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Tag: Garba Shehu

  • All the president’s men: an open letter to Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President, Media and Publicity (2)

    All the president’s men: an open letter to Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President, Media and Publicity (2)

    Mallam Garba Shehu:

    In this continuing piece in the series that began as an open letter to you last week, I wish to start with a question that may come as a surprise to you: When will President Buhari put behind him and finally move on from the travails that he experienced, perhaps even suffered, first from his overthrow as a military ruler in 1985, and subsequently as an unsuccessful presidential candidate three times between 2003 and 2011?  In starting this piece with this question, I am particularly mindful of the account that you gave earlier this week of how, during the last presidential electoral campaign, you and your family awoke one morning in your house at Abuja only to find that your house had been surrounded and completely blockaded by heavily armed units of the Nigerian Police. According to the account that you gave of that sinister siege on your house, only the intervention of social media activists through twits and posts on twitter and facebook accounts on the Internet alerted the country and the world to what you and members of your family were being subjected to. Once that happened, according to you, the besiegers had to leave you and your family alone because they realized that they and whatever evil intentions they had in mind had been exposed on the Internet.

    I am almost certain that this was not the only intimidating and frightening experience that you personally had as the Spokesman for the Buhari Campaign Organization, just as I also know that many other members of Buhari’s campaign team as well as chieftains of the APC faced untold harassment and intimidation from the PDP during the last elections. As the whole world knows, starting from the Ekiti and Osun States’ governorship elections of 2014, the PDP under Jonathan became more and more fascist in its open and maximum use of armed and sometimes hooded state and non-state thugs, kidnappers and enforcers against all opponents, especially of the APC. Indeed, I wish to assert here that though I was and have remained highly critical of the APC as previously a potential and now an actual ruling party, I spoke out consistently and forcefully in this column against those fascist actions and tendencies of the PDP in general and the Jonathan administration in particular. If this is the case, you might wonder, Mallam Shehu, why then am I asking when President Buhari will put behind him the many undoubted travails and humiliations of the years and decades that he spent in what I am in this series calling a political wilderness?

    Mallam Shehu, because I consider this a very crucial question, I shall try to respond to it with the greatest clarity and concreteness that I can muster. Thus, I draw your attention as well as the attention of other readers of this piece to two separate but closely linked and portentous statements that President Buhari has made as an elected Head of State. First statement: the states and peoples that did not vote for me cannot expect me to treat them like the states and peoples that voted for me. Second statement: for the non-ministerial posts in my administration that I do not have to submit to the Senate for screening and approval, I have appointed those who have stood loyally with me over the years, first in the ANPP, then in the CPC and APC. As an amateur psychoanalyst, to me these two statements reveal that the President not only has a long memory of those who have worked for and against him, but this memory, this political unconscious, weighs so heavily on his mind and psyche that things that happened years and decades ago still affect his thoughts and actions now, in the moment of his eventual political ascendancy as an elected president.

    It is not my intention in this piece to dabble into a sustained psychoanalysis of the President’s every utterance and action. As I see the matter, it is far more profitable for all of us to evaluate the potential and actual objective consequences and ramifications of those of the President’s actions and utterances that seem to come from his long memory of those who worked for and against him. Objectively therefore, whatever may be the understandable psychological basis of the President’s actions and utterances, I wish to state that what should concern us is the fact that he seems deeply inclined to a neo-feudal conception and practice of governance in a constitutional order that is intended to be bourgeois-democratic. As I consider this to be very portentous for our country’s future under the rule of the President and the APC, permit me, Mallam Shehu, to explain what I have in mind in making this observation, this claim.

    Mallam Shehu, to call a spade a spade, it is nothing but the very height of a neo-feudal act for the President to have said for the whole country and the world to hear that the states and peoples that did not vote for him cannot reasonably expect to be treated like the states and peoples that voted for him. I have not the slightest doubt that in all probability, many of our political leaders of the past and the present operated and still operate on the same basis as the President on this matter with regard to their marked predilection for punishing those who are against them and rewarding those are for them. But as far as I can tell, no other Nigerian Head of State has ever publicly stated this openly and with the apparent belief of Buhari that it is a declaration that is so logical, so unexceptionable that no thinking Nigerian can question or fault it. To a slightly lesser degree, the same thing is true of the declared intention to reward those who have stayed loyally over the years with the President through thick and thin: all our political leaders think and act on the basis of this idea, but none but Muhammadu Buhari has ever publically declared it as an underlying idea, a cornerstone of his actions and utterances, at least in this inaugurating period of his presidency.

    It is perhaps necessary at this point in the discussion to throw some historical and cultural light on the specifically neo-feudal nature of these ideas and utterances of the President. First of all, in all areas of the world in the long era of its dominance both as a form of political rule and a way of life, feudalism was profoundly local in its ideological, social and demographic expressions. The feudal overlord often extended his area of effective political and military hegemony far beyond his locality but fundamentally, those closest to him, those on whom he depended came from his village or his so-called demesne. Secondly, in extending the sphere of his rule far beyond his locality, the feudal baron always based himself on the strict policy of severely punishing those who were against him while rewarding those who were for him. Thirdly and finally, as much as it was fundamentally based on locality, feudalism was also profoundly patriarchal and male-dominant: a woman, any woman, was important not in her own right but only insofar as she derived that importance from a male relative – a father, a husband, a brother, an uncle, a male cousin.

    Of the about 12 non-ministerial appointments that the President made before sending his cabinet list to the Senate at the end of September, only two are from the South and only one is a woman. This caused considerable consternation throughout the country, significantly even among Buhari’s own supporters. Now that the President has explained in the interview broadcast on the BBC Hausa Service last week that those appointees were only incidentally Northern and that his real motive was to reward those who had loyally stayed with him over the years and decades, it would seem that the matter has been laid to rest.

    But this is not the case. For where in this piece I have placed my emphasis on the President’s neo-feudal reliance on locality, I am absolutely certain that others will continue to place their emphases on the Northerness of those appointees. This is not wrong, not misguided but it misses the fundamental neo-feudalism of the President’s presuppositions. To give a telling illustration of what I am arguing here, dear reader, please reflect carefully on the following barely noticed or talked about detail of the President’s non-ministerial appointees: only one is a woman, this being the Acting INEC Chairperson who is said to be a sister-in-law of the President. Unlike the PDP rabid dogs of war who have been shouting accusations of nepotism in the appointment of the Acting INEC Chairperson to the high heavens, I am willing to grant that this appointee is perhaps as deserving as any male (or for that matter Southern) appointee. However, the fact remains that Buhari’s ministerial and non-ministerial appointees are overwhelmingly male: out of around 56, only six are female. As far as gender bias against women in the appointment of public officeholders in our country goes, this is one of the worst in our recent history.

    Mallam Shehu, it is banal and unremarkable to say that both in our country and in the world at large, we are no longer in the feudal age. But feudalism did once exist and rather strongly in some parts of our country, principally in the North but also in some parts of the Southwest. For this reason, remnants of feudal modes of thought and behavior survive among many of our political rulers and leaders. As someone who is not a member of the APC or any of our ruling class parties but passionately hopes that we shall soon put the aimless and wasted years of the reign of the PDP behind us, I was deeply disturbed, even offended and alarmed by President Buhari’s declaration that the states and peoples that did not vote for him should not expect to be treated like those that voted for him. I do not wish to provide fodder for the mad war dogs and bad losers of the PDP to continue their nation-wrecking battles against the President. But the President must recognize that we are no longer in the feudal era; we are in a plural, multi-ethnic and constitutionalist era in which crude, patriarchal and neo-feudal ideas about which groups or communities deserve reward or punitive action can be made the benchmark for governance. The matter is made even more onerous by the fact that President Buhari maybe the most powerful embodiment of these neo-feudal ideas and behavior, he is not a lone voice or figure in the new ruling party, the APC. I had thought that I would conclude this series this week. But the necessity to locate the President among other neo-feudal elements within his party makes it necessary for me to extend the series by one more week. So, Insha Allah, we shall bring the series to a conclusion next week.

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • Why ministerial nominees are in batches –Garba Shehu

    Why ministerial nominees are in batches –Garba Shehu

    Mallam Garba Shehu,  the Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity) to President Muhammadu Buhari, in a chat with journalists spoke about how the President chose the ministerial nominees, the recent UN General Assembly, and other  national issues.

    During his Independence Day broadcast, the President appeared to have given himself a pass mark when critics are saying the economy is at a standstill. How do you explain such a position?

    Critics will always be there. Without opposition, democracy will not be complete. Therefore, we must consider opposition to be a necessary requirement for good governance. It will keep government on its toes and check excesses by any incumbent administration. But it is helpful if opposition is informed by facts. In a normal situation, perhaps, President Buhari doesn’t need to read the kind of speech that he read on the Independence Day.

    He is usually a very modest and quiet person. He is very self-effacing. He has been forced to come out and say these are achievements recorded. It is obviously necessitated by the ongoing and consistent attempts by the opposition to show the government in a negative light. I will give you one clear example. If you look at a string of opposition and attacks lately held onto by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) spokesman, Chief Olisa Metuh you will agree with the president that he needed to explain some of the things he has done.

    The PDP has  maintained that because the ministers have not been appointed, President Buhari was veering toward dictatorship. How can there be dictatorship in a country where there is an independent parliament? There is a parliament that has been in turmoil from its inauguration up to now. We have a President who has held back that he would not dabble into what they are doing. This is a country that has a judiciary that is operating independent of the two other arms of government.

    This is a country in which investigative agencies, such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Code of Conduct Bureau, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) are operating for the first time in the history of their existence in line with the laws that have established them without the President saying, ‘arrest Mr. A, release Mr. B.’ So, we have an opposition that needs to know what opposition itself is. I guess Alhaji Lai Mohammed made a lot of sense. He was very graceful when he offered to train the PDP leaders in the area of public communication in opposition. But they turned down his offer.

    They said they didn’t need it. But look at them, they are bungling it. They are not getting it right. Maybe it is time for them to really accept the offer  by Alhaji Mohammed made and see whether they can benefit from it because the country stands to benefit from an opposition that is competent, vibrant and able to keep the government of the day on its toes.

    So, this administration has achieved so much. Perhaps, it has become necessary for these achievements to be trumpeted. Who doesn’t feel that the environment is more secure now than it was a few months ago?

    You can look at what has happened in the power or energy sector, especially the issue of fuel. Look at what has happened about the state of crude oil; the export of Nigerian crude oil has grown. With the kind of efforts that President Buhari has put in place and with the international support his fight against crude oil theft is getting, the markets overseas are turning their back against stolen oil from Nigeria. So, increasingly now, there is no incentive for someone to steal crude oil from here. Even if they can, the challenge is where do they take it for sale? So, the country is gaining in so many ways that could not have been spoken in the duration of that speech that the President gave.

    Apart from the issue of oil theft that has reduced, many manufacturing companies are complaining that their access to forex to import raw materials is a bit difficult. Has there been any effort to address this issue which has slowed down their production?

    Let me say this, what did the government do through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)? You know that our earnings from crude oil have come down. The oil that was sold for $140 per barrel is down to between $40 and $50 per barrel. This means two-third of our earnings has been lost. We cannot continue to live a lifestyle that is no longer sustainable. Otherwise the economy would have crashed in the hands of government. President Buhari would not allow that to happen under his watch. What did they do?

    They brought out a list of 150 items which they said we can do without. Government does not ban importation because we have our commitments and obligations under the World Trade Organization and all of that.

    Therefore, they just limit it to things like toothpick and rice which we have in abundance. Rice is produced in many of our states: Niger, Kebbi, Sokoto, Benue, Taraba, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Osun. There are so many states producing rice. Yet, you are dumping on this country cheap import that is killing local production.

