Where America, Europe lost over 700,000 each to COVID-19, Nigeria under Buhari ranked 4th best country in handling pandemic
By MICHAEL OGUEKE
In addition, millions of vulnerable Nigerians were receiving handsome monthly stipends in the biggest social intervention investment in the history of Nigeria which include, N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer, School Feeding programme etc.
America lost over 700,000 citizens to COVID-19 pandemic & many European countries lost even more. But World Health Organization confirmed in official documents that Nigeria was the 4th best country in the world in the handling of COVID-19 pandemic & had the least number of casualties due to President Buhari’s world class proactive, efficient & effective tackling of the pandemic unlike his American & European counterparts.
Even while under 2 separate economic recessions (the first which Buhari inherited from Jonathan & the second caused by world wide crash of crude oil prices);
Even under the weight & height of the Boko Haram insurgency & militancy in the Niger Delta which Buhari inherited from Jonathan that displaced millions of farmers from their homes & farms & cut oil production to the lowest in the history of Nigeria;
Even with a near empty treasury, foreign reserve & a debt of over 64 billion dollars Buhari inherited from PDP governments;
Even under months on end of COVID-19 pandemic that shut down the whole world & destroyed economies world-wide all during the Buhari regime —
Nigerians still had excess rice & other food staples inside our country to eat at reasonably affordable prices under Buhari;
Nigerians still had more than enough petrol, diesel, cooking gas, electricity, pharmaceutical drugs, etc at reasonable & affordable prices.
Nigerians could still afford transportation, school fees for their children, house rents, utilities bills, as well as consumer & general goods & services.
In the midst of all these global & domestic economic crisis occasioned by insecurity in the North East, crash in oil prices, cut in oil production by Niger Delta militants & COVID-19 pandemic which Buhari inherited, Buhari still managed to pay petrol, cooking gas, agriculture, education & electricity subsidies etc that made life easier for the masses of Nigerians.
In the midst of all these global economic crisis occasioned by crash in oil prices & COVID-19 etc, the value of the Naira under Buhari was still solid & the exchange rate was stable.
In the midst of all these global & domestic economic crisis occasioned by COVID-19 & crash in oil prices etc, factories in Nigeria were producing at full capacity, foreign investors were pouring into Nigeria with new industries & businesses. And millions of Nigerians were getting gainfully employed daily. By the time Buhari left in 2023, Nigeria’s industrial capacity has risen to put Nigeria’s GDP on top as the highest in Africa & worth about 500 billion dollars.
In the midst of all these global & domestic economic crisis occasioned by COVID-19 pandemic & crash in oil prices world wide etc, Buhari lifted embargo on federal employment imposed by PDP regimes of Obasanjo & Jonathan & millions of Nigerians were employed daily into our Ministries, government institutions, agencies, commissions & public service including the Military, Police, Civil Defence, Customs, Immigration, Road Safety, DSS & educational as well as health institutions etc.
At the same time, Buhari paid all the outstanding salaries, allowances owed federal workers by the PDP regimes, paid all the severance benefits owed sacked workers of government owned companies sold or liquidated by PDP governments, paid all salaries & entitlements of sacked Biafran police officers during the civil war all amounting to trillions of naira & gave hundreds of billions of Naira bailouts to state governments to pay their workers over 20 months of unpaid salaries & allowances.
In addition, millions of vulnerable Nigerians were receiving handsome monthly stipends in the biggest social intervention investment in the history of Nigeria which include, N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer, School Feeding programme etc.
In the midst of all these global & domestic economic crisis occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic & world wide crash in crude oil prices etc, Buhari was building massive infrastructures all over Nigeria including the magnificent 2nd Niger Bridge with it’s world class Exchange at Obosi, the world class Loko – Oweto Bridge connecting Benue & Nasarawa states, the engineering marvel that is Kono – Bonny Bridge in Rivers state, the Nigeria – Cameroon highway border bridge & countless other bridges all over Nigeria.
At the same time, all the federal highways were undergoing rehabilitation, all the federal airports in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Kano, Maiduguri etc received world class reconstruction including a new world class multi- billion naira runway at the Akanu Ibiam international airport, Enugu.
Two new seaports & a number of inland seaports in various states were built & old seaports received massive rehabilitations & world class new facilities.
In addition, massive multi-billion dollars investments were made in electricity with Siemens to give Nigeria 24 hours electricity & the massive multi-billion dollars AKK gas pipeline was started & progressing steadily to boost power generation across all the regions in Nigeria.
At the same time, Buhari’s government invested heavily in the Dangote refinery which helped its completion in addition to investing in several modular refineries all over Nigeria & in the rehabilitation of our moribund 4 national refineries.
Our educational & health institutions received massive rehabilitations also as well as investments in new facilities including the world class multi billion naira Excellence Centre facilities in ABU, Unilag, UNN etc.
Furthermore, for the first time in decades, the railways came alive once again in Nigeria. Old railway lines were rehabilitated & new modern standard gauge lines with world class modern train stations & coaches were built. A Transport University was also established to chart & champion the future of our railway system.
In the midst of all these global & domestic economic challenges resulting from world wide crash in crude oil prices, disruption of oil production in the Niger Delta by militants & the COVID-19 pandemic, Buhari invested billions of dollars – the highest & most massive investment in our security architecture the country has witnessed in all of its history.
Hundreds of thousands of new soldiers & police officers were recruited. The salaries of soldiers & policemen were increased twice. Improvement was made in their welfare & housing. New modern military formations & facilities were established. All the Defence Industries were rehabilitated. Ultra-modern new equipments, armoured vehicles, warships, fighter planes etc were purchased for the army, navy & airforce to combat insecurity in our land. And improved modern training both at home & abroad for the military & police were regular under Buhari.
In the midst of all these global & domestic economic challenges resulting from the world wide crash in crude oil prices, disruption of oil production in the Niger Delta by militants & the COVID-19 pandemic, Buhari still managed to engineer & fund massively the biggest agricultural revolution in Africa which not only secured Nigeria’s food security but also transformed Nigeria from a net importer of food to a top food producer & exporter in Africa.
Unfortunately, in less than a month Tinubu took over government, Nigerians can’t afford ordinary garri anymore let alone fuel or electricity.
And in just 2 years, the enviable growth & robust economy Buhari diligently built with the least resources & under the worst hostile environment available to any head of state in the history of Nigeria; yes, the progressive growth & increasing robust economy Buhari built with sheer vision, frugality & sincerity of purpose was dismantled & destroyed by Tinubu.
We are not in any recession in the past 2 years;
We are not in a war with any country;
There is no national epidemic or worldwide pandemic Tinubu is fighting;
There is no natural disaster of national proportion that has destroyed Nigeria;
Yet, Nigerians have been brutally pauperized & reduced to destitute in their own country in just 2 years Buhari left office by a wicked, clueless, incompetent, greedy, insanely corrupt, clannish & insensitive leader who has replaced governance with propaganda, ethnic chauvinism, bigotry & lies while ruling the country from France, London & holiday resorts around the world leaving the masses of Nigeria to go f.u.c.k themselves if they like.
Sadly, you see every waking day a herd of moronic, useless & shameless idle political jobbers, shameless opportunists, hungry data boys & girls together with a senseless army of tribal bigots on social media supporting, defending, & rationalizing this disaster tribal government of clowning thieves running Nigeria aground & looting the country out of the world map.
How very pathetic!
A tragic shame indeed!!
By Michael Ogueke #MO michaelogueke@gmail.com
All that is said here is strictly opinion of the writer and The DEFENDER is not responsible for same.
