Thousands of Nigerians who would have continued to die in road accidents because of roads the PDP did not fix for 16 years cannot say Buhari has not made his impact felt considering the fact that over 500 federal roads are currently being fixed by FERMA and the Federal Ministry of Works all under Buhari. Yet they asked “na road we go chop?”
Buhari built new airports across the country and rehabilitated old ones, yet they asked “na Airport we go chop?”
Buhari started building Second Niger Bridge after PDP and GEJ commissioned 3D pictures of the bridge in 2014, yet they asked, “na Second Niger Bridge we go chop? Buhari hates Ndigbo.”
Buhari built and rehabilitated over 32 bridges across Nigeria yet they asked “na 32 bridges we go chop?”
Buhari completed Abuja rail line yet they asked “na Abuja rail line we go chop?”
Millions of Nigerians who are going to benefit from the dual carriage standard gauge rail lines scattered around the 6 geo-political zones of Nigeria and to be operated by General Electric’s Joint Venture Partner upon completion cannot say Buhari has not tried. Buhari is already connecting all our sea ports and airports to the rail line, yet they say “Buhari has achieved nothing.”
Buhari dredged the Warri Channel and ships have started berthing there for the 1st time in 40 years. Yet they claim that Buhari has achieved nothing. They asked “na dredging we go chop?”
The 3k MW Mambila Hydro Power project which was conceived 40 years ago has now received counterpart funding from the FG and it has been awarded to a Chinese construction firm for $5.7b. Most of the funds for the project will come from the China Exim Bank. In typical Exim Bank financing the recipient need not come up with more than 15% of equipment cost and then sometimes when there are sovereign guarantees, even the installation cost can be factored in. For a $5.7b project, Nigeria need not pay more than $855m of the total project cost. The remaining amount will come by way of a loan with very low interest rates, yet they asked “na Mambila Power Project we go chop?”
The PDP got $1 trillion dollars from crude oil sales in 16 years and shared it among themselves as spoils or perks of office. Buhari got $97b in 3.5 years and turned the whole of Nigeria into giant construction sites and the country into a nation which cares for its most vulnerable citizens, yet they asked “na transparency we go chop?”
The PDP looted Nigeria into recession but Buhari pulled us out of the pit of recession in less than 12 months due to smart implementation of brilliant economic policies. Yet they asked “na recovery from recession we go chop?”
The Joint Admission Board (JAMB) remitted less than N50m in 16 years under the PDP but in 2016 and 2017 it remitted a total of N8.7b. Yet they asked “na Jamb’s N8.7b we go chop?”
Despite earning an average of $100 per barrel of crude oil or $400b between 2010 and 2014, Nigeria failed to meet cash-call obligations of over $6b to its upstream oil and gas joint venture multinational oil partners thereby causing massive job losses in the oil industry. Even though Buhari earned just 15% of this amount in the first two years of his admin. the FG was able to put in place a financing structure which has cleared this back-log of $6b and ensured constant funding of Nigeria’s cash call to these multinationals thereby creating more job opportunities in the oil and gas industry. The country manager of ExxonMobil in Nigeria has been singing Buhari’s praises with regard to this. Yet they asked “na $6b cash call we go chop?”
The Nigeria Customs Service used to remit disgraceful amounts to the treasury. It remitted over 1.3 trillion naira in 2018. In 2017 it remitted close to N1.4 trillion to the treasury. Yet the asked “na transformed NCS we go chop?” They also asked what is the big deal, na N1.3 trillion we go chop?”
The Federal Inland Revenue Service now remits around N4 trillion naira per year to the treasury unlike before under GEJ when it used to remit around N2 trillion. In early Dec. of 2018, the Chairman of the FIRS, Mr. Fowler, stated that it has generated N5 trillion naira for the FG between Jan. 2018 and Nov. 30th 2018. They eventually generated a record N5.4 trillion by Dec. 31st, 2018, yet they asked “na N5.4 trillion naira we go chop?”
The implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) which was conceived by GEJ only started under Buhari and over 4 trillion which MDA officials used to share among themselves at the end of every year with the connivance of the banks were mopped up successfully by President Buhari and factored into the 2017 budget. According to the Minister of Finance, as of November 2018, the TSA had processed transactions totaling N13.4 trillion. Yet the asked “na N13.4 trillion we go chop?”
