CORRUPTION: Nigerian Assembly Only Removed N17bn Out Of N668 Billion Padding In Approved 2016 Budget

Why I Stand With Buhari

By Jude Ndukwe

General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, must be a rare genius in a class of his own. A man who tenaciously pursued his ambition of ruling Nigeria till he eventually became president after failing three times, must be acknowledged and saluted.

His love for this country is so great that he would not give up on his ambition to lead Nigeria out of the woods, from the proverbial Egypt to the biblical Promised Land. He is a great example to those who are wont to easily give up on their ambitions at the slightest obstacle or challenge. That is why I have chosen to stand with Buhari!

I choose to stand with Buhari because of the way he was able to cajole a good number of Nigerians to vote him into office despite alleged deficiencies in leadership and anti-democratic credentials arising from when he was military Head-of-State.

I choose to stand with Buhari because just like the chichidodo bird (apologies to Ayi Kwei Armah) that hates faeces yet feeds on maggots, Buhari’s main campaign issue was to fight corruption to a standstill, and he is living up to that billing because right before him, 10 months after he was sworn in as president, Nigeria’s corruption rating has hit an all-time high, no thanks to the padded and fraud-ridden 2016 budget that was signed and personally presented by the retired General himself and has just been passed by the National Assembly.

I stand with Buhari because that budget is, indeed, a budget of ‘Change’ as gleefully explained by Mr President to the National Assembly on the day of presentation. It was a budget that had fraudulent, frivolous, repeated and non-existent proposed expenses to the tune of about N668bn as signed, sealed and presented by the president himself. The National Assembly passed the budget after removing about N17bn from the N668bn fraudulently inserted into the budget with an undeclared instruction to the executive to “go and sin no more”. Never in the history of our nation have we ever heard the term “budget padding” until this era of “change”. Even the president himself alluded to this fact. Only geniuses are pacesetters. Our president is a pacesetter, reason I stand with him.

I stand with Buhari because he inherited about 5,ooo megawatts of power from the previous administration but just 10 months after assuming office, power has dropped drastically and hovers around 2,000 megawatts while darkness has risen sharply in geometric progression up to 10,000 megawatts. Rather than measure power, we now measure darkness in megawatts, no thanks to Buhari, APC and their “change” agenda.

I stand with Buhari because no other president in the world knows how best to reward those who were gullible enough to vote for him despite his obvious bogus and unrealistic campaign promises than him. The best reward for such people is to make them sleep endlessly at the filling station while waiting to buy fuel that would never come. Even the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, has since waved the white flag over the fuel scarcity issue saying the federal government has no idea about how to find a quick solution to the problem.

I choose to stand with Buhari and I have no regrets about my decision because in the history of our nation, no president has ever seen the naira fall so helplessly like it is doing right under Mr President. At N325/$1 and with the possibilities of further slide, our economy is surely growing stronger! Sai Baba!

I stand with Buhari because since he came to power, all the elections conducted have been inconclusive. Our president is so ingenious that we shall be having reruns of reruns in Rivers State. Never in the history of our modern democracy have we had that. While Jonathan oversaw elections that were largely peaceful even at the highest levels, conceded defeat without rancor and handed over quietly, elections conducted under President Buhari, even at State House of Assembly level, have witnessed avoidable bloodshed, militarization of the process, compromise of INEC officials and continued inconclusiveness. Surely, Buhari is growing our democracy.

I still choose to stand with Buhari because under him, food prices have gone up, jobs have been lost in droves, the judiciary is intimidated and harassed, citizens’ rights are arbitrarily abridged and abused outright, dissenting voices are hounded, innocent and defenceless citizens are mowed down by security agents especially as it was in the case of IPOB members at Aba and Shiite Muslims at Zaria; Fulani herdsmen have become audacious in their wiping off of communities and occupying such without resistance or challenge by security agents. In fact, to borrow the lyrics of a popular Nigerian musician, “Nigeria scatter scatter”.

These are the lofty reasons why patriotic Nigerians and I have decided to stand with Buhari, and we shall remain standing with him! Ndukwe, a political commentator, writes from Abuja via jrndukwe@yahoo.co.uk

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/why-i-stand-with-buhari/