Having worked twice at the Nigerian Presidential villa and once at the British Parliament, if there is anything I have learnt, it is that it is impossible to over inform a leader. You can under inform him, but no matter how much information you give a leader, you cannot give him too much information.

In today’s world, strength and weakness are gauged differently than they were, say in 1984. In the millennial age in which we live in, information is power and lack of information is weakness.

My concern is that there are a lot of weaknesses in Nigeria’s seat of power because not enough information is being given to President Muhammadu Buhari.

I, like other Nigerians, have heard or read reports of ministers in President Buhari’s cabinet being afraid to challenge him or disagree with him. Perhaps unawares, the minister of state for petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, corroborated these reports in a recorded YouTube video now circulating where he revealed that the President ignores his ministers when they bring up issues that he does not want to discuss.

Having such anodyne personalities around you just means that you are living in a bubble, seeing things as you want them to be and not as they are.

On Friday May 20th, 2016, Dr. Yemi Kale, the Statistician General of the Federation and head of the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics revealed that Nigeria’s economy had not grown in the first quarter of the year but had rather shrunk by 0.36%, the worst contraction in 25 years!

Since the announcement was made, there has been various reactions with pundits pointing at this or the other as being the cause of this setback. But I am convinced beyond any reasonable doubts that this negative trend owes more to President Muhammadu Buhari’s utterances on our economy and polity than to any other single causative factor.

The bigger problem is that even though I suspect that his ministers know that what I have just said is true, they would rather pander to the President and like Dr. Chris Ngige, say that Nigerians are lucky to have President Buhari (obvious Ngige does not know the meaning of luck).

In the last eleven months, the President had traversed the globe and has spoken about Nigeria’s economy as if he was the chief undertaker of our polity rather than the chief marketer that he is meant to be.

Of what benefit is it to the President’s agenda or to Nigeria’s economic well being for him to go to foreign nations and instead of highlighting the positive things that are happening in Nigeria, he begins to regale his hosts with the most unsavory stories about Nigeria.

And some of the stories the President tells are just that-tales.

They are not factual. At best they are arguable. You go to India for a summit where other world leaders are competing with you for the attention of venture capitalists and foreign investors and while your counterparts are talking about how great their countries are, you tell the audience how everybody in your country is corrupt except you and oh, can they come and invest in your country?

Only a foolish investor would go and invest in a country whose President thinks his citizens are ‘criminals’ (as the President said to the Telegraph of UK in February) and whose officials are ‘fantastically corrupt’ (as the President said in agreement with British PM David Cameron when questioned by Sky News).

The President speaks on the Nigerian economy and polity without any filters and his comments are causing his chickens to roost with devastating consequences for all of us.

Never in the history of Nigeria has there been such a divestment of investment as we have seen in the past year.

Truworths has pulled out of Nigeria, Virgin Atlantic has closed up shop, Iberia is pulling out, RenCap is pulling funds from Nigeria, both Alquity Investment Management Ltd. and Duet Asset Management Ltd. are divesting their Nigeria holding. Zenith Bank laid off 1,200 staff, FCMB let go 700 employees, Ecobank sacked 50% of its top management staff. The President of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Tony Ejinkeonye revealed that in just two months 50,000 staff were laid off in Abuja alone.

The results are telling. A little over a year ago, Nigeria was projected by CNNMoney to be the third fastest growing economy in the world behind China and Qatar yet just two weeks ago the International Monetary Fund released its World Economic Outlook and Nigeria is not even among the top 15 fastest growing economies in Africa let alone the world!

And when you try to raise the alarm, the refrain from the government and its horde of unofficial spokesmen is that the downturn is caused by the fall in crude prices.

Yet this logic is flawed. The government’s own economic monitoring agency, the National Bureau of Statistics itself reported that the exponential growth Nigeria enjoyed especially from 2012 to its 2014 climax (when our economy overtook South Africa to be Africa’s largest economy) was spurred not by the oil sector, but “this growth was largely driven by improved activities in the telecommunications, building and construction, hotel and restaurant and business services” to quote the NBS.

Yes, oil accounts for something like 90-95 percent of our foreign exchange revenues but it only accounts for a mere 15% of our GDP.

The service sector and the commercial and real sector are the engine or used to be the engine of our economic growth. But these sectors are heavily capital and technology intensive and require cooperation with foreign investors and when you consistently bad mouth your economy and its regulators investor confidence tanks and the result is what we are seeing today.

I support President Buhari’s anti corruption war but it should not be a substitute for sound economic ideas or policies.