    So, government is saying that if you must import those luxury items that are not necessary, go and source your foreign exchange through means other than the CBN. I was present when the President met the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN). He said to them: if you have disagreements with what the CBN has done, go and sit down together and agree on those things that are essential for manufacturing, creating jobs, setting up of industries, and training, including school fees and medical treatment, the CBN will then ease it for you.

    So, those people who are complaining don’t fall into the category of those who are in the productive sectors of the economy, who genuinely need foreign exchange for activities such as job creation, training, overseas education, medical services, spare parts acquisition, procurement of plants, equipment and all materials for the manufacture of basic goods. Under the new rules, all these things must be made easy for the Nigerian producer by the CBN.

    It is certainly hurting certain sectors of the economy that are driven by luxury  and unnecessary test which the economy cannot pay for, given that we have much reduced earnings than we have had in the past. You must then give credit to the President because at the time when oil price has crashed and the earnings have substantially come down, our foreign reserves are increasing because money is being used wisely.

    The President has submitted the ministerial list to the National Assembly. Why did it take Mr President a long period of time before presenting the list, considering the calibre of people believed to have been showcased on the list?

    People, who say that it takes President a long time because he has been looking for saints, are not being fair to him. Nothing like that comes from him.

    The President was concerned about the systematic decay; the rottenness in the system which he inherited and didn’t want to build upon. He said it would have been a grave mistake to have appointed ministers two, three days or one week after he had taken over. That would have meant a continuation of business as usual and unacceptable foundation that he found in place.

    The period of time was not used in looking for saints or people of high moral calibre. Probably, he is looking for such kind of people, but more importantly, he doesn’t want to operate a system in which revenues will be stolen and transferred to private pockets in either the crude oil sector or other revenue generating agencies that are allowed to keep accounts that they themselves don’t know how many existed. So, he is blocking all these leakages and trying to scrape the floor in order to make sure that if we are building something new, it must be something that would stand the taste of time. We don’t have to build on the rotten foundation that was found in place. So, it is a cleansing process that takes more of this time than any other thing.

    Why is the list coming in batches?

    What is wrong with the list coming in batches? Let me be honest with you, in your own memory of this democracy, was there any President who gave you all the names of prospective ministers on day one? Former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’adua and Goodluck Jonathan – they all presented ministerial nomination in batches. So, President Buhari is not doing something that has not been done before.

    The appointment of ministers itself is not just as easy as appointing a new head boy for a secondary school. There are so many interests to balance in addition to the kind of quality that would measure up to the high standard that he has set for the administration. There are equally other challenges.

    Consultations need to be made with governors, who are very strong in their own states. Who would feel good if people, for instance, who worked against the interest of the party in the state come to Abuja and get ministerial appointment? They will not be happy back in their states. Some chieftains of the party have labored at the center. But people from somewhere else are being considered and seen. Who will be happy? So, all these interests must be balanced. I believe that that the President has been doing quite a lot of that. He is quite conscious of the sensitivities of the entire population. He is doing as much as he can to give that sense of belonging to every part of the country.

    There is this perception that the permanent secretaries would be more powerful even when ministers are appointed. Are we expecting that situation?

    In this country, we have always had a public service system. That is the backbone of administrations. This is a system that provides for continuity even when political leadership suffers a deficit or there is a break in that kind of leadership. It happened in the first republic when they carried the burden of the country and ensured that the young military officers, who took over, were well guided.

    The country was back on the path of sanity. It doesn’t really help this country if this system is destroyed as we can now see greedy political elites that ran the system on the basis of self-interest rather than the interest of the nation. It is not President Buhari’s idea that he will create super permanent secretaries all over again.

    But the system should be made to work. That is the reason why accountability broke down in the entire system. Looking at every ministry and their accounting methods, you don’t need external people to come and say the EFCC should come and tell ministry of labor or agriculture that there is wrongdoing. Internal mechanism has been built to stop wrongdoing. But the systems were not allowed to work.

    This is the reason why we have found ourselves where we are today. Government revenues are generated. But instead of going into the coffers of government, they end up in private pockets of people because they are in position of authority in the country. So, I think what we are seeing is a revival of the system to ensure that it works for the country. The ministers will come and become political heads of their own ministries. They will exercise full authority.

    Let me tell you, if you allow me speculate, I will say, perhaps, ministers under President Buhari will be the most powerful ministers this country has ever seen because he is not the one who will interfere in the day-to-day matters of government.

    Quite unlike what obtained in the past, President Buhari would not shortlist contractors for ministers. His wife would not say this land should be given to anybody. He will not get involved in all these things. He will not have contractors fronting for him.

    So, if the ministers follow due process, they will realize that Buhari is the leader that everyone would love to work with. But at the same time, they will also find that he has no tolerance for breaches of due process. If a minister comes in and starts looting money, President Buhari will know. You know that such minister will not last one day in office. Otherwise if they are doing the right thing, they will realize that he doesn’t stand in the way.

    Are we going to have something like the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings, where contracts are awarded as was the case in the past?

    I cannot tell you that now. Maybe when the cabinet is in place, the President will say this is how it would run. You know that this weekly meeting, which we had witnessed in this country, perhaps represents a feature of particular administration(s). President Barrack Obama had first meeting of his cabinet one year after he took office. If the president wants to direct any minister, he will do so and they will deal with it. So, wait for the cabinet to come and Buhari will set his own modus operandi. Will he do weekly cabinet meetings? I will not know this time. But change is happening all around. I won’t be surprised if there is a change in that regard.

    Could you shed more light on what he meant when he said that ministers are noise makers?

    That was a joke actually. You know Nigerians, like I keep saying, need to understand the kind of President that they have. President Buhari is a man with a lot of humor. There is no dull moment when you are around him. He likes to crack jokes, makes people laugh and relax. That is his style and you can’t change him. So, when he speaks like that, it evokes laughter all around and it eases tensions. He was also once a minister.

