Presidential war In NIgeria : After $16bn is uncounted for ...(exclusive)

President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, made a direct rebuttal of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s summation of his administration as a disaster as he lampooned the former president of harvesting nothing out of the $16 billion allegedly expended on the power sector.

Meanwhile, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in his reaction, said the action of President Buhari was based on ignorance, adding that Buhari was relying on the unsubstantiated allegations against him by the then leadership of the House of Representatives over the project. Buhari in a lengthy self-testimonial accused all three presidents of the Fourth Republic before him of wasting the years of plenty as he affirmed that no leader since Gen. Sani Abacha paid attention to the country’s infrastructure needs.

The President spoke when he received leaders of the Buhari Support Organisation, BSO, the base of his political support before his emergence as a presidential candidate in 2014.


His assertions nonetheless, Obasanjo kept the charge for probity in leadership yesterday at the convocation lecture of Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, where he charged that the world would leave Nigeria behind if it continued with indolence in leadership and followership.

The BSO delegation was led to the Presidential Villa by the Comptroller of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali, retd, who had served as Buhari’s chief of staff prior to his inauguration as president.

Affirming that there was nothing to show for the proceeds from oil revenue between 1999 and 2014 when, according to him, oil prices soared to about $135, he said he had restrained himself and his aides several times in the past from responding to various accusations of non-performance and clannishness levelled against him by Obasanjo. According to the President, the debt incurred from the $16 billion spent by Obasanjo on power without any output is now being paid by his administration. Buhari added that in Nigeria’s history, his government had made the highest capital allocations in the 2017 and 2018 budgets.

 Buhari, however, had good words about former Head of State, late Gen. Abacha, saying he agreed to work with him irrespective of people’s perception about the late dictator because, during his military regime, a lot of roads and medical facilities were revamped. He described the current period in the nation’s history as terrible as he canvassed the need to revamp the country altogether, recalling how he was ruthless as a military head of state, arresting and throwing people into prison, a punishment he said was also meted out to him.

                                            CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING