Midterm scorecard: Nigerians have enough reasons to celebrate Buhari —Abdulahi, APC spokesperson

AHEAD of tomorrow’s celebration of Democracy Day, the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) has thumbed up its chest, with a declaration that Nigerians have every reason to roll out the drums and celebrate its leadership of the nation.

Appraising  the two years of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, APC spokesperson, Bolaji Abdullahi, told newsmen  at the weekend that  the administration had delivered, substantially on its promise to the electorate.

The former Minister of Sports and Youth Development listed the fight against insurgency and crusade against corruption, as achievements of the present administration.

The APC spokesperson, who admitted that youth unemployment remained a big challenge under the present administration,  however, declared that the problem  predated the APC government.

“The reality which we have acknowledged is that the economic recession has created difficulty and the hardship still exists and nobody has ever denied that reality. We believe that in spite of this reality as a result of the hardship, we have enough reasons to celebrate two years as a government.’

“I believe very strongly that there is every reason to celebrate. I know that because of the difficulty that people are going through, there is a temptation to think that there is no much to celebrate.

“But I think that if we look more closely, paying more attention to where we were two years ago, you will see that we have more than sufficient good reason to celebrate. There was a reasons that Nigerians overwhelmingly voted for APC a little over two years ago.

“There was a reason that for the first time in our history, Nigerians rejected a sitting government and those reasons were quite compelling and those are the reasons that justify APC’s existence in government today at the federal level and in the various states.

“I like to say that there are three things that President Buhari promised as we went round the country campaigning. One was that he promised to fight corruption. Secondly, he said he will fight insecurity, especially as it relates to Boko Haram and thirdly, he said he would create employment opportunity for the young people.

“I have said it repeatedly that we tend to forget one fundamental fact which was that at the time we were preparing for election in 2015, more than 50,000 square kilometers of Nigeria territory was physically occupied by Boko Haram, where they declared a caliphate and planted their flag. I remember that in trying to make sense of it, the foreign media  said the area occupied by Boko Haram was the size of Belgium.

“Two years down the line, what is the size of Nigeria territory occupied by Boko Haram? Zero, including the dreaded Sambisa forest.

“For us, this is a remarkable achievement and we believe that in that respect, President Buhari and the government of APC have justified the purpose of coming to power. Yes, many of the Chibok girls are still in captivity, but some of them have been recovered and more are still being recovered. For the parents of those recovered, you cannot tell them there is no reason to celebrate. For those who had to abandon their families and homes two years ago because of the menace of Boko Haram and have returned home today, you cannot tell them that there is nothing to celebrate.’’

“We must not forget that before APC came into power two years ago, we knew what was going on. We knew that people were stealing this country dry, but it was almost like it has been accepted as if it was normal. People were stealing as if it was an entitlement.

But what do you find happening today? You listen to the radio, watch the television, read the newspapers, Nigerians are talking about corruption everyday. It means that as a nation, there is nothing in our DNA that accepts corruption. It means that we are telling the world that as a country, we don’t want corruption and that is why we are having that conversation,” he said.