    He was a very serious minister who was responsible for petroleum. He was committed to doing the job. I remember when they said the then Head of State, General Obasanjo called him and said “there is a war college admission for you in the United States of America, but I like the job you are doing. Would you like to continue as minister?” He said “no, Mr. President, my professional career is more important for me” So, he stopped being the oil minister and went to US War College.

    So, like I said, there would be more of these things. Nigerians should begin to appreciate humor in public speaking by our own leaders. Elsewhere in America and other places, leaders are trained to imbibe humor. When he ran for presidency, Clinton hired humorists into his consultancy so that his speeches were laced with humor. President Bush himself, look at the way he made a joke of himself; that is President Buhari. Sometimes, he deprecates himself. He opens newspaper cartoons and looks at the caricature. He laughs at himself and says “look this newspaper, why did they draw my leg like this? Why did they do this to me? Am I the only thin person? So, Nigerians should get used to his sense of humor.

    Why is the President insisting on handling the portfolio of Petroleum minister? Does it mean there’s no other Nigerian is competent to handle that portfolio?

    I will speculate on two reasons. Besides the army in which he served and rose to the highest rank of a general and military head of state, the next sector which Buhari is knowledgeable about is the oil sector. Don’t forget that he built the country’s major refineries; Kaduna, Port Harcourt. He expanded Warri refinery and other major oil networks from the depots. This worked very well for the country.

    So, he is knowledgeable in that sector. This country should not be denied his competence. This is an area which is the most important revenue earner for the country. Can we afford to joke with it as had happened in the past when unserious people were in charge? They were lifting crude oil to the high sea.

    They changed shipping documents, went to different countries where they sold the crude and put the funds in the private accounts of some powerful Nigerians. His trademark is honesty. This is his biggest selling point. So, if Nigerians are assured that they have somebody in whose hands our money is saved, then that is a favor to the country. I see it as a sacrifice that he will be making to ensure that the sector runs well. For instance, when he initiated the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG) as petroleum minister, it would have realized its full trails by 1990. As we speak now, they are the sixth. That is the vision that he set for that sector. So, I believe he is driven by passion to head that sector.

    Wouldn’t it have been better to scout for someone else to handle the ministry, bearing in mind that the President would be overburdened by other state matters?

    Yes, but if a system works even at the level of minister, there is so much that can be done by way of delegation. If you are talking about the system, it is a self-revolving mechanism. If it doesn’t work, a minister can also find out that there would be so much that he would be doing and he can’t get anything done in the end.

    There would be a minister of state. I believe that the President is conscious of his responsibilities to the nation in all respects. He is the chief executive officer of the country. He will drive the country in line with his own vision.

    Are we expecting any particular targets for the ministers in the Buhari administration?

    I believe that they will be driven by targets. What are these targets? I don’t know. But I believe that the President will in due course determine the targets. But like he did with the insurgency war in the North-East, he didn’t just say go to work. He said this is what I want. Happily for the country, that vision is about being realized. We are almost there.

    One of the issues in public discourse is probes. We learnt that the CBN, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and other agencies of government would also face probe. What is the philosophy behind these probes without prosecutions?

    Let me say that this is not a government of probes. To use the right word, what the president has ordered in these revenue generating agencies is audit so that their systems will be audited in order to see whether they are checking fraud leakages. This is to ensure that money is not being lost. This is coming from experience that he has gained over a period of time. You know that in the briefings that the ministries and departments gave to him throughout the period he painstakingly listened to them, no government agency came to him with up-to-date audited account because auditing is not being done.

    It has been abandoned. Some ministries are back by up to four, five years in their own audit. So, what kind of system are we running? By the time they are bringing audited accounts to the National Assembly, they say they are four, five years old. How can you arrest wrongdoing? How can you fix it? The President wants a system in which due process lies at the heart of everything. Without a review of revenue expenditure and spending, you cannot know whether there is wrongdoing. So, it is audit that he has directed.

    To say that no prosecutions have been made, I think that we have to check the records again. As we speak now, there are ongoing trials of high profile political actors in the country either by the EFCC or the Code of Conduct Bureau – the kind of trials that we have not witnessed in a very long time. It is very clear that the president has no intention to undermine those processes but allow them to run their full course. If you are speaking with the oil sector in mind, especially with regards to stolen crude oil and funds that have been taken, I listened when he was addressing this issue on a question by a journalist.

    The processes involved require that we, the Nigerian government, establish prima facie evidence of wrongdoing. For instance, if ship ABC lifted crude at Warri terminal, and instead of taking it to London, it was diverted to maybe a Canadian country, there should be documents to indicate that after it was diverted the proceeds were taken to this account that belongs to a private Nigerian citizen or an international conglomerate and not the Nigerian government. This will require the cooperation of shipping companies, insurance companies and the cooperation of the banking systems in those countries; whether in China, the United States, UK or anywhere. It will also require the political backing of the leaders of these countries which we are beginning to now see. So, by the time these processes are completed, the President will now be certain that the proceeds of such practices would be repatriated to the country. That would be used as evidence for the prosecution of those people who have engaged in that illicit trade.

    Don’t you see an impossible scenario?

    Like he did say in that interview few days ago, he said that the prosecutions would begin very soon. He didn’t want to say more than that because he said disclosure would have effect of jeopardizing the progress that we are making in terms of those recoveries. So, we leave that to him. I believe that in due course, Nigerians will be satisfied that they have a government that will ensure that wrongdoing is checkmated. The major aspect of his speech at the United Nations was the advocacy he was making for the repatriation of stolen assets with the support of key players in the world.

    This implies that the President is already looking beyond the shores of this country. He is taking his crusade on anti-corruption war to the international community. As a matter of fact, it was thought initially that the Nigerian government would be tabling a UN resolution in spite of the fact that there are so many UN resolutions that exist which should assist. But he wanted something more direct that would compel countries that harbor illicit assets of countries such as Nigeria to release them so that the assets would be brought back home for the purpose of development.

