Mr. President, There’s Blood On The Dance Floor

By Seyi Olu Awofeso  

Dear President Muhammadu Buhari: One reason the joys of electing you as president abruptly stopped is because there’s now blood on the dance floor. You alone have to decide if to call off the party or mop the dance floor; but either way, you’ll need spatial awareness of why bleeding occurred to spoil the party.

*Buhari 

You stoked price vectors to let the inflation genie out of the bottle and then burnt up Nigerians’ cash assets with 68% Naira devaluation starting in the last week of May, after increasing electricity tariff by 45% in March and after  increasing pump price of petrol by 67% few weeks earlier, to send all things up in the air – with nothing settled as yet; not even Nigeria itself, which badly convulsed in feverish price hikes, country-wide, after reeling for long from rocket-propelled grenades fired by hundreds of militias doubly armed with improvised explosives now rampaging all across Nigeria.

As news of Nigeria’s mounting horrors spread, London’s Evening Standard reported it on September 7:  “Western firms can be forgiven for shying away from investing in Buhari’s Nigeria,” the Evening Standard said – with reasons ranging from untrammeled treasury thefts to your having no clearly seen honest resolve to fight corruption. A slew of foreign investors may as well be closing its files on Nigeria. They are reportedly put off by the way things are going awry.

 Schools crumble in Nigeria without books as hospitals lay bare without imported medicines – all of which can’t be bought at the current price exchange rate of N425 to a Dollar versus the much lower April exchange rate of N260 to one Dollar. Workers are being laid off in thousands and the casualties near 4.5 million Nigerians sacked under your 15-month perplexing regime, according to anecdotal evidence.

Those spared mass sackings are pitch-forked to half salary – in defiance of anything contracts law say on the sanctity of existing agreements in an increasingly anomic Nigeria – where, besides routine beheading on the streets from neighbourhood spats, the Court of Appeal in Lagos division then declared a few weeks ago that wearing the Muslim Hijab head-cover is superior, as Islamic Law, and overrides any other law that a state government may enact as ‘school uniform rule.’

A false bottom for this rather zany declarative order was quickly constructed judicially and called ‘fundamental human rights’…in a country contradictorily self-described in its 1999 Constitution as ‘secular.’ In just under 16 months Nigeria now looks eerily strange – like a horror film – to those looking in from outside.

But to be sure, Nigeria was not as much a puzzle or hardscrabble place as this. Nigeria was, contrarily, a fragile and less horrific and much less hopeless place.  So, what happened to CHANGE, President Buhari? That’s the crux. No two broom-wavers on your APC side of the Nigeria’s party politics divide ever understood what CHANGE means from get-go. In retrospect, it would seem like a mere slogan just thrown in to replace absent thought-process inside the party. It could even be worse. For after you won the election on that abstract sloganeering you alone now have the writ to decide what CHANGE means for a whole nation, since your party members were just carried away by the sound of that word and mindlessly ran to town with it.

Sack Your Grossly Incompetent Economic Team – Dino Melaye Tells Buhari

PRESS RELEASE 

Deeply worried by the poor state of the economy which has brought unprecedented hardship and hunger on the masses of the Nigerian people, a federal lawmaker, Senator Dino Melaye (APC Kogi West) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to take urgent and drastic measures, including the immediate sack of three prominent members of his Economic Team as the solution-precedent to reboot the ailing economy.

*President Buhari and Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun

In a Statement in Abuja Sunday, Melaye said the President must shake up his Cabinet, and accused most of the members of gross incompetence, inexcusable ineptitude and a distressing lack of capacity to deliver on the mandate of their ministries/Agencies.

Those to face the axe immediately if the economy must be effectively rebooted to deliver on the Change Agenda of the present administration, in the estimation  of Melaye include the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, Budget and National Planning Minister, Senator Udoma  Udo Udoma and the governor of the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele. 