The implementation of the BVN by President Buhari eliminated 75k ghost workers from the civil service thereby saving Nigeria N200b per year which were paid into the bank accounts of some corrupt civil servants many of whom have been prosecuted and jailed. Yet they asked “na N200b per year we go chop?What is the big deal in cutting off 75k ghost workers from the FG payroll, kini big deal?”
Unlike before when fuel scarcity was a recurring decimal, now under Buhari this problem has been nipped in the bud. Yet they asked “na abundant supply of petrol we go chop?”
Buhari has recovered looted funds of over N1 trillion, looted under the PDP/GEJ’s 5 year administration and these recoveries were factored into 2017 and 2018 budgets of the FG, yet they asked “na N1 trillion and anti-corruption we go chop?”
Buhari has been able to purchase over a billion dollar worth of military hardware to fight terrorism. This is the first time such huge amounts of heavy weaponry is being sold to Nigeria in decades. Yet they asked “na military hardware of $1b we go chop?”
Kidnappings, smuggling, armed robbery and brazen embezzlement of public funds have reduced drastically under President Buhari, yet they asked “Baba has shut the tap, there is no money in the country, “na tough on crime we go chop? Businesses have collapsed. Country hard.” So, kidnapping, smuggling, armed robbery and brazen embezzlement of public funds are businesses abi?
Buhari took us from a one-product and oil dependent economy to a diversified economy. From spending billion of dollars on rice importation and from being the biggest rice importing nation in the world to becoming the biggest rice producer in Africa and the 6th largest in the world. It takes sound policy implementation to achieve this kind of feat. Yet they asked “na diversified economy we go chop? Na only rice we go chop?”
Buhari tarred the roads to OBJ’s Ota Farm, GEJ’s village in Otueke, David Mark’s village yet they asked “no be him job him dey do? Kini big deal?”
Buhari is also putting billions of naira in the pockets of Nigerians directly via the rice related anchor borrowers program which has created over 12 million jobs and over 4 million rice millionaire farmers. Yet they asked “na 12m jobs we go chop? 4m rice farmer millionaires alone out of 200m Nigerians, kini big deal?”
Buhari sacked and commenced the prosecution of his own SGF and the DG of the NIA, yet they asked “why did it take him so long?” Should Buhari have sacked them without investigating the allegations against them? Should Buhari have done the job of the EFCC for the EFCC?
Nigeria’s import bill for food items alone crashed by $26b, yet they asked na $26b we go chop? Buhari spoilt our import and dump business? Buhari don spoil market for us? Country hard o.”
Also, rice importation has crashed by 96% saving Nigeria, $5m per day and $1.8b per annum. Yet they complained that Buhari should have allowed them to dump expired imported rice in Nigeria.
Milk importation has crashed by 99% but they are bitter that Buhari is not encouraging them to dump foreign imported milk on Nigerian soil.
Cash is paid directly to the poor via the conditional cash transfer and tradermoni programs of the Buhari admin. Millions are benefiting from the conditional cash transfer of a non-refundable sum of N5k per person per month under Buhari. 10k per person is being paid also under the TraderMoni program and this amount can be scaled up to N100k if the beneficiaries pay back the loan. Because of these disbursements millions of petty traders, shoemakers, vulcanizers, market women now have petty cash that they can use to sustain their trade and can more easily send their kids to school. TraderMoni is targeted to reach N3m petty traders by the end of 2019. The World Bank recently committed $500m to the Social Investment Programs and $322m recently recovered Abacha Loot from the Swiss has been committed to it 100%. This means that the program will be liquid for at least the next 15 years and more funds are likely to be committed to it by development banks and development institutions. Yet they complain that it is vote buying and that the initial N10k is too small? They also say “na Tradermoni we go chop? Na conditional cash transfer we go chop?”
MarketMoni pays N350k to N500k to bigger market traders or SMEs. The Agriculture Bank, Development Bank, Bank of Industry, the Infrastructure Bank, and up-coming People’s Bank, some of which were recently set up are leveraging their joint capital for disbursements to SMEs who are supposed to be the engine room of countries. More capital will come into these banks from the World Bank and the AFDB.Yet they asked “na MarketMoni we go chop?”
Over 15m pupils are getting one meal a day with a drink and this has increased school enrollment and created thousands of jobs in agriculture, catering services and logistics. Farmers now sell 6m eggs per day to this program apart from rice, beans, yams and other crops from their farms. That means many farmers now have off-takers for their farm-produce. Yet they asked, “na School Feeding program we go chop? What is 15m among 200m Nigerians? What is the big deal if farmers now sell 6m eggs per day?”
