Femi Adesina has once again come for the group of people or
Nigerians who do not believe the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari
has done well.
In his article, titled “THEY HAVE EYES BUT CANNOT SEE.
PITY!”, Adesina described the critics of his principal as cynics, flippant and
people with fickle minds.
The presidential media aide added that “they (Buhari’s
critics) will fall into a ditch, and great will be that fall” because they
refuse to use their eyes to see what the current administration has done.
Please the full article by Femi Adesina below:
It has been a hectic week. Frenetic. We set forth at dawn on
Monday from Abuja to Bauchi, to attend the Presidential and gubernatorial
campaign of All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates. It was only Muhammadu
Buhari, the Mai Gaskiya (honest man), that could have commanded the number of
people that turned out. Without inducement. Endless sea of heads. He remains
the greatest political crowd-puller we have ever seen in the country since the
beginning of time.
From Bauchi, same Monday, we flew into Lagos. To commission
the $1.5 billion Lekki Deep Sea Port, then West Africa’s largest rice mill at
Imota, and a lubricant plant at Tin Can, Apapa, owned by MRS Petroleum Company.
Tuesday saw the President commissioning two more projects,
including the Blue Line Rail. And from there, we flew to Dakar, Senegal, to
attend a summit on food security in Africa, billed for Wednesday. Our President
delivered a Keynote Address, and we left for Nigeria in the evening. We didn’t
reach Katsina, and Daura till about 1 am Thursday.
Now as I write this Thursday morning, we are in Katsina,
commissioning legacy projects, including; Kofar Kaura Underpass, Kofar Kaura
Waterworks, Revenue House, Meteorological Institute, Darma Rice Mills, Kofar
Kwaya Underpass, Katsina General Hospital, among others. The spree continues
Friday, then same at Kano on Monday, and Jigawa on Tuesday.
Our President is 80 years old, don’t forget. And he does all
these at a sprint. We that are far younger struggle to catch up with him. On
Thursday, after going to bed around 3 am, on return from Senegal, I refused to
get out of bed till my colleagues came to evacuate me, saying the President was
ready and raring to go. I sprang up. President Buhari is a blessed man, despite
a debilitating health challenge he had in 2017. God has been truly merciful.
Now, all these projects being commissioned in States are
because the Federal Government created an enabling environment, and enunciated
the right policies.. There are even counterpart relationships in some of them.
I tell you, this President has done great things for our country, including
fighting insecurity to a standstill, and on the verge of winning the war.
Some cynics claim they’ve not seen anything Buhari has done.
Yes, the Second Niger Bridge is so small, so they need a magnifying glass to
see it. The Lagos/Ibadan Expressway is so minuscule, and they need to wear
their medicated glasses. Rail line like catacombs in certain parts of the
country? Bring my microscope, let me check. Same for Enugu/Port Harcourt
Expressway, Bodo/Bonny road and bridges, Loko-Oweto road and bridge, brand new
airport terminals in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Enugu, Port Harcourt, rice mills
everywhere. “We can’t see.” Purblind people.
What of the Abuja-Zaria-Kano expressway in the works? AKK
pipelines. And many other projects. No, they can’t see, because Buhari has done
nothing. Fickle minds. Caviling. Carping. Flippant. Unserious.
Those who know and are honest testify to what President
Buhari has achieved for the country. And because there’s no need reinventing
the wheel, let me adopt the chronicle of Minister for Information and Culture,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a recent press briefing. I then challenge anyone who
wants to countermand the achievements to openly come out and say so.
Let’s go:
“Let me use this opportunity to comment on the increasing
tendency by some opposition presidential candidates to downplay the
achievements of this Administration, in their desperation for power, ahead of
the 2023 elections. The worst offender in this regard has been the presidential
candidate of the PDP, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. During his recent
campaign in Akure, the former VP was quoted as saying the APC had not done
anything for Nigeria in eight years. What a preposterous statement from
somebody who should know. I guess we can excuse His Excellency the former Vice
President who, until recently, had fully relocated to Dubai, thus losing touch
with Nigeria.
