Omokri: After spending more than half his term, Buhari still telling us what he plans to do

Reno Omokri, a former aide of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, says less than 18 months to the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure, he is still talking about what he plans to do, and not what he has done.

Reacting to Buhari’s New Year message to Nigerians, Omokri said Buhari has failed to own up to his actions.

Omokri said Buhari, who is the minister of petroleum, should not trade blames over the current petrol crisis in the country but seek solution to the problem.

He accused Buhari of lying on a mass scale and avoiding his responsibilities.

“Muhammadu Buhari has been president for over two and a half years. He has less than one and a half years to go,” Omokri said.

“If by now he is still talking about ‘we are going to’ shouldn’t alarm bells ring in your mind? The man has spent more than half his term and he is not able to tell us what he has done in tangible terms. Instead, he is still telling us what he plans to do.

“Then the president characteristically threatened oil marketers and again characteristically, blamed them for the fuel scarcity that occurred during the Yuletide.

“This is so typical of Muhammadu Buhari. Failure to take responsibility. The man is the minister of petroleum. The buck should stop at his table.

“Nigerians will notice how he failed to address the revelations that he, who had spent years discrediting fuel subsidy and alleging that Jonathan and his government used that policy to scam Nigerians, had been secretly and illegally paying fuel subsidy, currently at ₦26.40 per litre.”

Omokri also faulted the president’s claim that power generation has hit 7,000 megawatts.

He said Buhari’s claim that the economy was being slowly stabilised is a big insult, adding that “No other administration has destabilized Nigeria’s economy as the Buhari administration”.

“And then the man goes on to lie that power generation has ramped up to 7,000 megawatts (MW) forgetting that previous administrations before him set up the Nigerian Electricity System Operator which is statutorily required to publish the verifiable amount of power generated in Nigeria,” he said.

“Now, according to the Nigerian Electricity System Operator, the amount of power generated in Nigeria is 4,108MW. I deal with facts and I have an unimpeachable reputation for the facts.

“If any member of the Buhari administration can contradict the data from their own government agency, Nigerian Electricity System Operator, I make a public vow to apologize to President Buhari in a full page advertisement in a nationally read newspaper.

“The fact is that President Muhammadu Buhari lied! But the greatest insult from President Muhammadu Buhari’s New Year address was when he said “The government is slowly stabilizing the economy.

“Really? No other administration has destabilised Nigeria’s economy as the Buhari administration.

“Under Buhari the nation’s currency shed 75% of its value and moved from ₦199 to $1 on the day he took over to ₦365 to $1 today. We had the unenviable record of being named the fourth worst performing currency in the world by Bloomberg in 2017.

“Inflation, which was at single digit rate on the unfortunate day Buhari was sworn in on May 29, 2015, is now at 15.91%.

“Taking everything he said during the broadcast, the least you could say is that the President engaged in lying on a mass scale. Lying and responsibility avoidance.

“The conclusion is that Nigeria is going to see the same old same old under Buhari in 2018. If problems arise, he will look for who to blame rather than look for a solution.

“The best thing this nation can do is to pray that this nightmare comes to an end in 2019 and the President can go and tend to his 150 cows that somehow never increase in number.”