And the way the President has carried out his anti corruption crusade is in itself self sabotaging and feeds the narrative of those who say that Nigeria is far too complex and dynamic a country to be run by someone who should be quietly collecting his pension.

And President Buhari’s behavior is flowing down the pyramid. There is a contagious effect in the utterances of major figures in his administration. For instance, when Vice President Osinbajo tells the world that the Jonathan administration looted $15 Billion in security contracts, many people in the West who like to read such stories to justify their hidden opinion that the Black man cannot govern himself, will clap for him.

Coming from the nation’s own Vice President, the Western press will report the news as a fact. At that level, such a statement carries the weight of an admission.

But then ask yourself, what was the entire security budget for the five years that Jonathan was President of Nigeria?

In 2011, defense and security had a budget of ₦348 billion or just over $2 billion. In 2012 it skyrocketed to ₦921 billion or $5.7 billion. It grew to ₦1.055 trillion in 2013 or $6 billion. In 2014, ₦968 billion was budgeted for defence and security or $5.8 billion. The 2015 budget was passed in April and President Jonathan handed over to President Buhari a month later so I cannot see how the previous administration could have ‘chopped’ that money.

So of the $19 billion budgeted for defence and security while former President Jonathan was in office, how could $15 billion have been looted when more than half that amount went to paying salaries?

Did Vice President Osinbajo think this accusation through?

The President and his vice with their cabinet and their political appointees are not a court. They cannot convict anybody. As such when they speak this way, what it amounts to is propagandized activity.

In an anti corruption war one must separate activity from results. Results are convictions from a court after due and diligent prosecution. And when you look at it from that perspective, this administration has been delivering activity and not results.

For instance, then candidate Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressive Congress, had called the subsidy payments made by the Jonathan administration a fraud! They claimed that the amount was too high at ₦1.1 trillion in 2014. Well if fuel subsidy had been a fraud, the first thing that should have happened naturally when President Muhammadu Buhari took over was that the amount should have reduced, but it DID NOT reduce. As a matter of fact, Nigeria spent over $5 billion on fuel subsidy in 2015 and President Buhari was in power for most of that year!

The point I am making here is that the elections are over. President Buhari and his administration should stop tarnishing the image of Nigeria in the mistaken belief that they are rubbishing the person of former President Jonathan. The President should take in the big picture and realize that you need to be below somebody in order to pull him down.

One year has come and gone and has seemingly been wasted pointing fingers in blame instead of at solutions. The time for blame games have gone.

Only last month, President Buhari complained that the Sahara desert was advancing southward. He should also realize that that is not the only thing going south. The Nigerian economy is going south at perhaps a faster rate and blaming others for it will never stem the tide.

The President should focus on marketing his plans and policies when he travels abroad instead of de-marketing the plans and policies of former President Jonathan’s administration.

It has been said that if you want a conversation with a habitual complainer to end abruptly, just ask him how he intends to fix the problem. That is the question Nigerians want answered by President Buhari.

Under former President Jonathan, Nigeria’s economy exploded and became the largest economy in Africa and the 24th largest economy in the world. Let it not be said that under President Buhari that economy collapsed like a pack of clouds because the hand that should have steered the ship was too busy pointing an accusing finger.

Reno Omokri is the founder of the Mind of Christ Christian Center in California, author of Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God and Why Jesus Wept and the host of Transformation with Reno Omokri.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/05/truth-shall-make-president-buhari-free/

Nothing but the simple truth with facts.
Buhari Still thinks like he's still a Military Head.


Just like a father who talks bad about his daughter publicly will not see any suitor knocking his door.

From today I make a personal decision to go on my knees n pray for the president of Nigeria
I think he needs lot of prayers!

An aptly written piece!

Epic article with facts. Zombies will not like this. Buhari is disconnected with the realities of our time.

This write up is the simple truth, the great zombie will never accept the truth. ZOMBIE pls wise up.

Lalasticlala

I just wish Baba can appoint competent people on his cabinet. dasall

there r some competent peeps there the issue is PMB himself he is unfit.

DrLee:
I just wish Baba can appoint competent people on his cabinet. dasall

Reno Omokri you forgot that buhari has an ear infection, so how do u want him to listen to advice.

This is the truth, anyone who disputes this write up without facts as good as those cited here is either blind or just plain st.upid.
lalasticlala ...... fp pls.

*modified
it's been ages since I was last on FP, i'm overwhelmed with joy....lol

menstrualpad:
there r some competent peeps there the issue is PMB himself he is unfit.

most are just there as compensation for their effort and donations during his campaign

agreed but you can't give what you do not have @PMB....