Over 4,000 capital projects were included in the 2018 budget alone and Buhari is doing his best to disburse to contractors despite the fact that Saraki reduced the funds for these 4,000 projects by N347b. Premium Times has done a 2 part report confirming the fact that these projects are being implemented despite the desperate attempts of Saraki and his colleagues to sabotage them by starving them of funds. On Nov. 8th, 2018, the Senate cut an additional N122b from the budget estimates it had approved in July of 2018, for capital projects thereby bringing the entire cuts to N469b. Yet they asked “what has Buhari achieved?” They chose to ignore the fact the Bukola Saraki has been using his position as Senate President to sabotage the capital projects of the Buhari administration.
Buhari has so far spent over 2.7 trillion naira on roads, bridges, airports, primary health care etc. yet they keep saying “Buhari has achieved nothing.” When falsehood is repeated enough times, it can be mistaken for the truth.
500k previously unemployed graduates now have jobs under Buhari’s N-Power program. An additional 200k were added to the scheme before Dec. 31st, 2018, to bring the total number of NPOWER staffers to N700k.Yet they asked “na 700k “NPOWER” jobs we go chop?”
Pensioners who were forgotten are now getting paid including ex-staffers of the Nigerian Airways who 15 years after the Airline went belly up have started getting paid. N22.5b out of N45b has already been disbursed to them in 2018. Yet they asked “na pension money we go chop? All of us no be pensioners.”
Also, ex-service men including those who served under Biafra got paid the gratuity that the FG had been owing them since the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and their pension payments have been regular under Buhari. Yet, they claim that Buhari hates Igbos.
Thousands of artisans and graduates who are drawing down on loans of over N50b made available to them through the Bank of lndustry with only their University certificates and NYSC discharge certificates serving as collateral cannot say they don’t like Buhari. Yet they claim youths are not being empowered? “Na N50b we go chop?”
Millions of internally displaced people who are returning to their villages after Buhari recovered two-thirds of the territories of the Northeast of Nigeria from Boko Haram, after they had hoisted their flags there and had started collecting taxes from locals are grateful to Buhari. Yet they claim that Buhari has achieved nothing in the fight against terror.
The 20k Nigerians who Buhari has rescued from Boko Haram captivity and the 100 Chibok girls and 100 Dapchi rescued girls cannot say Buhari has not impacted their lives positively. Yet they claim “Buhari has failed to secure Nigerians.”
Buhari built the first Cancer Treatment Specialist Hospital in Nigeria at the LUTH, equipped with state of the art equipment, yet they asked “is that an achievement? Why not a heart treatment and a brain treatment specialist hospital?”
Under Buhari if you are 18 years old and above you can get a 25 year housing loan of N5m with zero equity contribution from you. For loans of N6m to N15m, equity contribution has been slashed to 10%. The FG has chosen 20 Primary Mortgage Institutions through which the funds from the Federal Mortgage Bank will be distributed. The approved Primary Mortgage Institutions are as follows:
1 ABBEY BUILDING SOCIETY LIMITED
2 ACCORD SAVINGS & LOANS LTD
3 AG HOMES SAVINGS & LOANS LIMITED
4 AKWA SAVINGS & LOANS LIMITED
5 ASO SAVING & LOANS PLC
6 BRENT MORTGAGE BANK
7 CENTAGE SAVINGS & LOANS LIMITED
8 CITY CODE SAVINGS & LOANS LIMITED
9 COOP SAVING & LOANS LIMITED
10 DELTA BUILDING SOCIETY LTD
11 FBN MORTGAGES LIMITED
12 FHA HOMES SAVINGS & LOANS LTD.
13 FIRST GENERATION HOMES (SAVINGS & LOANS) LIMITED
14 GATEWAY SAVINGS & LOANS LIMITED
15 GLOBAL TRUST SAVINGS & LOANS LTD.
16 HAGGAI SAVINGS AND LOANS LIMITED
17 HOMEBASE MORTGAGE LIMITED
18 IMPERIAL HOMES MORTGAGE BANK LIMITED
19 INFINITY TRUST MORTGAGE BANK PLC
20 JIGAWA SAVINGS & LOANS LIMITED
Unfortunately, they asked, “na zero % equity contribution and 10% equity contribution for 25 year loans of between N5m and N15m we go chop?”
What they are saying in essence is Buhari has achieved much but “shey na achievement we go chop?”