President Muhammadu Buhari says he felt like “absconding” after seeing
the enormity of the challenges facing the country when he assumed office
in May 2015.
He was speaking on Thursday during a parley with
participants of the Senior Executive Course 38 of the National Institute
for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPPS) at the state house in Abuja.
He again blamed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Nigeria’s economic woes.
Buhari
said: “For 16 years and eight consecutive governments of the other
party… there was unprecedented revenue realised, the oil projection
which can be verified was 2.1 million barrels per
day. From 1999-2015
the average cost of each Nigerian barrel of oil was $100 per barrel.
“When
we came it fell to less than $30 per barrel and is now between 40 and
50. Actually I felt like absconding because 27 out of 36 states in
Nigeria cannot pay salaries and and we know they have no other source
than to depend on salaries.
“And I asked any savings? I was told
there were no savings. And I asked what have you done on agriculture,
power, rails, roads? Nothing. You know more than I do because you move
around. I have not been moving around since after elections but you do.
How many of the Trunk A (federal) roads are still good enough?
“How
much power do we have although there are some elements of sabotage. I
was told the money was users to import food and fuel. I didn’t believe
the answer and I still don’t believe it. Until now substantial number of
people in the east eat garri and groundnut, in the west pounded yam,
cassava, vegetables, in the north tuwo which is made from any of the
grains, millet, sorghum. They eat it in the night and warm it in the
morning and eat it and take fura dinunu in the afternoon. How many of
those people can afford foreign food?
“Then they said I should
check out the petroleum sector. The legislature dedicated 445,000
barrels per day to the refineries and that is just 60 per cent of our
requirements.
“I said OK, what of the 40 per cent? The marketers
that are bringing it just present documents, papers are just stamped and
monies are taken away. This is the type of things that the Nigerian
elites are doing for our own country. When you go back look at your
colleagues and encourage them to be truly Nigerians.”
Source: Cable.ng
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