Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Digital Communications, Bashir Ahmad has accused some state governors of betraying President Muhammadu Buhari despite saving them from embarrassment.
In an opinion article published yesterday, the president’s aide stated, amongst others, that
President Buhari came into power at a time when the country was bedevilled with a lot of crisis, including economic hardships, security threats and insurgency and other challenges obstructing the smooth running of the country.
He recalled how State governors resorted to borrowing money despite the federal allocations in order to pay salaries and run other governmental responsibilities.
According to him, “To some extent, some State governors resorted to hiding behind the hardships as reasons to abscond from running contracts, infrastructural development, and capital expenditures, among many other developmental activities. They indeed lost hope in providing assistance to the masses and their State.
“However, with the coming of President Muhammadu Buhari, as a true democrat, who always put the masses first, the President introduced many interventions to the State governors, irrespective of their parties or region, mainly to bail them out and rescue them from collapsing. As such, several States are now afloat because of the financial reliefs the Buhari administration provided for them”.
He cited some of the benefits enjoyed by the State governments under the Buhari-led administration since 2015 to include: N477 billion in bailout funds were released at the instance of the President through which most states sustained themselves. “Additionally, no fewer than 24 States, across party lines, had demanded and received refunds from the Federal Government for works done on federal roads and bridges; and records show that the refunds were to the tune of about N500 billion”, he said.
Apart from saving the governors through such interventions, he also cited the Covid-19 interventions as another benefit they enjoyed under the present administration.
“I believe Nigerians will remember how almost all the governors, especially under the platform of APC, benefitted from the popularity, patriotism, trust, and respect Nigerians have for President Buhari to win elections in their various states.
“Many of them are ignorant of the fact that without him, by now, they would have been in prison. He was there for them when the masses doubted trusting them. He encouraged the masses and urged them to vote for them, with the assurance that they also were like him, and only wanted to get to the position to serve them. In 2019, he had to visit all the 36 States, some twice to encourage people to vote for some of these governors”.
“Recall that President Buhari went around the States in previous campaigns raising the hands of these same APC governors, encouraging people to vote for them. A lot of them wouldnt have been elected without that support from the president”, he stated.
He further queried: “Why is it that a selected group of politicians is suddenly allergic to this policy? Why is the loudest noise against the policy coming from this quota? What happened to their voices when policies that affected the masses were being implemented? Are they really for the masses or their political goals?”
“It is shocking, to say the least, that these people whom president Buhari helped are now turning their back against him because of a government policy whose aim is to address issues of corruption, insecurity as well as improve the economy. What we expect of them is to rally around the president, educating the people to bear with the unintended pains for bigger gains”.
“No government policy is without hitches in implementation. These hitches are temporary and are being addressed. Nigerians will certainly celebrate the numerous gains and benefits of these policies”, he stated.