    The Presidents addressed the UN General Assembly during his recent visit to the US. What would you consider as the major gains of that visit?

    You know that the President was privileged to have addressed world leaders two times in that short visit. One, you know that the Millennium Development Goals had come to an end by 2015. They are being replaced by a new set of goals: the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). So, he had a first opportunity to address world leaders where he stated his vision for the country. In spite of the fact that those goals were clearly articulated, President Buhari saw the need for an addition to those goals which he laid to the international community. They do not have peace as one of those goals.

    But coming from Nigeria which is engaging in a major war against extremism and other conflicts, he saw the need for the world to also include peace among the SDGs. He also had the chance to address the plenary of the General Assembly. As a President, who is loved by the entire world, this is the luck we have in Nigeria as a country because everyone wants to embrace him. If you see the long list of countries that have indicated interest to hold bilateral meetings with him, it was not humanly possible to take all the requests.

    So, he chose carefully those that would balance the interest of Nigeria and our overall goals. These meetings were so many that he met virtually every leader who mattered on the planet. It is very important for Nigeria. Some of us have been around in this country when we were classified as a pariah nation. Nobody wanted to be seen talking to a Nigerian leader. But we have moved away from that. It is important that this country has achieved this milestone.

    The President missed the meeting on the plight of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). He was also not among the world leaders that had this symbolic handshake with the Pope. What actually happened?

    Beginning with the Pope, President Buhari arrived on time for all the engagements that he was involved. On Friday, September 25, in which His holiness, the Pope addressed the UN, President Buhari was in the room and listened to the Pope. We don’t know where the story that he was late, he was led to a wrong entrance or missed handshake, come from. As far as the Nigerian delegation is concerned, that story is a fairy tale. The President honored this country and his obligation as a leader by being present at the time when the Pope made his address. But beyond that, President Buhari did something that past Nigerian leaders did not do.

    On the day he made his address, which was last Monday, he sat and listened to leaders of other countries who spoke before him, all of them. Even after he had delivered his speech, he was not in a hurry to leave as he was ready to listen to leaders of other countries as they spoke. That is a show of international statesmanship. On the issue of this meeting on Boko Haram, which a particular news medium has been harping opun, there is no evidence that the Nigerian government had been called to attend that meeting. We have challenged the news medium to produce evidence of such invitation. Who was it written to? Who was the recipient of that invitation? At what time was it sent?

    Where was the invitation? It was not on the schedule of the Nigerian mission at all because we did not receive such invitation to attend the meeting. If we had, the President may not have attended, but a delegation would have been sent. I am not trying to underestimate the significance of any interaction, be it on Boko Haram or anything. But the UN events are in two categories. They are United Nations high level events which are put on a calendar by the secretary general. This meeting that is causing so much controversy is not among those meetings that are listed on the calendar of the UN. It was a side meeting.

    There so many other side meetings that were called by civil society groups or people with clout who think that the United Nations should get together because it is an important event that they can also bring. Therefore, to say that we missed a high level event is not true. It was not a high level event, neither was it a UN official event. Did we receive an invitation? We have received confirmation. I can copy your Newspaper the list of all the invitations and engagements that the President received even before he left Nigeria for New York. That particular meeting was not listed. So, he could not have been absent at an event to which he had not been called. That is not to say that it didn’t matter.

    It was a good initiative that people would come around the New York and discuss Boko Haram. But that is exactly what the President has been doing with all his engagements in New York. He had a long list. Some countries gave offers to assist, having dealt with or are dealing with such groups like Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Al-Shabab in the Maghreb. They came and offered to share their experiences with President Buhari. So, he never failed to utilize the opportunities available to him, especially on Boko Haram which is his number one agenda.

    Is the President worried about the instability in the Senate?

    The President keeps saying that the structure of this democratic government rests on a tripod; the executive arm of government, the legislative arm and the judiciary. Given the constitution that we have, each arm is an independent unit that has powers of checks and balance over the others.

    None of the three is allowed to interfere with the internal happening of the other. Surprisingly, until recently, people were accusing the President of being aloof to the happenings in the National Assembly, asking why he was not intervening. I have attended meetings where even governors were saying none of us could afford to have a Speaker who didn’t come from his pocket in their states. But the President said I am different. In my own case, I believe in the independence of each of the three arms of government. I will not meddle in what others are doing.

    So, his attitude has remained like that. Therefore, he obviously wants a Senate he can work with and a House of Representatives that is in partnership with government. It is not all about personal interests.

    But it is about this country Nigeria that has given the mandate to all those in positions to help the country out of its present predicament. So, he has said from day one that he is willing to work with the National Assembly. Whosoever happens to be their leaders, that is their own choice.

  • Presidency: Leave Buhari out of Saraki’s trial

    Presidency: Leave Buhari out of Saraki’s trial

    The Presidency on Sunday declared that attempts to link the ongoing trial of the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki to the Presidency are unacceptable.

    It also said that those claiming that the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) were acting on external instigation were uninformed.

    A statement by Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President said that there is no place in law that the Bureau and the tribunal should take instructions from any quarters.

    As an independent institution equal to any superior court of record, he pointed out that the tribunal is set up by the constitution to determine the issue of default,false declaration or forgery in assets declaration.

    The statement reads: “This therefore is purely a judicial process and has nothing to do with the presidency.

    “If anyone has an axe to grind with what they are doing, they should do it in a judicial manner by challenging those actions in a proper court of law.
    “Let them hire a good team of lawyers to prove their innocence. Government has no desire to persecute anybody,” he added.

    He said that the President has vowed to respect the rule of law and is doing that by staying out of the matter.

    According to Shehu, the President has said times without number that the war against corruption has no sacred cows.

    “Even if the President wants to help, there is no way he can do anything. Is he going to ask the judge to stop the trial?

