischievous to attribute to the President, promises he didn’t make during the campaign, and now hold him accountable for them.
According to Garba Shehu, any honest advocacy for democracy should not include distortion of facts and a misrepresentation of what President Buhari had promised to deal with during the campaigns.
He explained that it is misleading to invent issues to suit one’s political bias and prejudice, and blame the President for not attending to those issues within one’s mischievous and chimerical deadline in order to play down the significant aspects of what the President has accomplished within those seven tough months.
Malam Shehu said the CDD leaders cannot objectively serve the cause of democracy if they are primarily preoccupied with negativity and cynicism, constantly looking for something to condemn rather than appreciating the areas of progress made by the President within those seven months.
According to the Presidential spokesman, anybody or any group that focuses on negativity at the expense of objectivity would never see any good in the appreciable and significant progress made by the President.
He said that no sincere and fair-minded Nigerians would refuse to recognise the courage of the President to take on corruption in a country where impunity was once celebrated.
According to him, within seven months, President Buhari has successfully blocked the leakages for corruption, saying that as a result of these efforts, the Nigerian Customs Service has quadrupled its revenue base to incredible level within seven months, something they didn’t achieve in years.
“Doesn’t the President deserve credit for this and other efforts to confront the monster of corruption?”, Shehu asked rhetorically.
On the economy, Malam Shehu said that it is wrong to blame President Buhari for the falling oil prices in the world market, a challenge which has made the President lay greater emphasis and priority on economic diversification.
He recalled that President Obama of the United States had inherited an economy in crisis, something he didn’t bargain for, and that it would be unfair to blame him for not fixing it in seven months.
Malam Shehu explained that President Buhari’s experience is a double whammy because he inherited an economy in crisis on account of declining oil revenues and an economy that was also ravaged by incredible and large-scale corruption.
Garba Shehu said that the President is making good strides towards improving governance, by tackling corruption.
“To-date, a good number of persons believed to have collectively stolen billions from the taxpayers have been arrested, and are facing the courts; we are working with our allies across the World – from Britain and America to France and Germany to China and UAE to source, locate and repatriate misappropriated funds. So far, an escrow account has been opened for money that is being returned. This is only the start: the return of stolen funds is important, but it is just as critical to ensure those who seek to steal realise that no longer will there be such impunity in Nigeria. Only by ending belief in such licence we can we fully institute the rule of law.
“A few hours from now, the President will address the European Parliament upon their request, as the Italian Prime Minister said a few days ago at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja. “President Buhari’s war against corruption and terrorism has become a template for Africa and the rest of the world.
“It is amazing to see here at home, some individuals are not prepared to give these successes the recognition they deserve.”
Garba Shehu said that the latest CDD episode is a shocking reminder to their failed attempt to hold the President to “one hundred promises in one hundred days” which disastrously crashed on the head of the proponents.
“The elevation of the act to a new high of 220 promises is a knee-jerk reaction that seeks to play to the galleries and score cheap points against the President. This is a clear case of solution looking for problem.” [myad]
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