" At the moment, it must be crystal clear to all discerning minds that the President's widely-acclaimed magical body language has lost its presumed  aura and efficacy. His  no-nonsense demeanor is equally neither instilling fear nor commanding respect and loyalty from amongst his cabinet members. It is therefore obvious that the time for barking is over, now is the time to bite and boot out all those who have demonstrated, in the past several months, a crass lack of capacity to effectively carry out the functions of their office", Melaye declared, stressing:

" The Finance Minister has not only displayed gross incompetence on the Job, she also lacks the basic and rudimentary grasp of economic fundamentals necessary to run a critical sector of the Nigerian economy like the Finance Ministry. It is time for her to go now and pave way for a qualified and experienced person to steer the Nigerian economy away from the dark woods it has sunk presently under her stewardship".

On Udoma Udo Udoma, he stated : "To be sure, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma is a very charismatic man, an accomplished lawyer, and a quintessential gentleman with a fairly untainted reputation. In everyday parlance, he is a good man. But the critical job of Budget and National Planning Minister for a huge country like Nigeria, with her prevailing economic challenges requires much more than being a good man with a great personality. 

Killing The Economy To Kill Corruption

By Abraham Ogbodo    

The battle against corruption has become the sole purpose of the Buhari Presidency. It is being prosecuted as if all other things that define good governance shall follow automatically as soon as victory is proclaimed. I can go ahead to suggest that the appointment of ministers in this month of September, which has only 10 days to finish, as early promised, be shelved. It is no longer necessary since the entire business of government has been consolidated into a single effort – war against corruption.

One man or at most one ministry to be called Ministry of War Against Corruption can do the whole job. News that Buhari has branded ministers as noise makers is very encouraging. No serious war anywhere in the world is fought and won with noise makers. In the spirit of the new revelation, a proposal for amendment of the operating constitution to make the appointment of ministers by a sitting president discretionary can be forwarded to the National Assembly for consideration.

I am not even too sure if the NASS itself will fit properly into the new order. The members are even noisier than the ministers. They are rascally and violent too; often using fists like junior school pupils instead of debates to settle issues. They are also very lazy. They work for one week and go on recess for four weeks. This war against corruption is neither for noise makers, rascals nor lay-abouts. All of this considered, we can push for another amendment of the constitution to operate this democracy without the NASS. It sounds alarming but since kings can legitimately kill to survive in a Machiavellian setting, we cannot go wrong if we allow the robust end of achieving a permanently corruption-free Nigeria to push us to disband the useless National Assembly.

With PMB, we have one in a millennium chance to catch all the thieves in Nigeria and change our circumstances. And so, if he asks to shut down the banking system, as he has done, to catch thieves who hide their stolen dollars in domiciliary accounts, he should be obliged. He is working to preserve the life of Nigeria and as we all know, in the rule of life, self preservation comes first. On this note alone, the threat by one self-appointed global regulator called JP Morgan to punish Nigeria on account of Buhari’s approach should be completely ignored.

JP Morgan or whatever it is called is not a very reliable teacher. It teaches nonsense and this has serially got it into trouble with the authorities in Washington DC and to which it has paid billions of dollars as fines. Besides, what does JP Morgan know that our own dear JP Clark or any other JP in Nigeria does not know better? And by the way, who made JP Morgan judge over Nigeria that is presided over by PMB?

The Central Bank as directed by PMB (since there is no finance minister till perhaps September 30) is doing a fantastic job. The point is that when there is too much money in the system and the citizens are behaving like lunatic astronauts, going to the moon to build houses, the thing to do is a serious mop up to precipitate a liquidity squeeze that will instill some sanity. This is what Buhari has done. It is a fundamental micro-economic principle and one does not need a certification by Harvard Business School to understand it. I don’t understand why JP Morgan, which should know better, is nagging over this like a bad house wife.

Management Of The Nigerian Economy

By Dave Nwogbo  
The mismanagement of the Nigerian economy is an ominous exercise that will continue to provoke debates, controversies and analyses. The mismanagement has unleashed horrendous consequences on the life of Nigerians. The economy occupies a central and overarching position in the lives of the populace. It was in recognition of the primacy of material conditions that Karl Marx postulated the theory of dialectical materialism in which he asserted that economic relations are the major determining factor that shape social and political relations.

