- * Warns PDP To Stop Politicizing Insecurity
By Chinwendu Agoha (Governance Reporter)
The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has advised the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, to desist from counseling the Federal Government or speaking on transparency in Privatization and Commercialization, insisting that the former VP was not in a position to offer such advice to the Buhari administration or to anyone else.
According to the BMO, this is because of his poor record of performance as the Chairman of the National Council on Privatization (NCP) in the eight years of the administration he served as Vice President.
In a statement signed by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, BMO said it was not totally surprising that the former presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would resort to grandstanding when he heard of the government's privatization plans.
“We were so sure that Atiku Abubakar would try to position himself as an expert in privatization when media outlets reported the government’s intention to sell off some moribund non-oil assets, and indeed we were proved right when he issued that statement, after several weeks of silence.
“The first thing that caught our attention was Atiku’s call on the Buhari administration to ensure transparency in the privatization process. This is an individual that sold off what many people have described as the country’s prized assets to cronies, but which he claims ‘boosted economic growth to 6% GDP growth and also created jobs and amass the nation's wealth that enabled us to exit the debt trap’
“We wonder which privatization process the PDP chieftain was talking about when virtually all Nigerian old enough to witness the process knew that it only brought penury, job loss, and misery to millions of people, but provided cheap assets to friends and cronies of senior government officials who bought up national assets and stripped them bare.
“We don’t even have to remind Nigerians of what became of that former government-owned enterprises-from the Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSON) to Nigeria Airways and Daily Times-which were sold off for a pittance.
“So we dare the former vice president and his media handlers to show any shining examples of his expertise as a privatization guru before he can be taken seriously by Nigerians", the group added.
BMO also dismissed the former Vice President’s attempt to equate the planned privatization of the refineries to his own plan for the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as self-serving.
“Every Nigerian heard Atiku Abubakar on national TV saying emphatically that, if elected President, he would sell off NNPC, a position he also reiterated in an interview where he vowed to sell off 90% of the corporation and retain 10% as government share and later at a town hall meeting in Kaduna state, he likened it to what the Obasanjo administration did with NITEL.
“For the avoidance of doubt, NNPC has several subsidiaries out of which two are partly owned and fourteen associated companies including four refineries, so we wonder how government’s intention to privatize refineries can be the same as Atiku’s intention to do sell off NNPC to his friends.
“We consider it the height of deceit for the former Vice President to now try to make it sound like he was only speaking of the refineries back then when he indeed said he planned to do what his government did to NITEL.
“We want to remind Nigerians that the telecommunications outfit and its mobile arm once was sold to investors who failed to pay and yet the man who presided over the process back then is preaching transparency".
The group urged Nigerians to be wary of politicians like the former Vice President who delight in grandstanding and trust the President to always do what is right for the citizenry.
Stop Politicizing Insecurity:
Meanwhile, the BMO has said President Muhammadu Buhari is doing everything possible to stem the tide, and confront the country's security challenges headlong.
The group made the assertion while reacting to a recent charge by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the President no longer deserves the designation of the Commander-In-Chief, given his 'manifest failure to effectively lead from the front' against bandits and terrorists ravaging the country.
In a statement signed by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, BMO declared that President Buhari is fully in charge of the nation’s security and his administration, and called on the PDP to desist from playing its usual irresponsible opposition and stop politicizing security.
According to the group, PDP and others sponsoring the idea of the President’s incapability in handling and stemming the tide of insecurity, will not succeed as they are only perpetuating political mischief.
“The President is fully in charge. There cannot be room for the opposition party of the like of PDP who, in its 16 years of misrule, plunged the country into unending economic and security crisis, to cause disaffection and discord between the President and his aides in taking decisions on security matters", it said.
“That PDP could make it seem like the President has abdicated his responsibilities and no longer deserves to be addressed as Commander-In-Chief, but it is nothing but mischief taken too far.
“The President has never abdicated his duties on security matters to anyone as he is working hard to keep Nigeria and Nigerians out of the harm of terrorists.
"It is evident today that the government is using various social intervention support funds to support different categories of Nigerians as part of efforts in finding solutions to some of the root causes of security challenges in the country.
"Besides, the government is making giant strides in the provision of durable roads and railway infrastructure networks across the six geopolitical zones of the country, just as efforts are ongoing in boosting agricultural productions, making Nigeria the highest producer of rice in Africa.
"We, therefore, advise PDP to focus on the problems that are fast erasing it from the nation’s political map since it has never had any viable ideas to support the government's efforts in finding a lasting solution to the country's security challenges.
“Security matters are not for the government alone but the responsibility of all Nigerians of different ethnic and religious extraction, and we all must endeavor to use all power at our disposal to support government's ongoing war against all forms of criminality and terrorism in the country”, the statement added. NNL.