    “It is purely a judicial process, the type of which are routinely dealt with by the CCB and the CCT. There are many cases like this that are going on.

    “The President has sworn to an oath to protect the constitution and will not violate that oath,” he stated.

  • Buhari made no promise on 100 days, says Presidency

    Buhari made no promise on 100 days, says Presidency

    The Presidency on Tuesday denied reports that President Muhammadu Buhari promised to achieve specific things within his first 100 days in office.

    It also claimed that the document tagged ‘One Hundred Things Buhari Will Do in 100 Days’ and ‘My Covenant With Nigerians’ did not emanate from the authentic channel of the campaign’s media department.

    The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu made the clarification while responding to the criticisms that followed the denial that the President made such promises.

    He urged Nigerians to ignore the claims from certain quarters that the president specifically made promises of achievements within his 100 days in office.

    The Presidential aide said that he never authorized or signed any document in this regard in his capacity as the director, media and communications of the Buhari campaign organization.

    According to him, what the public should be talking about in respect to President Buhari’s 100 days in office are milestones reached within the period under review, rather than achievements.

    He said: “We prefer to talk about milestones instead of achievements. Whether the milestones represent achievements or not, that is left for the people to decide. Milestones have been achieved which is important for the country”.

    On what the president said during his lecture at Chatham House in London, he said, “The president never promised anything to anyone. It is on record in that lecture at Chatham House they asked him a question relating to expectations and what he specifically would do in relation to certain documents that were flying around committing him to this thing or that thing within 100 days.

    “In that lecture- the video is already now viral on the web- he (Buhari) said ‘it contained falsehood and I am not going to be engaged in deceit. I will go in there, I will see what is there and then get the intelligence – the knowledge of things that are going on- and I will fully commit myself to serving Nigeria’”.

    “My point is that as the director, media and communications of that campaign, I was responsible for internal and external communications and these so called documents that are been flown around didn’t have my signature.

    “I didn’t fund them and I didn’t authorize them. From what President Buhari himself had said at Chatham House, he had no iota or knowledge of those documents. So, people cannot hold him to account on something to which he did not commit himself, ” Shehu stated.

    Responding to the question regarding the claim that the APC had posted the documents on its website, he said, “APC had a campaign in which there were so many centres of public communication and unfortunately there were some among those centres that were more or less on the loose. Yes, it was possible that things were being done without the knowledge or the usage of the proper channel of communication.

  • Don’t brag about fake economic achievements -Presidency tells PDP

    Don’t brag about fake economic achievements -Presidency tells PDP

    The presidency at the weekend advised the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to stop playing down President Buhari’s achievements in his first 100 days in office.
    It said PDP should rather bury its head in shame for subjecting Nigeria to the worst economic plunder through corruption in the recent history.
    Reacting to the PDP statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, that the economy is going down under the APC administration, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, said that the economy of Nigeria was gasping for breath under the egregiously corrupt PDP administration.
    Under the administration, he said that the country was witnessing an acceleration of poverty which made Nigerians to unite for change in the last Presidential election.
    Shehu noted that the excruciating hardships experienced by Nigerians under the PDP misrule was unprecedented.
    The Presidential aide also pointed out that it was ridiculous for any sane government to artificially rebase the economy and claim to transform Nigeria into the largest economy in Africa as the PDP administration did.
    He explained that the defeated former ruling party was artificially manipulating statistics to create the illusion of impressive economic performance record.
    According to him, one falsehood built on another cannot stand, stressing that if the PDP’s claim of economic successes in terms of GDP, employment generation, poverty alleviation and others were genuine, Nigerians wouldn’t have voted the party out of power.
    Malam Garba wondered which contented electorate would have voted a performing party out of office.
    He noted that if the former ruling party was doing so well, the opposition parties would have found it difficult to defeat a popular ruling party.
    Malam Shehu said that the PDP assumed performance was nothing more than window dressing, and a detachment from reality.
    The Presidential spokesman said no economy can grow with corruption, an area in which he said the PDP administration demonstrated more competence.
    The presidency also said criticism for its own sake is not the hallmark of credible opposition.
    Nigerians, he said, no longer face exploitation at filling stations because the government is taking punitive measures against marketers that punish poor Nigerians.
    He noted that queues have disappeared at the filling stations, adding that the naira is also enjoying favourable exchange rate.
    Mallam Shehu said the Buhari administration has successfully blocked leakages and other avenues for corruption, practices which he said the previous PDP administration lacked the will or the desire to stop.
    As a result of the measures to block leakages, he said the Buhari administration has frustrated the efforts by corrupt elements to divert public funds to private pockets.
    He explained that once the formal trial for corruption begins formally, the PDP might no longer have the moral legs to stand on, let alone talk down on Nigerians with fake claims of economic miracles under its most incompetent and grossly purposeless and sleazy administration.

  • Understanding Buhari in 100 days – Garba Shehu

    Understanding Buhari in 100 days – Garba Shehu

    THE ENORMOUSLY popular talk show,Berekete on WazobiaFM radio, Abuja station told the incredible, yet true story of the hardworking and respected school teacher somewhere in Plateau state who hanged himself.

    He hadn’t been paid salary for seven straight months. He came home to find that no one had eaten and two of the children had medical prescriptions for which there was no money.

    He sneaked out without talking to anyone.

    After a long while, news came home that he had strangely been caught with a stolen goat.

    On his day in court, the teacher confessed to the offense. The reason he stole, he told the local judge, was that he hadn’t been paid for seven months and when he got home to see what he saw, he just couldn’t stand it.

    The judge allowed him to go home on bail on self-recognition given, as he said, the good impression the entire village had of the otherwise respected teacher.

    All were shocked to find his body dangling from tree the morning after. He couldn’t live with the shame.

    In the recommendations and notes the Ahmed Joda transition committee presented to him as President -EIect, Muhammadu Buhari was informed that a section of the Fedaral government as well as 27 states hadn’t paid salaries, in some case for up to a year.