DrLee:
most are just there as compensation for their effort and donations during his campaign

This man is still indirectly defending fraud, the likes of which has never been seen anywhere in the world.

Becoming a pastor will not protect Omokri when all is said and done. Omokri was well aware of the raping of Nigeria by his colleagues but he did not resign in protest.

Reno, even you may end up in jail or remain in permanent exile.

be intelligent for once...I know even you is capable of that!

nduchucks:
This goat is still indirectly defending fraud, the likes of which has never been seen anywhere in the world.

Becoming a pastor will not protect Omokri when all is said and done. Omokri was well aware of the raping of Nigeria by his colleagues but he did not resign in protest.

Reno, even you may end up in jail or remain in permanent exile.

I love dis

If it's PMB matter,u r wasting ur time.if u listen to some zombies u would b shocked beyond words.we r completely incapable of seeing things except through the sentimental prism of ethnoreligious divides.truthfully we r at crossroads.

long write uplong write uplong write up

This is Epic. Any zombie that has a contrary arguement should show up their heads wiv constructive rebuttals.

DrLee:
I just wish Baba can appoint competent people on his cabinet. dasall

....and also give them freehand to work. Ministers in this administration are just figureheads

menstrualpad:
be intelligent for once...I know even you is capable of that!

I think you meant to write ....I know even you are capable... dolo

Nice write up. We hope somebody will read this without prejudice

Dullard of daura displaying dullness for Africa

O God, I don't even know what to do again to show my disappointment of this govt.

Should I go on a lone protest since labour has failed. no, it will not work.

Ok, i will shut myself out. I'll off my radio, off television, off phones, off light and anything that keep me in connection with modern trends.

Let me withdraw to God and nature, gives me more time to meditate.

Looking for a monastry, monk mood activated, at least for now.

Wow! My reaction to this article is WOW! Reno said it all. What more can I say? Absolutely NOTHING

Excellent write up with facts! However, the propaganda cannot stop as it is part of Buhari /APC's manifesto

Sweet mouthing alone cannot attract investors. The current level of insecurity arising from the activities of NDA, IPOB and Boko Haram account for the reason why investors are holding back their resources. Reno just like every other public officers in the last administration were the ones that place us in this monumental level of corruption we experience in the last administration, yet they want us to believe that President Buhari should not come out clean on the level of corruption in the last administration. The numbers of articles written by this cronies and their agents cannot in any way protect them from the government wrath because when they have the opportunity for doing the right thing, they chose to mortgage our future by embezzling the state treasury. If PMB did not tell the world what they did to our economy, how the world leaders know? How can the world leaders help to repatriate the looted fund? What PMB is simply telling the world is that, initially their is high of corruption which the current administration is ready to tackle head on as can been seen today with large chunk of people who have benefited from the slush fund already returning them while others will return them when the chips are down. It doesn't matter how long is going to take, the most important thing is that we want sanity in the operation of the government and we want future government to behave responsible as what is obtainable in other clime. Let Omokeri and his likes continue to write until the investigations into their own activities catch up with them. If Reno is a good man as he preaches today, why don't him resign when his colleagues are involved in this act of deliberate criminality? No doubt PMB is slow, their is too much suffering in the land but this deliberate policies and program to remedy the ills of the previous government still remain the feasible solution to bring us the Nigeria that our forefathers dream of.
God bless You all.

......and of course, he would have us believe that the present woeful state of Nigeria's economy has nothing to do with manner in which previous 6 years of Jonathan's Administration looted and raped the Economy as if Jesus was coming back in 2016.

Buhari has his shortcomings, but with all the revelations we keep seeing everyday only a mad person won't know 95% of our economic situation was caused by the years of PDP's mismanagement of our economic resources. The last 6 years of Jonathan was just much more worst that even corrupt Obasanjo was alarmed by it's level of corruption.

We can blame Buhari for not being able to do something quickly enough about it, but not for being the cause.

This man should go and sit down; if you want to ditch out advice through an article to the public , at least let the article reflect your honesty, otherwise, better you just keep silent.

So what is the way forward?

double0seven:
......and of course, he would have us believe that the present woeful state of Nigeria's economy has nothing to do with manner in which previous 6 years of Jonathan's Administration looted and raped the Economy as if Jesus was coming back in 2016.

Buhari has his shortcomings, but with all the revelations we keep seeing everyday only a mad person won't know 95% of our economic situation was caused by the years of PDP's mismanagement of our economic resources. The last 6 years of Jonathan was just much more worst that even corrupt Obasanjo was alarmed by it's level of corruption.

I kind of agree with omokri on this, lalasticlala can put this on the homepage to balance perspectives and expand this discussion.