For over five decades, the Nigerian economy has suffered a chequered history. The ineptitude of the leadership elite in being unable to transform the economy is exemplified by its lack of vision, creativity and pragmatism. Neoliberalism was designed as a mechanism to engender the growth of economies through market determinism that is predicated on competition and efficiency in the allocation of resources. Regrettably, neoliberalism has compounded the economic woes of the populace, and the government has not introduced remedial measures to cushion the effect of the hardship it imposed on the people.

Sadly, whereas the people are consistently and unconscionably being called upon to make the necessary sacrifices by bearing the brunt of this management, they have nothing to show for the interminable streams of sacrifices which they have made over the years. This anomaly points to one thing: the populace pay the costly price for leadership and policy failures, and the governing elite does not give a damn. As it were, the populace have no stake in the Nigerian economy.

The recent increase in the price of petrol to N145 per litre demonstrates the inconsistency in government policies. Successive administrations increased the price of petrol sustained by the same mantra of freeing up more money to the government for development. But, in actual fact, has the populace benefitted from any increase in the pump price of petrol? What the populace have consistently witnessed over the years are increasing poverty rate, irregular power supply, unprecedented corruption, etc. What is new about the 2016 budget that will check the pitfalls of previous budgets since 1999, and will guarantee the efficiency of government spending?

In other words, is there any guarantee that under President Buhari, the efficiency of government expenditure has improved considerably and that for every one naira that is spent, at least 60k value will be realised? Changing the decadent system which President Buhari inherited and to which he has committed to revamping, is a herculean task which is not going to come easy. In spite of the campaign against corruption, corruption in Nigeria is still endemic and pervasive. Who are the perpetrators and perpetuators of corruption? As long as there is no elite consensus on the need to fight corruption, curbing corruption will be difficult. From every indication, it appears that only President Buhari is committed to fighting corruption. How many ministers have publicly declared their assets? How many governors have publicly declared their assets, etc? Fighting corruption will entail a systemic reinvigoration of the existing institutions and government agencies.

Given the foregoing background, is there any guarantee that the present attempt to partially deregulate the downstream sector of the oil industry will achieve the desired result? Yes, with deregulation, the prices of petrol may fall in future, but is there any guarantee that money saved from the subsidy removal will address the challenges of development facing the people?

The Buhari administration has taken a revolutionary step in addressing the challenges of the downstream sector of the Nigerian economy. Will the adminstration go the whole hog in addressing the challenges of the Nigerian economy by shifting its emphasis away from the prevalent culture of consumption to an investment-based and productive economy, where the few who parasite on the economy are restrained from their excesses? Will President Buhari be concerned about reducing inequality and enunciating an economic framework that will make the populace the stakeholders of the economy? What will President Buhari do to check the increasing cost of governance in which 80% of government revenues are spent on recurrent expenditure, especially on government officials? Addressing the challenges of the Nigerian economy requires revolutionary measures.

Appraising Buhari's One Year In Office

By Lucky Ofodu 

One word can be aptly used to appraise President Mu­hammadu Buhari’s one year in office: discontent. Nigeri­ans are thoroughly disappointed by the turn of events. The President and his party the APC had prom­ised so much, but so far fulfilled so little. The economy is in bad shape. Power is in bad shape; the naira in bad shape; inflation is on a steady rise. The Chibok girls are still in cap­tivity. Let’s not mention the unprec­edented fuel scarcity because doing so leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. It has been a litany of woes. There is a feeling of general discontent across the land.

 

*Buhari

I do not expect the president to mark his one year in office with the same grandeur and panache that ushered him into office because the truth be told, he has not lived up to expectation. The President knows that Nigerians were better off be­fore he came to the scene. They have been inflicted with a lot of pains this past twelve months. What is hap­pening now seems a repeat of what was, when Mr. President ruled as a military head of state in the early 80s when Nigerians were made to queue in the rain and sun to buy bever­ages like milk, sugar, oats and the like, which they hitherto could buy from the shop next door. If nothing is done, sooner we will queue for food and possibly air.

