48 Days To Go, Presidency Defends President Muhammadu Buhari’s Performance

The government has once more defended President Muhammadu Buhari’s grade, granting him a pass mark as the present administration comes to a conclusion after serving two terms totaling eight years.

The Buhari administration has done its utmost to address Nigeria’s numerous security issues, according to Femi Adesina, the president’s senior adviser on media and publicity.

He emphasized that President Buhari is departing from office with the nation “far better” than when he took office in May 2015.

In May 2015, just hours after Buhari assumed office, Adesina, a former Sun newspaper editor-in-chief, was chosen to serve as the president’s spokesperson. After Buhari was elected to a second term in power in August 2019, he was reappointed.

In an interview that aired yesterday on Channels Television’s “Politics Today,” Adesina stated that his principal’s performance was excellent.

“We knew where Nigeria was in 2015,” Insurgents were in charge of at least 17 local administrations in this nation, he asserted.

When asked if things had gotten better, he responded, “Far better. History has shown that the number has steadily decreased throughout the years. No one can alter it.

He said that President Buhari has the authority to pick those he believes are qualified and capable of protecting Nigeria from terrorist and bandit attacks, and that the nomination of service chiefs is not constrained by ethnic balancing or the federal character concept.

Avoid making security dependent on federal character or ethnic balancing. The President even has some prerogatives that he can designate on his own, according to the constitution that establishes the federal character, he stated.

Buhari, a native of Katsina in northwestern Nigeria, had come under fire for favoring the north when making appointments. Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate, criticized Buhari last November during campaigns for the 2023 elections for what he called the lopsided appointment of security agency heads by his administration, noting that 17 of the heads of various security agencies are from the North.

Adesina insisted that the president was leaving the country’s security situation better than he found it in 2015, despite the fact that over 55,000 Nigerians were killed by terrorists, bandits, and armed gangs between May 2015 and May 2022. She claimed that when Buhari took office, terrorists were occupying the emirs’ palaces in some parts of the north.

Speaking of control, he said, “I mean, they were sitting in the palaces of the emirs; they were sitting in the chairs of the local government chairman. The NYSC was unable to conduct orientation or even send people to those locations.

Is that what occurs right now? No. The emirs have returned to their residences. The chairmen of the local government have returned to their offices. In certain states, NYSC orientations are starting, and corps members are being posted there. Are you now saying that nothing has changed? Let’s be truthful instead.

Regarding the matter of the presidential fleet, he asserted that during his 2015 election campaign, President Buhari did not make a commitment to sell off the fleet.

Adesina added that the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan-Kukah, who made the remark, is unable to substantiate the President’s election-related promise.

According to Report, Kukah criticized the President in his 2023 Easter Message, saying, “As you prepare to return to Daura or Kaduna, I do not know if you feel fulfilled or that you met the tall dreams and goals you set for yourself such as: ending banditry, defeating corruption, bringing back our girls, belonging to everyone and belonging to nobody, selling off our presidential fleet and traveling with us, etc.”

In response to Kukah’s assertions, Adesina claimed that the cleric is overly partisan and that his views are biased toward politics.

Kukah should demonstrate that the President kept his promise to sell off the presidential fleet. In keeping with his promise, President Buhari examined the presidential fleet. Two or three jets were sold off, while the Air Force received helicopters, the speaker claimed.

In contrast to what some people anticipated, which was selling off all the jets and starting to fly with Nigerian Airways, if it still exists, he said that this was cutting off excesses.

Adesina stated that Buhari has done his utmost to secure the nation and fight corruption, adding that Nigeria is not where it was in 2015 when the President took office.

Are we still dealing with the banditry problem from 2015? Even when the job isn’t finished, are we still where we were? If Fr. Kukah is sincere to himself and to his calling, he would understand that the nation has changed since 2015,” he stated.