AS the All Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal Government hits mid-term, Osita Okechukwu, the Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON) has scored the President Muhammadu Buhari above average for building a foundation for Nigeria’s resurgence, based on his social revolution.
In a statement in Enugu, the APC chieftain noted that the Buhari Social Revolution (BSR) has resulted in the sanitisation of corrupt institutions, revamping of solid minerals, innovation of ICT and repositioning of agricultural sector for enhanced productivity.
Okechukwu faulted those used the abject poverty, hunger and gross unemployment ravaging the country to score President Buhari low, saying they neither seem to care about those who stimulated the woes in the first place, nor do they credit Buhari with the concerted efforts and enabling environment put in place in the last 24 months to upgrade agriculture and stop importation of food.
According to the VON DG, like every silent revolution, those who scored Buhari low wittingly or unwittingly couldn’t locate the Buhari Social Revolution, which in actual sense is the Rock of Gibraltar for Nigeria’s resurgence.
He observed that certainty in public affairs was gradually being enthroned, unbridled corruption being tamed, Boko Haram and other forms of insecurity being contained and construction workers returning back to work while impunity has been bidding farewell.
He expressed confidence that in the fullness of time, as evidenced in the presidential system of government mid-term matrix, Buhari’s sanitisation of corrupted institutions like the power sector, where unprecedented sharp practices bedevilled the growth of industries, revamping of solid mineral as a new source of revenue, innovation of ICT and new impetus in agricultural production, will manifest appreciable success.
The statement read in part: “Buhari did not invent the Treasury Single Account (TSA), the Biometric Verification Numbers (BVN) nor the Whistleblower policy, yet he gave them life as effective and potent anti-graft arsenal. If Nigeria is a country where records are kept and timely reported, billions of naira saved by these anti-graft instruments could have been mind-boggling.
“Critics would argue that they have led to retrenchment in the banks; yes every coin has two faces. But let the truth be told, can we actually call what we have banks, when they cannot lend to the real sector, because of outrageous interest rate and other unprofessional practices? Over the years, banks make jumbo profits while majority of Nigerians slide into poverty. These are the holes which the Buhari Social Revolution is silently plugging.
“How many of the critics of the regime will remember that at the inception of his regime, Buhari instead of pursuing new projects to make name, doled out billions for the payment of salary and pensions arrears owed by the state governments? As a pro-people ideologue he said that the workers welfare should come first, as some states owed for over ten months. As a result, many lives were saved, vindicating the position of the 1999 Constitution that the welfare and security of the people is the primary purpose of government,” he said.
He noted that the main reason why some scored Buhari low was because of the slump in oil prices, the mono-product and life blood of our economy, which was made worse by the unprecedented looting which stripped the revenue and assets of the last bounty oil season, (2009-2014), whereas records had it that between these Jonathan locust five years, oil price hovered around $100 per barrel.
Okechukwu maintained that in rating Buhari, his critics forgot that he was not instrumental to the slump in oil prices and accordingly our misery, emanating from fluctuations of oil price in the international market, which we have no control over and why Mr President was putting emphasis on the diversification of the economy, to open other sectors and make them to compete with oil as revenue earner.
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