    The Joda committee advised that this was a national emergency and should be treated as such.

    It is on account of this that one of theactivities- please note the choice of this word:activities, not achievements- of President Muahammadu Buhari in these past three months is the settlement of unpaid salaries. This is going on right now.

    Like the proverbial blinking of the eye, Saturday September 5th will mark the 100th day of the Buhari-led All Progressives Congress, APC government which took office on May 29th after the new party became the first in opposition to unseat an incumbent government in an election adjudged by everyone as free and fair.

    There are many out there who say that the performance of a president and his government in terms success or failure cannot be judged in 100 days and I agree with them.

    But history will be written anyway. In the coming week or two, a rash of commentaries and analyses to commemorate the event will be made.

    I myself don’t deny that 100 days is long enough to know and understand the man who is the head of a government.

    Buhari arrived power with strong support from young men and women and this country’s poor. The new government was not favored at election by the monied power-brokers although that did not stop the President from taking measures such as improving security that are good for business and investment.

    This government is business-friendly but not one that is for crony capitalism.

    The new government inherited enormous problems created by the tainted PDP administration, largely caused by the lack of governance,corruption and lawlessness. This was mostly evident in the last two years of the Jonathan Goodluck administration. As the President continues to point out,the drift is most evident in the oil sector.

    I believe that there is enough on the ground in those 100 days to understand President Buhari, his government and what it stands for.

    I will cite a few of these.

    Before I do that, I will make a little confession.
    In the course of electioneering, the presidential campaign had so many centers of public communication which, for whatever reason were on the loose.

    There is a certain document tagged “One Hundred Things Buhari Will Do in 100 Days” and the other, “My Covenant With Nigerians.” Both pamphlets bore the authorized party logo but as the Director of Media and Communications in that campaign, I did not fund or authorize any of those. I can equally bet my last Kobo that Candidate Buhari did not see or authorize those publications.

    As a consequence of these publications, expectations have been raised unreasonably, that as President, Muhammadu Buhari will wave his hand and all the problems that the country faces- insecurity, corruption, unemployment, poor infrastructure would go away.

    But that notwithstanding, President Buhari has given the job his best shot and the whole country is saying that we never had it so good. He has re-instituted the values of hard work and administrative efficiency. The President says times without number that this country needs to fix governance and that he won’t tolerate laziness.

    Some of the other activities I wish to enumerate also include the fact of his taking relations with the country’s immediate neighbors to new heights. By their open admissions, this country’s neighbors did not have someone they could talk to on the deteriorating security situation in the Lake Chad Basin area in Aso Rock.

    Buhari embarked on his foreign policy on Day Four of his administration.

    When he met Barack Obama, the U.S president told the Nigerian leader that he was getting it right and that it is only when Nigeria gets it right that Africa will get it right.

    The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon who came calling this week said that our president is “courageous, focused and firm.”

    Relations with the “G 7” group of industrialized countries have since been “reset” and the dividends of this have begun to flow inwards.

    In the area of economic management, Nigerians are already seeing things happen that they thought were not possible in so short a time.

    He didn’t put a Kobo to finance the power sector. Yet, reading his body language alone and knowing that there are things you cannot do and get away with under Buhari, electricity supply all over the countries has risen to unprecedented heights.

    Actually, some cities are on the verge of calling 24-hour, round the clock power supply. The country generates more power than can internally be taken by the deplorable distribution system we have on the ground, which points to the next challenge that the country faces.

    Framework for the management of the country’s finances has been put in place. The wobbly Naira is being stabilized and inflation is headed towards a single digit.President Buhari is keeping a close eye on the government treasury.

    Agriculture is getting its own shot in the arm.
    Rice importation has been curtailed and seven governors whose states are priming a massive local production of the commodity have had a strategy meeting with the President on the next steps that are coming. Americans say their intervention in our agriculture will come next year.

    Boko Haram, which had more or less been allowed to fester for about five years is about being ended but what is even more interesting is that intelligence coming from the fired-up armed forces who now work in synergy with each other is raising hope that the Chibok girls may, repeat may be found in good numbers in a geographic location of interest somewhere in the North-East.

    President Buhari is being praised at home and abroad for his ongoing fight against corruption. He said from the beginning that his government will not tolerate this vice.

    Borrowing the words of India Narendra Modi’s, he said himself that “I won’t steal and I’ll not allow others to do it.” President Buhari has walked his talk since he come to office.

    Himself and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo have not only given up half of their salary, they have cut a good number of funding lines to their official homes and offices.

    President Buhari also takes the environment seriously. He blames the lack of security in the Lake Chad region on the recession, almost drying up of the lake. He has undertaken to clean up the Ogoniland.

    In this country, appointments and removal from office are done usually in accordance with a spoils system.

    A new government sacks officials on the basis only that it did not appoint them, by the predecessor-adminstration.

    President Buhari has shown that his government is different. He wants to look at each case on its own merit and it is clear by now that he is not ready to surrender the country to burnt out politicians. Technocrats will have a big place in his administration.
    He has appointed no ministers yet, but the government is running smoothly.

    In this period of three months, government certainly deserves a pat on the back for improved power, reform in the energy sector, foreign relations fight against corruption and insurgency and the fact of Nigerians being at peace, not only among themselves but with their neighbors and the rest of the world.

    In think in summary, I would like to end this piece by saying that President Muhammadu Buhari will turn out to be a leader in the tradition of Lee Kuan-Yu and India’s current reform-minded Prime Minister Modi with strong and clear emphasis on detail and execution. He may however differ with them by not micro-managing things.

    GARBA SHEHU
    SSA MEDIA AND PUBLICITY TO THE PRESIDENT.

  • Presidency deny Buhari’s daughter’s alleged Twitter comments

    Presidency deny Buhari’s daughter’s alleged Twitter comments

    The Presidency on Sunday distanced itself from the Twitter comments allegedly posted by Zahra Buhari, one of the daughters of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    A statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said that the Tweets were from an account falsely linked to Zahra Buhari.