Part of the problem is the fact that the president has surrounded himself mostly with yes-men and propagandists. The latter are those misinforming and making him see nothing, absolutely nothing good about the Jonathan administration. As a result, the president is in a hur­ry to change a lot of things, and in the process making mistakes. He forgets that while everything may be possible, everything is not expe­dient. For example, the sack of Vice chancellors and the dissolution of governing councils of federal uni­versities which he apologized for. There are some others. These mis­takes tend to have deeply divided Nigerians along ethnic, religious and political lines.

These propagandists in the last one year diverted the attention of the president from the core issue of governance which is to better the lives of the citizenry. They pushed him to go after political opponents in the name of fighting corruption. This is all Nigerians have heard in the last one year without any tangi­ble result. No one is saying that those who looted the country’s treasury should not face the consequenc­es. No. what is being said is that it ought not to have become the only focus amidst so many other chal­lenges. Besides, it ought not to have been targeted at political opponents only. After all, many of those shout­ing ‘change’ and ‘corruption’ today, were in the opposition party hold­ing very exalted offices for years be­fore decamping only recently to the ruling party. How come these per­sons are not investigated and pros­ecuted. Or does cross-carpeting to the ruling party make one corrup­tion- free?

IMF: Nigeria Opts For Self-Medication

By Abidemi Gbolahan 

The message delivered by the IMF Managing Director, Ms. Christine Lagarde when she visited Nigeria earlier in the year was that only Nigeria can help herself out of her economic quagmire. I also re­membered her advising Nigeria to address some structural defects ob­served in the economy if Naira de­valuation was not an option.

President Muhammadu Buhari has also been using every opportu­nity of any of his foreign trips to ex­plain that Naira cannot be devalued further. Even when the local neo-co­lonialists sharks in concert with their foreign partners went the whole hug campaigning for further devaluation of the Naira, they got the snub of the President. Consequently, they em­barked on destructive campaign - ‘Emefiele Must Be Sacked’. Yet, the President stood solidly behind the CBN governor.

 

*President Buhari and IMF Boss, Christine Lagarde

A bold and reassuring statement ever made by any official of govern­ment in Nigeria, even in the con­tinent to any neo-colonialist in­stitution, is the one credited to the Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, at the just conclud­ed annual Spring Meetings of the two multilateral institutions – IMF and the World Bank in Washington D.C. where she was quoted to have told the IMF boldly that “IMF could be a doctor, but for Nigeria our mes­sage is not sick, and even if we are, we have our own local remedy”. In medical science at times there can be a critical choice between going with a doctor that will worsen your case or seek self-help. In the context of the current economic situation, it’s obvious that Nigeria has rightly set­tled for the later.

Similar stance taken by Nigeria’s apex bank – the Central Bank of Ni­geria - few months back incurred the ire of agents of these devaluation and neo-colonialists. It will be noted that, shortly after the Bank’s initial de­valuation of the local currency, and subsequent withdrawal of 41 items from accessing its FOREX. This was a decision apparently taken by the CBN management to rescue the cur­rency from its free fall, these ‘hawks’ took up arms against the CBN.

Nigeria’s Professional Excuse Makers

By Moses Ochonu

Professional excuse makers are enablers of bad governance. We dealt with them during the last administration. We're dealing with them yet again in this one. Yesterday, I posted (on my facebook page) a simple inquiry about why President Buhari was going to the US to attend a nuclear non-proliferation summit when Nigeria has no civilian or military nuclear industry. The silly excuses started pouring in, muddying the reasonable ones.

*President Buhari 

Someone even said that as the most populous black nation, Nigeria should attend the summit. What blackness and population has to do with nuclear non-proliferation is not spelt out.

For several people, the fact that Nigeria was invited was enough, meaning that Buhari should attend every international meeting Nigeria is invited to regardless of its relevance to Nigeria's national interest. And by the way, it is Nigeria that was invited, not Buhari, which begs the question of why he had to go himself.

