Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media
and Publicity, Femi Adesina says contrary to
popular belief, there are many evidences to show
that President Buhari loves the Igbos in Nigeria.
He stated this in an interview he had with Radio
continental on Friday January 8th
"When the President ran for political office
in 2003, who was his running mate? Dr
Chuba Okadigbo. And in 2007? Chief Edwin
Ume-Ezeoke. If he hated Igbos would he
run with them? That shows you the respect
and the regard he has for Igbos, it was
political reality that compelled him to come
south-west in 2011 and in 2015. Let me tell
you a story.
Let me tell you a story. There is a prominent
Igbo family in this country, if I mention their
names you would know them, they are very
prominent in the society. They told me a story
that in the 70s, President Buhari was Minister of
Petroleum, the family wanted to join the
petroleum industry and then they made a bid. By
then, there were not too many Nigerians playing
in that industry, and there was a lot of scepticism
from those around the then Lt Colonel Buhari,
who was Oil Minister. They all said they don’t
believe that the company as represented by that
family had the capacity to play in the industry.
This family told me that eventually, they got to Lt
Colonel Buhari, he listened to them, and asked
them; ‘Are you sure you have the capacity to do
this?’ And they told him, ‘we can do it’. Then he
removed his military cap, banged it on the table
and told them, ‘it is done.' And he instructed that
they give them that opportunity they wanted in
the oil industry and today that family is so big
and they never forget that the then Colonel Buhari
as oil minister gave them the break they needed.
They told me that story about three weeks ago.
The next day, when I saw the president, I told him
the story. He laughed and then went on to tell me
that when people say he is against the Igbos, it
baffles him, that really he never knew that family,
he just trusted the assurance they gave him that
they could play in the oil industry, and today they
are very big. He went further to say that even
under PTF, so many Nigerians, including Igbos,
benefitted a lot. So there is no way you can say
the man hates Igbos. The second Niger bridge is
on the budget in 2016. Let's recall that the last
President sometime in 2011 said that he would
complete that second Niger bridge before 2015.
He didn’t even go beyond the architectural
drawing, but in 2016 budget, that project is
there"he ssaid
Read more excepts from the interview after the
cut
Q: What do you have to say about the Chibok
schoolgirls? Any negotiation in progress with Boko
Haram?
ANS: We need to know a little bit of what
happened behind the scenes, between the last
government and some people masquerading as
the leadership of Boko Haram who wanted to get
the Chibok girls released. They actually turned it
into a franchise, it became a commercial thing
and they got money, possibly in millions of
dollars, only for government to discover it had
been swindled. They kept saying they could get
the girls released , they could interface with Boko
Haram and they went smiling to the bank with all
that money, and nothing happened. So you should
understand why this government is being careful
and the President has said the genuineness of the
leadership of Boko Haram must be determined
before any negotiation takes place.
Q: The commendation actually goes to you and
your media team, for the media chat of President
Buhari a few days ago. Arising from that chat, it
is reported that the president said that he would
not grant bail to former NSA, Sambo Dasuki, and
Nnamdi Kanu of Biafra. What was in the mind of
the President.
ANS: Our president is a straight shooter, whatever
is in his mind is what he tells you. He doesn’t
believe in manipulating or any form of rigmarole.
What he said, was that those people had grievous
charges against them, but then, he does not
preclude bail, if there are no pending charges
against them. The situation now is when bail is
granted, before that bail is perfected, those who
are prosecuting them would have come with fresh
charges, which warrant their being held further.
So, that is the position, if there are no fresh
charges, and there is bail, there is no reason to
hold them. But the truth is that there are fresh
charges leveled against them.
Q: One of the APC men has been arrested by
EFCC, and that is Col Jafar Isa. What does that
mean to you?
ANS: It means that in this corruption fight, no
friend, no foe. One of the quickest ways for
President Buhari to lose confidence in anybody is
for that person to be tarred with the brush of
corruption, and if proven to be true, you are on
your own. All those who have said he is selective,
it is because they do not know him. We know
how much he detests corruption, and if any case
is proven against anybody, no matter how close
the person is, no matter how high ranking, that
person will answer for it.
Q: On Forex policy of CBN, and Miss Christine
Lagarde of IMF talking down on Nigeria, despite
corruption allegation against her back home
ANS: If Miss Christine Lagarde has any corruption
allegation, it is not Nigeria that has brought it
against her. Nigeria has absolutely no role in that,
we know what happened to her predecessor in
office, when he had issues over sexual assault
and all that. He was removed and he answered
for it in court . We leave that to them for them to
handle. But in terms of talking down, there was
no talking down at all. I was at the meeting that
she held with the President, there was absolutely
no talking down, she spoke nicely and decently, I
don’t agree that she spoke down on anybody. In
fact she ended up commending the President,
commending Nigeria, and she said she wouldn’t
expect to hear a knock on her door any day from
Nigerians asking for support because she has
seen that Nigeria has all it takes to pull through
this rough patch that she is passing through. I
wouldn’t agree with you that she talked down on
anybody, she had the right as MD of IMF to make
prescription, Nigeria has the right either to accept
or reject.
Q: When would the disability bill be signed into
law?
ANS: This is the second time this is coming up on
this show, because I remember this question
came up the last time I was here and now that
the Ministers are about two months in office this
is also something that I would bring up.
