President Muhammadu Buhari has described as a disgrace a situation whereby his administration inherited an empty treasury at a time when debts running into several hundreds of millions of dollars had piled up, with the federal and state governments unable to pay worker salaries.
He also expressed regret that the culture of using 100 days in office as a milestone was mounting pressure on his government at such a time as this, saying Nigeria as a country should have even been in a position where it could pay its workers their salaries.
The president made these observations when he met with members of the State House Press Corps in a familiarisation meeting to mark his first day in office at Aso Villa.
He told State House correspondents that he would need them to protect him from the Nigerian populace when they press him for dividends of good governance, in view of the economic morass the country was already enmeshed in.
Buhari also noted jokingly that he had come to thank the journalists in advance for both the lauding and lashing he was going to receive from them in office.
On the issue of non-payment of workers and the debt profile, he said, “I hope we are starting and this culture developed of 100 days is bringing so much pressure with the treasury virtually empty, with debts in millions of dollars, with state workers and even federal workers not paid their salaries. It is such a disgrace for Nigeria.
“I think Nigeria should be in a position to even pay its workers. This bad management that we find ourselves in we really need your help to protect us from people before they march on us.”
In lighter mood, the president also noted that his decision to bring an erudite person from the media like Mr. Femi Adesina, his special adviser on media and publicity, to head his media team was to ensure that he was consistently defended against the media.
He said, “It is not by accident that I got the best of you to be the special adviser, one of the 15 aides I had to get clearance from the Senate. It is one of the best presidents of the Guild (of Editors) that I can have as special advisers.
“I brought one of the best of you so that he can consistently defend me against you. Whether my job is a difficult one or easy is up to him, but I’m here to thank you in advance for what good and ill you are going to do to me.”
He further told the State House reporters rather jocularly that he hoped what happened between former President Goodluck Jonathan and one of their colleagues, Malam Ubale Musa, a journalists with German radio, Deutsche Welle, would not happen between him and them.
“I have to quickly come and see you and welcome you to this place. I hope what happened of recent between the former president and one of you will not happen between me and you,” Buhari said.
LEADERSHIP recalls that Malam Ubale was thrown out of Aso Villa in the twilight of the last administration for asking a question that embarrassed the president.
Among those who accompanied the president to the meeting were Adesina and his senior special assistant on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu
PMB’s First Day In Office At Aso Rock
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday resumed work for the first in his office at Aso Villa, Abuja, since his swearing-in as president on May 29.
The president who arrived in his office at about 10:20am had barely settled down to his official duties when his deputy, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, joined him.
Osinbajo walked from his office to the president’s wing of the Villa where he and his boss held a meeting with some of their principal aides.
The meeting was still in progress when the service chiefs arrived. At the time of filing this report, Buhari was still in a meeting with them and other security chiefs in the country.
The president and his deputy, Osinbajo, had been operating from outside the seat of power, using the Defence House to perform their official function, while Buhari lived in his personal residence at Aso Drive, Abuja.
Their continued stay at Defence House, a place officially meant for a president-elect, even after they were inaugurated, created a lot of anxiety among staff of the State House who were left with no choice but to shuttle between the Villa and the president’s temporary office located in Maitama District.
The development had raised speculation as to why the president and his deputy had refused to move to the Villa, with some persons suggesting that the place was undergoing “a spiritual cleansing”.
But the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, had refuted such claims and said what had kept Buhari and Osinbajo away was the renovation work going on in the place.
“As far as the president is concerned, the place (his official residence) is not ready yet. Workers are cleaning and refurbishing the place. Once the exercise is completed, the president will move in”, Garba had stated.
Buhari Orders Withdrawal Of Soldiers From Checkpoints
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday ordered the Nigerian Army to withdraw soldiers from military checkpoints in parts of the country that are relatively safe.
The president, who gave the directive at a meeting with the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Defence, the Chief of Defence Staff, service chiefs and heads of national security agencies in the country, urged the military to concentrate on ending the Boko Haram insurgency.
Presidential spokesman, Mr. Femi Adesina, noted in a statement that it was in keeping with the declared priorities of his government that the president made the meeting with defence and security chiefs the top item on his schedule on his first day at work in the Presidential Villa.
At the meeting, Buhari told the service chiefs that military check-points could be retained in areas outside the north-eastern states where the military considered them absolutely essential for the maintenance of national security.
He reaffirmed his administration’s absolute resolve to end the Boko Haram insurgency in the shortest possible time, even as he welcomed the progress report he was given on the implementation of his order that the Military Command and Control Centre be relocated to Maiduguri.
The president also expressed satisfaction at the progress made so far in the implementation of the decision of the Lake Chad Basin Commission to fast-track the deployment of the Multinational Joint Task Force based in Ndjamena.
On their part, the defence and security chiefs, who met with the president and his deputy for almost four hours, also briefed them on the refurbishment of existing military platforms and the acquisition of new weapons for the Armed Forces.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Isma’ila Aliyu, said the President had instructed the Chief of Defence Staff to get the Chief of Army Staff and Inspector General of Police to remove all the military men along the road across the country”.
Asked whether there was an alternative arrangement to contain the activities of the insurgents in the absence of the soldiers, Isama’ila said, “That is why the police are also there; that is where the police are coming in to take over the internal security.
“The Nigerian Armed Forces are very ready; we have briefed him. One most interesting thing about it is that we are going out much happier because he has shown to us that he is still a soldier; he has updated and enriched our strategic plans.
“I also want to assure Nigerians that with what we have come out with from this meeting, we are very enthusiastic that the issue of Boko Haram will soon be over. He has given us hope that we will see peace and security in the very near future”.
On why the inspector-general of police (IGP), the director-general of the DSS and that of the NIA were absent from the meeting, Isma’ila said the meeting not a national security meeting.
“This is a briefing meeting by the Ministry of Defence on the operationalization of the Multi National Joint Task Force and the relocation of the command control centre to the North East. So, it is something restricted to the Ministry of Defence,” he explained.
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