President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday during a rally in
Enugu said that the All Progressives Congress candidate,
Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd), cannot remember his own
mobile phone number.
Jonathan, whose unscripted address was mostly a
response to previous statements made by Buhari, accused
the APC presidential candidate of deceiving Nigerians by
promising to revive the economy without explaining how he
would achieve the feat.
The President wondered how Buhari would develop the
country’s economy, a feat he could not achieve while he
was in office as head of state between 1983 and 1985.
“Is it now that Buhari cannot even remember his own phone
number that he can change the economy of the country.”
Jonathan asked.
The Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate said
that although he did not like to “go personal during
campaigns,” “sometimes circumstances demand that certain
things must be said.”
Jonathan said that Buhari belonged to the medieval age,
adding that he (the APC candidate) intended to run the
Federal Government as a medieval king.
He said, “ We cannot run the government as if we are in the
medieval age; we cannot run a government where somebody
said he would throw people into jail.
“You are not a medieval king – a medieval king can throw you
into jail but we have to follow the rule of law because we
cannot go back to the old days.”
Jonathan, however, read the speech made by Gen. Ibrahim
Babangida (rtd.) after overthrowing Buhari’s regime through
a military coup on August 27, 1985 to justify his claim that
the APC candidate does not keep his promises.
Babangida, in the portions of the address read by Jonathan,
justified Buhari’s overthrow by pointing out that the latter
did not live up to the promises he made to Nigerians when
he ousted a democratically elected civilian government
headed by Alhaji Shehu Shagari in a military coup.
Noting that Buhari “deceived Nigerians” from 1983 to 1985,
Jonathan quoted Babangida as saying, “The initial
objectives of Buhari’s intervention were betrayed as there
was a general deterioration of standard of living in the
country.”
The PDP candidate also pointed out that Babangida
accused Buhari of being “too rigid in his attitude to national
issues” and “became alienated from the people” in the
course of his stay in power.
He, therefore, challenged Buhari to tell Nigerians how he
intends to revive the economy.
Jonathan said, “They are telling young Nigerians that they
are going to change the economy but they have not told us
how they want to manage the economy more than us.
“If they say they want to change agriculture, they should tell
us the weak links in the agriculture value chain and what
they want to do about it.
“I said in Lagos that I want to work with young people, not to
deceive people.
“I am not going to run the government based on my habits, I
am going to run the government according to global best
practices.”
Jonathan also insisted that he was committed to the
campaign against corruption.
“There is no government that has fought corruption more than
we do,” he said, noting that some previous administrations
pretended to be fighting corruption while oppressing their
enemies.
He recalled that Buhari jailed some prominent Igbo
politicians while in office as head of state, including former
Vice-President Alex Ekwueme and former governor of old
Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo.
Stressing that Buhari jailed politicians on trumped up
charges, Jonathan said, “You can no longer carry people
and put them in prison for 301 years.”
The President equally accused Buhari of having a wrong
idea of corruption.
According to him, Buhari believes that every wealthy
Nigerian is corrupt.
He said, “If a Nigerian businessman has a private jet, then you
are corrupt but if a South African has a private jet then you
commend him.
“If you have a good house, then you are corrupt, if you have a
good car then you are corrupt – that is his definition of
corruption.”
Jonathan accused his opponent of making spurious claims
against him.
The President said, “They are saying that government is
corrupt but they are not telling us what they are going to do to
stop corruption. Let them go back to their consultants to coach
them, then I will listen to them.
“They should tell us how they are going to manage the
economy better than we do.
“They are saying we stole foreign reserves, nobody can steal
foreign reserves – spurious allegations.”
He also reiterated his claim that Buhari did not equip the
military while he was the head of state.
Jonathan said that he had done more than his predecessors
to shore up the country’s defence.
“For 30 years, we had only one frigate, now we have four
additional frigates,” he said.
In the same vein, he pointed out that Buhari did not find any
woman worthy enough for appointment when he was the
military head of state.
The President asked Nigerians to assess him and Buhari by
looking at how they performed during their respective
periods in office.
He said, “They have deceived us before and they want to
deceive us again.
“Go and find out whether these people are deceiving you or are
telling you the truth.
“People are assessing me because I have run this country for
some years – they have run this country for two years.
“They came with promises but immediately they came in, what
they did was to jail Jim Nwobodo for 201 years.” CLICK HERE TO READ FULL AND TOUCHING NIGERIAN CELEBRITIES BIOGRAPHY AND SCANDALS
No comments:
Post a Comment
Select "Anonymous" As Your Profile Or Login To Your "Google Account" Post A Comment!