Q: Please lead us into the privacy of the
President.How does the President carry the
enormous problem of this nation? How true is the
statement that the only thing he is doing now is
fighting corruption, neglecting issue of economy,
infrastructure and welfare of citizenry?
ANS: I would like to begin by saying that
corruption is central to every other thing in this
country. If we want to talk about the economy,
education, health care, if all the funds we would
need to address these are squirreled away, how
then do we address them? Fighting corruption is
central to Nigeria's development, therefore the
President has taken it as one of the key things
that his administration would do. But then, that
doesn’t mean that corruption is the only thing he
is fighting, you need to see the man's schedule.
He gets to the office in the morning about 9 a.m,
the first thing he has required us to do is get the
highlights of newspapers ready for him, and so
before he comes in, we have reviewed the
newspapers, we have done all the highlights and
that is the first thing he looks at. Then he begins
to attend to all the other things lined out for him.
Across all the sectors, ministers and directors of
agencies are meeting with him. He is a hard
worker and at 73, I wonder how he does it. He
does that till early evening, when he then retires
home to have a late lunch and a rest, and then in
the early evening he takes on people that have
been scheduled to meet him, if there are. One
thing that about this President is that as much as
possible, you don’t get to his house and see a
market. I was told that in the last dispensation
the place would still be a beehive of activities as
late as 2 a.m. But this man is methodical, he
plans his days and in the process he is able to
attend to much more. All the sectors are receiving
attention, I can assure you.
Q: Funding the real sector is going to be very
important in getting diversification, in getting the
economy back on track. What about our
developmental banks?
ANS: Talking of the real sector I know of BOI
because, I engage with them, the MD, the
corporate affairs people, we spoke two days ago
and they have this programme on television which
I follow. I think BOI is doing well and they have to
be further empowered to do more. Talking of
Treasury Single Account (TSA) it is work in
progress, the rough edges are being smoothened.
You heard the President on National Media Chat
saying that about N1. 5 trillion has been
harnessed into TSA. If you don’t harness this
money, how do you use it? Now that that money
is there, that is when we can talk of using it for
the real sector.
Q: What is the plan of the government on state
police?
ANS: I know that the APC had some promises in
that respect, don’t forget that APC promised to
look at our federation, and re-tune it, rework it,
and part of the promises was to look into state
police.
Q: The Nigerian Labour Congress is threatening
to call out Nigerians to embark on strike, the
reason is based on subsidy removal, which was
alleged would bring untold hardship to common
Nigerians. Could you shed light on this issue?
ANS: What hardship can be greater than what
Nigerians passed through in the past four- six
weeks, queueing endlessly to buy petrol and at
the end of the day buying it at N200, N250, N300
per litre; what hardship can be greater than that?
On the flip-side, what we are entering into now is
something that would make life a lot easier for
Nigerians, getting petrol, making sure that the
supply is sustained because with crude oil prices
down, why should Nigerians pay so high for
refined petrol? That is what government is doing.
Now that crude prices are down, this is the
opportunity to arrive at appropriate prices for
refined petrol, that is why we now have N86 from
NNPC, N86.5 from other marketers, and it has
also been said that this would be subject to
review every quarter. That means if oil prices inch
up again, it would affect how much we buy
petrol. Labour, I am sure will look at the matter
again, and know that it would be better that
Nigerians get petrol at clearly affordable prices,
reacting to prices of crude oil, rather than a
subsidy regime that is fraught with so much
corruption.
Q: What are the foreign policy plans of this
administration?
ANS: We just had a minister of foreign affairs,
who is settling down. The Ministers would just be
two months in office soon. Economic diplomacy is
very important for us. We know that we have
engaged with the West, we have also gone East;
China for instance is doing a lot of with us.
Economic diplomacy is very important for
Nigerians at this time, because like the President
says, no country in the world can afford to stand
alone again. Even President Obama said it at the
UN General Assembly last September, no country
in the world can afford to stand alone again
because the things that unite the world now are
economy and security. No country can afford to
do it alone, so Nigeria's foreign policy would also
be conditioned by that.
Q: Restructuring our federalism, what is the
President approach to it?
ANS: As I said earlier, restructuring the federation
is part of the promises the APC made when it
campaigned, but you would also agree that it is
not a one man show; it is not the President that
would say, this is the way to do it. No, It has to
be a deliberate policy, starting from the party, to
the national assembly and then it becomes law
and all that. It is not the President that would
direct it.
Q: We want to bring five members of this
parliament to Aso Rock, I mean people who call
in on this radio, and present our needs to the
president.
ANS: I assure you that it can be done. I will raise
it with the President
Q: Most business people are having problems
funding their transactions. What is being done in
terms of bridging this?
ANS: It is not targeted at anybody. It is a policy
from the Central Bank. During the Presidential
Media Chat, the President promised that he would
get the CBN governor to look at the matter again.
He said it openly and publicly. But one thing
about economic downturn and revival is that it is
not at the snap of a finger, economies don’t
collapse in a flash, it is a gradual thing. So you
can’t expect that it’s going to be by the snap of
the finger, and the economy is revived again. It
has to be rebuilt, the foundation has to be relaid,
that is what this government is doing, and with a
government that is serious and focussed like this
one, we would get there. All of us have to be
patient to get there.
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