President Buhari prayingPresident Muhammadu Buhari should not blame Nigerians for his failure to provide the change he and his All Progressives Congress promised them before taking office in May last year, Nigerian activists said on Friday.
The activists said they were unhappy and even disappointed that the administration of President Buhari was tacitly blaming Nigerians for the suffering in the land when it knew things were bad and promised to right the wrongs of the past.
The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL, was reacting to the slogan of the national re-orientation campaign tagged, ‘Change Begins With Me’, launched in Abuja on Thursday by the President.
Mr. Buhari urged Nigerians in his speech at the launch not to ask “where is the change you promised us”, but rather, they should ask themselves how much have they changed.
According to him, “if you cannot see change in you, you cannot see change in others” and the country.
CACOl said it was disappointed that President Buhari was “blaming Nigerians who are only victims of the mode of governance perpetrated by the incurably corrupt political class that has held on tenaciously to political power in the country till date”.
“It’s disappointing to hear government’s attempt to transfer the blame of its daily unveiling failure on the victims of its apparent incompetence and seeming cluelessness in the face of a very challenging time, ” said Mr. Debo Adeniran, CACOL Executive Chairman.
He added: “One would have expected that by now, with the precarious state of country, the government should take full responsibility for the roles required of it by leading with example and boldness instead of blame-shifting and expressions of frustration.
“Yes, there is the dire need for Nigerians collectively to understand the background to the present situation of the country and the attendant sacrifices required of Nigeria and Nigerians to wade through the storm, but the present government’s excuses and false pretences belie its so-called change agenda, to put it bluntly.
“The task to rebuild our country is very daunting, no doubts about that, but the present regime knew this before it got to power. To continue to insult the collective intelligence of Nigerians with narratives that are apparently designed to disguise the lack of political will needed to abandon the ways of the old by the political class is totally provoking and unacceptable.
“Nigerians had expressed and in a very ‘revolutionary’ manner for that matter, on March 28, 2015 when they voted massively for President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressive Congress, APC, in the Presidential elections their will and readiness for real change! Need we remind the government that reality before it realizes that the ball is in its court to bring the change Nigerians voted for to bold relief? What fundamental change has the government demonstrated beyond mere sloganeering and governing on the basis of false pretences? Adeniran queried.”
“For crying out loud the Presidential Fleet of about 11 aircrafts that was being maintained by the former regime which the present regime promised to reduce is still intact in spite of the humongous costs it takes to maintain them, yet it is the poor that must pay to maintain the unnecessary fleet that has been argued to be the most expensive to maintain in Africa! And this is in a country where the political class keeps convoys of expensive vehicles just to move an individual around; own choice properties all over the country and outside, where the political class’ dogs enjoy better humanism than the poor majority who are the real humans.” He continued.