Chuks Okocha
4 November 2009
Abuja — Former Head of State and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) presidential candidate in the 2003 and 2007 elections, Major-Gen.Muhammadu Buhari, has responded to claims by the Presidency that he lacked the moral high ground to criticise the administration of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.
Speaking through a statement by his campaign office, the Buhari Group, the former head of state said he could not sit by and allow Nigeria "dangerously slide into a failed state".
Buhari had at a forum last week by some opposition forces in the country upbraided the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government, saying under the watch of President Yar'Adua "the economy is sinking while democracy is slowly being killed".
The Presidency, reacting in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to President Yar'Adua on Political Matters, Senator Polycarp Nwite, dismissed Buhari as an alarmist.
"The continuous tirade against this government by the former military ruler, Gen. Buhari, is at best an affront on the culture of free speech and courageous Nigerian media, both of which he did everything to emasculate during his days as a military dictator," Nwite had said.
But taking issues with the Presidency, the Buhari Group in a statement last night signed by Mr. Osita Okechukwu, said: "General Buhari is not a noise maker, a rabble rouser nor given to trivialities.
"However, like most patriots, democrats and as an elder statesman, he cannot in the best African tradition sit by, fold arms and watch the she goat deliver under tight-rope, in this instance, our dear country Nigeria, dangerously sliding into a failed state, without marshaling forces to halt the slide."
He said: "Nigeria is at cross-roads, in a cliff-hanger and needs someone to not only fix it, but to halt the dangerous slide into failed state."
"Accordingly," he said, "what is patriotically needed today is not name calling, but sober reflection on why Nigeria is in the doldrums, notwithstanding the over $3 trillion of crude oil, liquefied natural gas and signature bonus proceeds, which accrued to the country between 1999 and 2008."
Okechukwu said: "It is on record that countries with scant resources have uninterrupted electricity supplies, refine their petroleum products, maintain efficient social services and have no serial cases of kidnapping. On the same note, as petroleum minister, Buhari constructed one and made sure that other refineries were operating in full capacity.
"As head of state, he negotiated our foreign debt down from $18 billion to $4 billion, refused to be compromised or corrupted and returned Nigeria to the path of a disciplined nation. His records in Petroleum Trust Fund speak for itself, as hospitals, roads and water projects executed by PTF stood the test of time."
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