Other commenters speculated that he may be going to observe and learn about nuclear technology, since Nigeria plans to turn to nuclear technology for power generation in the future. Two retorts to that. First, the press release announcing the trip simply stated that he was attending the summit and did not mention why he is doing so, leaving Nigerians scratching their heads, wondering and speculating. This same chain of events occurred when the presidency announced that PMB was attending a charity event to raise funds for Syrian refugees. Without the release specifying what Nigeria had to gain from such an event and why the president was helping to raise funds for refugees from a distant war when our own refugees are reeling, Nigerians rightly concluded that the trip was a wasteful misplacement of priorities, a misguided product of xenophilia.

Second, even if Nigeria must attend to "study" proceedings, why not send the minister of science and technology or the top federal official with oversight of that sector?

Are Nigeria's Problems Impossible To Solve?

By  Perry Brimah
It will soon hit the one-year anniversary of the new "change" Buhari government. And while there is plenty to rejoice over and much to thank God for escaping from; it appears that as Nigeria takes two steps forwards it also takes two steps backwards. This is quite commendable, don't get it wrong. Zero advancement is a good deal better than where the nation is coming from. Nigeria used to be in reverse (-). The nation was even speeding in reverse. So zero acceleration calls for celebration.

It is also important to mention that considering the challenges inherited due to where we were and the state of the global economy, zero is further commendable. But the question is: can we every do better and actually solve our problems faster than they are created to advance beyond this status?

Corruption And Padding Tins
As Nigeria addressed corruption, arresting tons of suspects from the old gang, so also did the nation face one of the largest scandals in budgeting history. Borrowing the President's words, "all my life I have never heard of budget padding before." Nigeria's budget was ridiculously padded. Government officials hid largesses that were not only humongous but also wicked. The Presidency's offices got larger allocations than the entire collective schools of the country; it's clinic got larger lots than all public hospitals combined. Ministers put projects like a single borehole at the cost of building a thousand. It was corruption at its finest.

Over a month later, no one has been arrested for this corruption, a few were simply moved to other departments, one or two were fired and implicated ministers and other officials are still in office. Unlike neighboring Ghana where corrupt Ministers are immediately sacked, Nigeria embraced its continued corruption. In fact, the new budget that just got passed still had most of the padding in it. The Senate reportedly just allowed it pass in the desperate need to move the nation forward at the risk of contractors of the government officials helping them swallow millions of dollars hidden in the padded allocations. The borehole is still to be built by the Minister of Works and Housing at $750,000. A world record!

Politics
President Buhari admitted today that he had failed as far as politics goes. He confessed that he failed with the Kogi polls, the Bayelsa polls and the Rivers polls. That's all the polls there have been since he entered office. The Kogi polls had the ruling party fielding a dying candidate simply to grab the spot. It also witnessed a never before-heard-of gymnastics of replacing a governorship candidate mid-race with another person all together. I am sure the Tribunal is going to knock that one out; but so far it has been a sham. Kogi State lacks a deputy governor and you cannot blame Faleke for that.

In do or die politics, Bayelsa State witnessed the APC embracing the same corrupt men from the PDP; fighting an impossible battle and refusing to accept that they can never win the State, most especially when all they offer the people is the same 'ol corruption as alternative with no thought of giving the people a chance with someone of decency.

Rivers was one of the most shameful political episodes in recent global politics. Dozens died including serving Youth corps members and soldiers. What a shame. For unexplainable reasons, the results are yet to be released. So one way or the other, these people died in perfect vain!

Soldiers were sent to Rivers, but what their orders were is in question. This is because there is a pristine video that shows an alleged above-the-law APC candidate brazenly storm an INEC office and openly demand a refund of the bribe money he paid . While the candidate vandalized the office, the police and soldiers stationed simply watched! What orders Buratai gave them is in question. Was it the type of orders given to officers who took part in EkitiGate? If these officers were dispatched to uphold justice and maintain peace, then they would have immediately arrested the alleged APC candidate who was terrorizing the center. What happened to Chief of Army Staff Buratai that he and his men are the trigger-eager defenders of Nigeria's democracy? As Buhari said, it is a failure.