    According to Shehu, the Twitter account was abandoned long time ago by Zahra when it was compromised by hackers

    The statement reads: “The attention of the Presidency has been drawn to unauthorized and unexpected Tweets by an account falsely linked to Zahra Buhari, one of the daughters of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    “Following enquiries by a few foreign missions on the raging online controversy about unsavory comments against some foreign leaders purportedly made by her, we wish to state categorically that Zahra is indeed on Twitter but the offending handle @Zahra_Buhari has stopped being her own for a long time since it was compromised by hackers.

    “Tweets by this handle are therefore not her own and should be disregarded and considered as the work of hackers seeking to cause mischief between this country and other friendly states.

    “Zahra’s authentic handle is @ZmBuhari and any handle other than this on Twitter should be considered as fake and therefore fraudulent.

    “It is also pertinent to state at this point that neither the wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari nor the other children are presently on Twitter, Facebook or the various other platforms.

    “As they explore the possibilities on this new territory, we request the general public to ignore the many accounts on various platforms in their names that currently exist. Such accounts, beside the authentic one cited above in the name of Zahra are unauthorized and therefore fake,” It stated.

  • Buhari’s ramadan message

    Buhari’s ramadan message

    President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated Muslim faithfuls nationwide as they enter into the holy month of Ramadan.

    Buhari urged Muslims to use the period of Ramadan to promote love & peace as taught by the Holy Prophet Mohammed (SAW).

    The President called on Nigerians to pray for the return of peace, love and prosperity throughout the country as Muslims start the 2015 Ramadan fast.

    In a congratulatory message released on his behalf by the Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity), Garba Shehu, President Buhari implored Muslims to seek maximum benefits from the Ramadan period “by being helpful to all manner of people, learning and following the true message of the religion as taught by the Holy Prophet.”

    The President in his message directed an appeal to the perpetrators of violence and destruction in the name of Islam all over the world to desist from tarnishing the name of the religion.

    “As we make collective efforts to bring to a permanent end the menace of the Boko Haram in the Lake Chad basin countries, let me use this auspicious occasion to appeal to our misguided brothers to drop their arms, embrace peace and seek a better understanding of Islam during this Holy period and beyond,” Buhari said.

    The President prayed to Allah to bring peace and harmony to all parts of the country and the world at large.

    “I wish all our citizens a blessed Ramadan. Ramadan Kareem Mubarak,” the statement summed.

  • Ramadan: Buhari urges misguided brothers to embrace peace

    Ramadan: Buhari urges misguided brothers to embrace peace

    President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated Muslim faithfuls nationwide as they enter into the holy month of Ramadan.

    Buhari urged Muslims to use the period of Ramadan to promote love & peace as taught by the Holy Prophet Mohammed (SAW).

    The President called on Nigerians to pray for the return of peace, love and prosperity throughout the country as Muslims start the 2015 Ramadan fast.

    In a congratulatory message released on his behalf by the Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity), Garba Shehu, President Buhari implored Muslims to seek maximum benefits from the Ramadan period “by being helpful to all manner of people, learning and following the true message of the religion as taught by the Holy Prophet.”

    The President in his message directed an appeal to the perpetrators of violence and destruction in the name of Islam all over the world to desist from tarnishing the name of the religion.

    “As we make collective efforts to bring to a permanent end the menace of the Boko Haram in the Lake Chad basin countries, let me use this auspicious occasion to appeal to our misguided brothers to drop their arms, embrace peace and seek a better understanding of Islam during this Holy period and beyond,” Buhari said.

    The President prayed to Allah to bring peace and harmony to all parts of the country and the world at large.

    “I wish all our citizens a blessed Ramadan. Ramadan Kareem Mubarak,” the statement summed.

     

  • The police siege on my home, by Garba Shehu

    The police siege on my home, by Garba Shehu

    The family members and I were woken from sleep by the noises from a swarm of strangers and the clattering sounds as they cocked their guns. It was a scary situation.

    Looking from the window, I saw no fewer than 15 policemen bearing weapons, some in complete uniform and others not fully dressed. It was not in doubt that our Block S.A. 12, in the NNPC Quarters, Area 11, Garki was under a cordon.

    Two police cars blocked the incoming lane from the gate just by our block, and two others faced it blocking the exit way. A big white van with heavily tinted glasses was parked between blocks 12 and 14, which faced each other.

    The armed men did not climb up to my apartment and I did not, for my part open the door to, as it were to hand myself into their hands.

    This situation persisted for about an hour until two things happened: the twitter and the Facebook began to render accounts of the siege and the call to Muslim prayers came and passed without my family members leaving for the Mosque.

    At this point, the van and three of the police vehicles drove off. The fourth one moved to the pavement by the playground with about five policemen in it. It remained there until some moments before 7a.m when that one too, drove off.

    Since the end of the stand-off, I have been in communication with the Secret Service, (the DSS) and the Police at the highest levels. Both organisations denied knowledge of this operation at the beginning.

    The Police Inspector-General returned after making his investigation to say that policemen were there following an emergency call by a neighbour who came under robbery attack.

    The telephone number of the distressed neighbour was given to me and his address was given as being Block S.A. 13. The Police account would have been plausible and acceptable to me but for the fact that the point of action, meaning the position of the police cars, the van and the armed men were around and between my own block S.A. 12 and 14 and therefore clearly removed from block 13, which the police report indicated.

    The account of the heavily tinted van, that it brought policemen from NNPC to assist the police operation is neither here nor there because both the police and the oil company denied owning a van like that.

    For us at the APC presidential campaign, the duty of communication between our party and candidates on the one hand and the voting public on the other is one that is protected by the Constitution.

    If any armed group of enforcers whether within the police or outside of it as many are suspecting is behind this act of intimidation think they can break our spirit, they are mistaken. We are not going to give up.”