Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, has refuted claims by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the bail out funds approved by President Buhari was from the savings of the immediate past administration of Goodluck Jonathan.
President Muhammadu Buhari
Mr Adesina said this when he appeared on a Channels TV discussion programme over the weekend.
“What happened was that the Nigeria LNG held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in May and declared profit and dividend. Tax accruable to the Federal Government was about $2.1 bn. The money did not hit the Federation Account until June 30,” he explained.
“Don’t mind the PDP that said the Jonathan government left the money. If the money got into the Federal Government coffers on June 30, how could they have left it, when the administration left office on May 29?”
The PDP had claimed that the money, $1.2 billion, approved by President Muhammadu Buhari was the money from the savings in the Excess Crude Revenue Account left behind by Jonathan’s government.
He also said the money given to the states is not bailout as reported in the media and described the PDP’s criticism as “victims of inordinate expectations”.
“A bailout is when money is given out as a grant to a beneficiary without any expectation that it would be paid back. The money that was given out actually belongs to the states,” Mr. Adesina explained.
Adesina further defended the perceive slowness of the administration and assured Nigerians on the promise of the government during the electioneering
“They had thought when President Buhari comes in, he would just wave a magic wand and every problem would disappear, and because that is not happening, they say he is slow. The President may seem slow, but there are certain problems that would never be tackled properly, unless you are sure-footed and contemplative in properly diagnosing it first.
“Indeed, there are problems one cannot rush into solutions. If one does, there would be a lot of body movements. People may even applaud, at the end of the day, not much would be achieved. We are all faced with a cardiac arrest patient’s situation. If one is too much in a hurry to get immediate solutions, one may even lose the person.”
“The kind of change that President Buhari seeks to bring, which will happen in the life of his administration, is one that would be enduring, which successive administrations can build upon. It is not magic. We trusted him and voted him to be our president, let us support him to exercise that mandate. Let’s trust him and his capacity to deliver, and he will get the job done,” Mr. Adesina said.
Recently, the Scandinavia chapter of the APC commended PresidentMuhammadu Buhari for the approval N400bn as bailout to resolve the ongoingcrisis of unpaid salaries across the country.
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