Nation
NSA, Ribadu lied over Nigeria oil production output
Many people are willing to cut this government a little slack if it can come clean with the people by being honest, sincere and transparent, because it inherited a very bad situation, even though they from the same party, and were actually part of the government, at least, in principle.
But it appears this will be a tall order for the President Bola Tinubu’s government, as its officials continue to take Nigerians for a fool by adopting propaganda and deception as state policy, a malaise that endemically plagued its predecessor.
Again, just yesterday, National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, who talks more as a spokesperson and campaigner of the president, as reported by Arise TV and said Channels, at the conference of Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, in Abuja, while representing the president, said among other things that the nation’s oil production output has reached 1.8 million barrels per day, as proof of what he called, the “Tinubu gains”, as well as riding Nigeria of any security threat, and warning the new terror group, Lakuwara, that their days are numbered.
The fact is that Ribadu, like most of the government people, simply lied to accord the president the credit he does not deserve. A simple check of the fact on OPEC website confirmed him a liar. The latest figure by the oil cartel, which is October, put Nigeria’s output at 1.43mpd, including condensate.
Actual production output in October is even less, as the figure only increased this month by 35,000 bpd to 1.085mbpd, which is the OPEC figure of the country’s output, without condensate. The question is how did Ribadu, the NSA, who should have all the facts about the country, make such unfounded claims simply to bolster the principal’s image?
The answer is that, it is characteristic of the APC to propagandize and deceive people in order to hide their sloppiness, incompetence, and cluelessness.
The All Progressives Congress, APC, since inception has taken advantage of ignorance of most Nigerians, and the indifference of the greater number of the elite to truth and fact by continuing to peddle and perpetrate falsehood as state policy and the gains of governance.
Unsurprisingly, a party chieftain was quoted during the Edo governorship election in July that they know the people are too careful to risky their lives for anybody, while the elite only make noise, therefore, the election would be won anyhow, and those aggrieved should go to court.
The party won an overwhelming support of Nigerians in the 2015 election by propaganda and political falsehood, which they pursued throughout the eight years of the president Buhari administration with the outcome that has left the country practically desolate and disconcerted in almost every political, social and economic index.
Every policy they promised was fulfilled in breach, such that insecurity, which they vowed to end in six months virtually spread to every part of the country that nowhere was save in the country eight years.
Although, they promised to wipe poverty out of Nigeria, and set up a ministry for that purpose, Ministry of Humanitarian Services and Disaster Management, Nigeria over the period became the poverty capital of the world, as well as having 134 million people in multidimensional poverty.
Mr. Babatunde Fashola, former governor of Lagos state, had mocked the previous administration of president Jonathan of cluelessness by failing to provide electricity to Nigerians, vowing that they would perform the impossible in six months. Luckily, he was saddled with that responsibility. However, since 2015 to date, the country has experience more grid collapses that in the 20 years before and 11 already in 2024.
Pastor Tunde Bakare, who celebrated his 70th birthday this week, Serving Overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly, as it was then called, founded the Save Nigeria Group to prevent president Jonathan and corrupt government from destroying the country, and mobilized to Ojota to protest the removal of subsidy from fuel and a hike in price from N65 to N96.
President Buhari, who succeeded him increased it from N96 to N126 and subsequently to N165 per litre. Today, under the same APC government, fuel has become gold, selling at over N1000 per litre across Nigeria.
Those, who fought to save Nigeria from Jonathan, including Chief Obasanjo, are surprisingly up in arms against the saviours of the nation, while those, who are sincere enough to bear the regret and shame of their collective betrayal, have remained silent, as things have gone from worse to worst.
Former president Buhari was once quoted during the 2015 campaign that he would make the naira at par with the dollar. Well, he tried to leave it at N478 in 2023, from N198 he met it; while his successor of the same party, has taken it to N1700, making goods and services beyond the reach of most Nigerians.
APC’s greatest attraction to most most Nigerians was the Buhari factor as a “clean” and incorruptible person, who would rid the country of the bad rubbish of the Jonathan’s government. Under his watch about one trillion naira was siphoned by the Humanitarian ministry, which emboldened Dr. Betta Edu, whose only three months in power had her hands in a N4 billion sleaze. Worse still, none of those exposed in corruption cases were ever prosecuted. Two chairmen of the anti graft agency, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, and Abdulrasheed Bawa, were sacked for corrupt practices. None prosecuted. Today, we are shackled with an APC mantra that its members never commit crimes, a political strategy they have used to attract corrupt members of other parties.
During this period, ASUU, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, have gone on strike more than at any other time in history, one even lasting eight months; while the resident doctors have also had a running battle, with massive brain drain of it’s professionals in the process.
The list is legion, but the lies have not ended.