Each Of Buhari’s Foreign Trips Costs 1$Million – Fayose

...Buhari’s Unnecessary Trips The Bleeding Economy”

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has counselled President Muhammadu Buhari to stay at home and govern the country instead of junketing from one country to the other, saying; “foreign countries won’t solve our problems for us and the President’s incessant foreign trips is already bleeding the economy with about $1 million being spent per trip.”

The governor, who said most of the trips embarked on by the President were unnecessary, added that ministers or at best the Vice President could have been made to attend most of the functions being attended abroad by the President.

According to a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said that “the President should rather listen more to those of us who criticise him instead of those hailing every of his wrong steps either because of what they intend to gain or for fear of persecution.”

The statement read; “Conservatively, about $1 million goes into every of the foreign trips and the way the President is going, foreign trips alone might gulp 20 percent of the Federal Government budget and that will be disastrous for the dwindling economy of the country.

Buhari’s Policies Scaring Away Investors

“So far the Buhari administration has done all the wrong things,” Dehn said by phone from London... Not only has he been incredibly slow in taking any action, when he finally has taken action on the economic front it’s been diametrically opposed to sensible policy. That is a major disappointment given expectations prior to his election.”

--------------------

 When Muhammadu Buhari clinched victory in Nigeria’s presidential elections in March, stocks soared as investors looked to the former military ruler to reverse decades of economic mismanagement and policy inertia. Now hopes have fizzled in his ability to turn around Africa’s largest economy and oil producer.

Money that flowed into stocks and bonds in the West African nation, which McKinsey & Co. says could become one of the world’s 20 biggest economies by 2030, is now fleeing as growth prospects diminish along with oil prices. While Buhari, 72, has prioritized stamping out the graft that has plagued Nigeria since independence from Britain in 1960, policy-making appears as uncertain and haphazard as ever.

“After the initial euphoria, people have become disillusioned,” Ayodele Salami, who oversees about $500 million of African equities as chief investment officer of London-based Duet Asset Management Ltd., said by phone. “He would probably say that he’s being deliberative and cautious. But we expected more.” Duet’s Africa fund has cut its investments in the country to about 24 percent of the total from 38 percent in the last year. 

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Mr. President, Nigeria Is Broke, So What Are You Going To Do About It?

By Desmond Afolayan

The Presidency in its rejoinder to a recent statement by the PDP upbraided its spokesman Mr. Olisa Metuh for “unjustly denigrating the President who continues to strive with all his might to alleviate and reverse the harm done to the nation by PDP misrule and corruption.”

*President Buhari

The Presidency further made several diversionary ad hominem attacks on the person of Mr. Metuh and the PDP, failing to address a very serious issue raised by the main opposition party in the country. The Presidency needs to be reminded that in a healthy multi-party democracy, the opposition party takes on a crucial role of holding the ruling party and the current administration to account for every action or inaction that can hurt the country, and ultimately help to articulate the frustrations of those who bear the brunt of bad governance. The PDP, warts and all, has a role to play in our democratisation journey, while the Buhari administration as the legitimate bearers of the mandate of the Nigerian people also have their role to play.

In this case, the PDP has chosen the very apt concept of De-Marketing to pass across a message. A dispassionate consideration leads any true patriot to agree that it does appear the President’s media handlers truly have a challenge in helping their principal play his role as the Chief Marketing Officer of Nigeria effectively, inadvertently de-marketing Nigeria instead. The global economic space is a very hostile environment not given to sentiments, where visionary governments take every opportunity to sell their countries’ competitive advantage while downplaying the challenges and unsavoury aspects about them.

President Buhari needs to be advised to rest his vapid rhetoric about all of Nigeria’s woes being caused by his predecessor and the PDP – Nigerians and the rest of the world know that already. He needs to be guided on how to sell Nigeria; he needs to tell us what we don’t know. He should restrict discussions about our flaws to his strategy sessions with his team back home. When he is in the field as a marketer with definite performance targets, he is to convincingly sell Nigeria by highlighting our strengths that make us such a viable country to invest in.

