Buhari’s Statement On Jonathan Administration Baseless, Reckless – Presidency

buhari-gejThe Presidency on Thursday urged former head of state, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), to conduct his electioneering campaign with greater regard for facts.

The Presidency was reacting to Buhari’s comments about the Goodluck Jonathan administration’s performance in a statement issued by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati.

Buhari had during his public declaration for the highest office in the land on Wednesday at the Eagle Square, Abuja, berated the Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government for impoverishing Nigerians and being the most corrupt.

But the Presidency in the statement, condemned what it described as “reckless, baseless and unsupportable” charges made against the administration by Buhari.

“We wholly reject the allegations made by Gen. Buhari against the Jonathan administration at yesterday’s declaration of his intention to contest the 2015 presidential elections as an irresponsible denigration of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s sincere efforts, over the past four years, to positively transform Nigeria.

“It reflects very badly on the character of the political opposition we now have in Nigeria, that a political leader of Gen. Buhari’s stature will deliberately make such false and uncharitable comments about the elected leadership of his country, merely for personal and sectional political gain”, the statement said.

It added: “The falsity of Buhari’s anti-Jonathan and anti-PDP claims will be obvious to knowledgeable Nigerians and friends of the country, but for the benefit of others we will like to affirm that there is absolutely no truth whatsoever in his charge that the last 16 years of PDP Government has witnessed a decline in all critical sectors of life in Nigeria or that the economy continues to deteriorate.

“Statistics and rankings from the National Bureau of Statistics, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other international economic agencies give the lie to Buhari’s claims on the state of the Nigerian economy”.

The Presidency claimed that available figures, statistics and ratings show that the Nigerian economy has consistently maintained an unprecedented growth rate of 6-7 per cent under President Jonathan’s watch.

“They also show that the Nigerian economy is now the leading economy in Africa and the 26th largest in the world with a gross domestic product of over $500 billion per annum”, it stated.

The statement also faulted the former head of state’s assertion on agriculture, insisting that Nigeria’s agricultural sector is thriving under the reforms being implemented by the current administration.