“And if anyone would accuse the APC-led Federal Government
of doing nothing, it should not be Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Why? Because for the
16 years of the PDP rule, eight of which Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was Vice
President, there was no motorable road to the former VP’s hometown and indeed
to key local governments in the Southern Senatorial zone that served as
Adamawa’s food basket and economic nerve centre until the Government of
President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office. Today, gentlemen, the Mayo Belwa-
Jada- Ganye- Toungo road has been constructed fully and it’s the road that
Alhaji Atiku uses to get to his hometown of Jada.
“What about security? Before this Administration came into
office, all the five local government areas in Adamawa’s Northern Senatorial
District were effectively under the control of the Boko Haram terrorists. All
state institutions, the local government administration, the police, the
judiciary, schools, hospitals and markets had been sacked. Traditional rulers, including
Emirs and Chiefs had been displaced with their palaces taken over by the
terrorists as their headquarters.
The affected 5 local governments in the Northern Senatorial
zone are:
1. Madagali
2. Michika
3. Mubi North
4. Mubi South and
5. Little Gombi
“In the Central Senatorial zone, two local governments were
effectively under the control of the Boko Haram terrorists: These two local
governments in Central Senatorial zone are:
1. Maiha Local Government
2. Hong Local government.
“Today, not an inch of these local governments in Adamawa,
the home state of the former Vice President, is under the control of
terrorists. All institutions of state have relocated back and are operational.
All Emirs and chiefs have returned to their palaces. Schools and markets have
opened. Please note, gentlemen, that
throughout that period, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar
could not even go home. As a matter of fact, when one of his right hand men,
Mr. Adila, was killed by the terrorists, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar could not even
go to condole with the family of the deceased. It was that bad. Now that he can
travel home freely, thanks to the Buhari
Administration, it is not sweet in his mouth to accuse the
same Administration of doing nothing. As they say, the bedwetter should not
join those who are insulting the washerman.
“In the area of Social Investment Programmes, there have
been 29,641 beneficiaries, from Adamawa alone, of the N-POWER Programme of the
Buhari Administration. Under the Home Grown School Feeding
Programme, some 162,782 pupils from Adamawa are benefitting
from one meal a day. That programme employs 2,259 cooks in Adamawa and has
covered 1,236 schools in the state. How many school children did the PDP feed
in Adamawa or anywhere in the eight years that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar held sway
as Vice President in Abuja!
“We are not done. Under the Conditional Cash Transfer, some
64,607 vulnerable people have benefitted in Adamawa alone, while Trader Moni
and Market Moni have reached a total of 38,000 people in the state.
“In the area of infrastructure, some 8 roads projects
totalling 714 kilometres are currently being rehabilitated or constructed in
the state. That’s out of 43 road projects in the North East alone. These are
not phantom projects. We have the full list of the roads and can make it
available to anyone who so wishes.
“Similarly, the North East Development Commission (NEDC) has
either completed or is currently working on 140 projects, including
construction of classrooms, healthcare facilities and ICT training centres, in
Adamawa alone. Overall, NEDC has a total of 593 projects in the entire North
East. Again, we have a full list of the projects.
“Gentlemen, you can now see that we didn’t even need to go
far to disprove the former VP’s soap box statement.
You can also see the irony of someone who held the number
two position in the country for all of eight years but could not positively
impact on his own hometown, state or region now condemning an Administration
that has made it possible for him to even access his
hometown, anytime he flies in from his new hometown of Dubai! The
Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has had a positive impact on all
parts of this federation. No amount of fallacious soap box rhetorics can change
this fact.”
True. Projects abound in all zones of the country, done by
the Buhari Administration, and you will get to have a compendium soon. But let
those who have eyes, and deliberately refuse to see, continue. They will fall
into a ditch, and great will be that fall.
In the words of Jimmy Scott, a Nigerian drummer, made
popular by the Beatles, “O-bladi, O-blada , life goes on bra, la-la-la-la life
goes on.”
*Adesina is Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and
Publicity
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