The Economy Under Buhari Has Remained On Rapid Fall – PDP

Press Statement

‘Pay Attention To The Economy,’ PDP Tells Buhari, APC…Urges Sustenance Of Existing Economic Projects...

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for the umpteenth time, urges the President Mohammadu Buhari-led APC administration, to pay urgent attention to the management of the nation’s economy.

*President Buhari

The party said its worry stems from the fact that the economy has remained on rapid fall since the last four months apparently due to the absence of clear-cut fiscal policy direction and an economic team to deal with the domestic and global challenges associated with a developing economy.

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a statement on Monday said “whereas the PDP is in full support of the President’s efforts in tackling corruption and insurgency, the party is however concerned about the grave economic situation we now face, as well as indices from global economic watchers, which this administration has failed to give deserving attention, despite its predictable negative impact.

The PDP said as a responsible party, it is duty-bound, beyond politics, to draw the President’s attention to the fact that under the prevailing circumstances, the nation is evidently heading to economic doldrums.

“Mr. President, this is no longer about politics and partisanship. It is about the economy of our dear nation and the wellbeing of the Nigerian citizens.

“Recall that we have severally in the past, drawn attention to official reports showing that the unemployment situation in the country as well as inflation rate are growing at frightening dimensions, not to talk of the continued decline in domestic and direct foreign investments, all due to uncertainty created by the lack of economic direction of APC-led administration.

Understanding Buhari In 100 Days

By Garba Shehu

THE ENORMOUSLY popular talk show, Berekete on WazobiaFM radio, Abuja station told the incredible, yet true story of the hardworking and respected school teacher somewhere in Plateau state who hanged himself.

He hadn’t been paid salary for seven straight months. He came home to find that no one had eaten and two of the children had medical prescriptions for which there was no money.

President Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo 

He sneaked out without talking to anyone.

After a long while, news came home that he had strangely been caught with a stolen goat.

On his day in court, the teacher confessed to the offense. The reason he stole, he told the local judge, was that he hadn’t been paid for seven months and when he got home to see what he saw, he just couldn’t stand it.

The judge allowed him to go home on bail on self-recognition given, as he said, the good impression the entire village had of the otherwise respected teacher.

All were shocked to find his body dangling from tree the morning after. He couldn’t live with the shame.

In the recommendations and notes the Ahmed Joda transition committee presented to him as President -EIect, Muhammadu Buhari was informed that a section of the Fedaral government as well as 27 states hadn’t paid salaries, in some case for up to a year.

The Joda committee advised that this was a national emergency and should be treated as such.

It is on account of this that one of theactivities- please note the choice of this word:activities, not achievements- of President Muahammadu Buhari in these past three months is the settlement of unpaid salaries. This is going on right now.

Nigeria Economy Worse In 90 Days Of APC – PDP

…Says Nigerians Have Been Scammed With Empty Promises

Press Release 

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) decries as alarming, the damage so far done on the nation’s economy by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) since it took office at the center, three months ago.

The party said the shambolic state of the nation’s economy within the period, which represents the worst in the nation’s contemporary history, is a direct fallout of uncertainty created by the inability of the Buhari-led government to chart a clear-cut economic policy, worsened by abuse of regulations, and flagrant violation of constitutional provisions.

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a statement on Saturday said instead of gains, official reports show that the last three months under the APC-led government have brought a sudden decline in the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with attendant losses and hardship to the citizens, while the government embarks on propaganda of imaginary achievements in addition to attempts to foist harsh economic regime to cover its ineptitude.

“If not for crass incompetence or a possible ulterior motive to subjugate Nigerians for selfish reasons, what else explains the adamant stance of this administration in running a government without the statutory components of a full cabinet and precise fiscal policy direction, even when the negative consequences of this strange totalitarian approach are taking serious toll on the economy and the polity in general?

“Whereas the APC led government is busy with its propaganda of imaginary achievements, official reports from the National Bureau of Statistics show that that the economy is being grounded with Nigeria’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) plunging with about 2.35%, while job creation has dropped by 69 percent.