Did President Muhammadu Buhari ask the World Bank to concentrate its Nigeria intervention effort in the north?
The Presidency said yesterday that he did not.
Media reports had quoted the World Bank Group President, Jim Yong Kim, as saying in Washington DC, on Thursday that Buhari requested a concentration of the bank’s intervention efforts in the north.
Reacting to the reports yesterday, Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina,said the Jim’s statement was deliberately twisted by those who he said specialise in such acts.
He labeled such people “ignorant and mischievous” who are out to make it seem that Buhari’s position was a calculated attempt to give the North an unfair advantage over other parts of Nigeria.
Adesina said the President, since his inauguration, had been seeking international support for the rebuilding of the North East which was ravaged by years of insurgency.
He said what Buhari did in calling attention to the plight of the people of the region was what a leader should do.
His words: “Those who specialize in a deliberate twisting of information have wailed and raged endlessly on the news item credited to the World Bank Group President, Jim Yong Kim, who disclosed in Washington DC, United States of America, that President Muhammadu Buhari had requested a concentration of the bank’s intervention efforts in the northern part of Nigeria, particularly in the north-east.
“The ignorant and mischievous people, who twist everything for their vile purposes, are making it seem that it was a calculated attempt to give the North an unfair advantage over other parts of Nigeria.
“The truth of the matter is that President Buhari, right from his first week in office in June, 2015, had reached out to the G-7 in Germany that Nigeria needed help to rebuild the North-east, which had been terribly devastated by insurgency. He said the country would prefer help in terms of rebuilding of infrastructure, rather than cash donation, which may end up being misappropriated. In concert with governors of the region, a comprehensive list of needed repairs was sent to the G-7 leaders.
“Also, during a trip to Washington in 2015, and many other engagements that followed, President Buhari sought the help of the World Bank in rebuilding the beleaguered north-east, which was then being wrested from the stranglehold of a pernicious insurgency. It was something always done in the open, and which reflected the president’s concern for the region.
“Those ululating over the disclosure by the president of the World Bank should be a bit reflective, and consider the ravages that the north-east has suffered since 2009, when the Boko Haram insurgency started. Schools, hospitals, homes, entire villages, towns, cities, bridges, and other public utilities have been blown up, laid waste, and lives terminated in excess of 20,000, while widows and orphans littered the landscape. The humanitarian crisis was in monumental proportions.
“President Buhari simply did what a caring leader should do. He took the battle to the insurgents, broke their backs, and then sought for help to rebuild, so that the people could have their lives back. Should that then elicit the negative commentary that has trailed the disclosure from the World Bank? Not at all, except from insidious minds.
“President Buhari has a pan-Nigerian mandate, and he will discharge his duties and responsibilities in like manner. Any part of the country that requires special attention would receive it, irrespective of primordial affinities, which narrow-minded people have not been able to live above. This president will always work in the best interest of all parts of the country at all times. Let ethnic warriors sheathe their swords.”
In a series of tweets earlier in the day,the Presidency said:
1/ Northeast Nigeria has always been a priority for President @MBuhari, right from when he campaigned to be President.
— Presidency Nigeria (@NGRPresident) October 13, 2017
2/ From the start of the Administration,Pres @MBuhari has consistently highlighted the need for Int’l support to secure & rebuild the N/East
— Presidency Nigeria (@NGRPresident) October 13, 2017
3/ The Northeast has featured prominently in all of the President’s engagements with the International Community.