Buhari under fire over empty treasury claim

By OLUSESAN LAOYE

The claim that the present federal government of President Muhammadu Buhari met an empty treasury is now generating controversies in the country.  While some people believe that the president spoke the truth, others think otherwise that he could not have said the truth.

President Buhari while having his first meeting with State House Correspondents had declared that his government had virtually inherited an empty treasury from the previous government of President Goodluck Jonathan. He also indicated that the situation would put more pressure on him to give account of his 100 days in office, which has become customary for any government to render the account of its stewardship after 100 days in office.

Buhari had also said while meeting the governors that he will recover all the stolen money by those who served in the last administration within three months. He frowned at the leakages in government and promised to stop them. He pointed out that the next three months may be hard but billions of dollars can be recovered and ”we would do our best.”

But since his pronouncement, he has been receiving criticisms from some Nigerians and those in opposition. The first attack on Buhari came from the national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisa Metuh who said that they are disappointed that Buhari said much should not be expected from his government in 100 days in view of the fact that he met an empty treasury. He argued that Buhari, before seeking the mandate of the people knew the condition of the nation’s economy based on the global dwindling oil fall, adding that he only used his promises to deceive the people.

Metuh pointed out that in as much as Nigerians are willing to support the present government, they are worried that the pictures emerging from his presidency and his party, the APC have not given the nation the hope they desire and an indication too that they only wanted power without knowing how to use it to bail out the country and the people. To him both the Presidency and the APC are pretenders who obtained power through false pretences.

It is not Metuh alone who descended hard on the president to show his disdain about the present federal government, former minister and former Deputy Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Dr Abubakar Olanrewaju Sulaiman said he too was disappointed that President Buhari who had governed the country before and who should know better could come out to say that the immediate past government left an empty treasury. He said that as a member of the last government he was sure that Jonathan’s government where he served left about US$30 billion in the kitty and warned the president against wrong accusation of past government of former President Jonathan.

Sulaiman argued that President Buhari cannot tell the nation that for the past one month the country has not made money from the Internally Generated Revenue and as well claimed that there was no money from the Excess Crude Account and Sovereign Wealth Fund.

He further argued that as far as he was concerned, it would be out of place for the present government to say that the Federal Inland Revenue and other agencies of government had not remitted any fund to the government coffers since Jonathan left government. He pointed out that there is no amount of condemnation against the past government that would work because Nigeria under Jonathan was rated the largest economy in Africa and 26 in the world.

Suleiman stressed that the APC and President Buhari should face the reality and should have known that they would meet challenges which they ought to have been prepared for it, when they were canvassing for votes to take over government from a government which had performed. He argued that rather than complaining, he should put a structure in place that would help him deliver the pledges he made to the people of Nigeria, as such should get down to business because there is no government that will not meet challenges.

Also reacting to the President’s claim the PDP chairman in Ogun State, Chief Bayo Dayo told Hallmark that the APC government of Buhari is not telling the truth because there is no way Jonathan could have left an empty treasury when his government was rated to be the one that made the country to rank the best economy in Africa. He said that though he was not in the Presidency or served as a minister under former President Jonathan, he was aware that the PDP led government left behind huge amount of money for the new administration.

Others who commented on the issue pointed out that President Buhari was just being naïve and confused. They claimed that he should face reality and move on so that Nigerians will be sure and convinced that he will offer the change he preached, while demanding for their mandate to govern. It was argued that if Buhari is serious about governance, he should have by now assembled experts who will be looking at how the country could get out of the woods even if the situation was so bad as they wanted the people to believe.

According to a social commentator, Mr. Tunji Ayorinde, who is the Coordinator of Nigeria Democratic Mirror (MDM), President Buhari should know that this is not the time to pass the buck to another person. He pointed out that since Jonathan was no longer in government, whatever problem created should be fixed by him because Nigerians voted for him because they believed that they were not getting the best from the past administration of PDP.

“Buhari should understand that Nigerians are not in the mood for excuses but want action and what would change their lives from what they have been getting in the past four years. What they want now is Mr. Fix it and Buhari should realize that they voted for him to fix numerous problems confronting the nation.”

“What we need now is stable power, good roads, employments and food on our tables and we don’t care how Buhari would do it, we voted for him because we have confidence in him so he should stop complaining because the buck stops on his table.’’

Meanwhile, Mallam Shehu Garba the media assistant to the President has said that people should not misinterpret President Buhari’s statement to mean that he would not deliver on his promises. He argued that what he said was to let the nation know the condition he met the government, saying that by the time he gets things done Nigerians will appreciate the present government.