Buhari can’t remember his phone number –Jonathan
by Ihuoma Chiedozie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr0_5VmeTjQ
President Goodluck Jonathan
President Goodluck Jonathan on
Friday during a rally in Enugu said that the All Progressives Congress
candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd), cannot remember his own mobile
phone number.
Jonathan, whose unscripted address was
mostly a response to previous statements made by Buhari, accused the APC
presidential candidate of deceiving Nigerians by promising to revive
the economy without explaining how he would achieve the feat.
The President wondered how Buhari would
develop the country’s economy, a feat he could not achieve while he was
in office as head of state between 1983 and 1985.
“Is it now that Buhari cannot even remember his own phone number that he can change the economy of the country.” Jonathan asked.
The Peoples Democratic Party presidential
candidate said that although he did not like to “go personal during
campaigns,” “sometimes circumstances demand that certain things must be
said.”
Jonathan said that Buhari belonged to the
medieval age, adding that he (the APC candidate) intended to run the
Federal Government as a medieval king.
He said, “We cannot run the government as
if we are in the medieval age; we cannot run a government where
somebody said he would throw people into jail.
“You are not a medieval king – a medieval
king can throw you into jail but we have to follow the rule of law
because we cannot go back to the old days.”
Jonathan, however, read the speech made
by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (rtd.) after overthrowing Buhari’s regime
through a military coup on August 27, 1985 to justify his claim that the
APC candidate does not keep his promises.
Babangida, in the portions of the address
read by Jonathan, justified Buhari’s overthrow by pointing out that the
latter did not live up to the promises he made to Nigerians when he
ousted a democratically elected civilian government headed by Alhaji
Shehu Shagari in a military coup.
Noting that Buhari “deceived Nigerians”
from 1983 to 1985, Jonathan quoted Babangida as saying, “The initial
objectives of Buhari’s intervention were betrayed as there was a general
deterioration of standard of living in the country.”
The PDP candidate also pointed out that
Babangida accused Buhari of being “too rigid in his attitude to national
issues” and “became alienated from the people” in the course of his
stay in power.
He, therefore, challenged Buhari to tell Nigerians how he intends to revive the economy.
Jonathan said, “They are telling young
Nigerians that they are going to change the economy but they have not
told us how they want to manage the economy more than us.
“If they say they want to change
agriculture, they should tell us the weak links in the agriculture value
chain and what they want to do about it.
“I said in Lagos that I want to work with young people, not to deceive people.
“I am not going to run the government based on my habits, I am going to run the government according to global best practices.”
Jonathan also insisted that he was committed to the campaign against corruption.
“There is no government that has fought
corruption more than we do,” he said, noting that some previous
administrations pretended to be fighting corruption while oppressing
their enemies.
He recalled that Buhari jailed some
prominent Igbo politicians while in office as head of state, including
former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme and former governor of old Anambra
State, Chief Jim Nwobodo.
Stressing that Buhari jailed politicians
on trumped up charges, Jonathan said, “You can no longer carry people
and put them in prison for 301 years.”
The President equally accused Buhari of having a wrong idea of corruption.
According to him, Buhari believes that every wealthy Nigerian is corrupt.
He said, “If a Nigerian businessman has a
private jet, then you are corrupt but if a South African has a private
jet then you commend him.
“If you have a good house, then you are
corrupt, if you have a good car then you are corrupt – that is his
definition of corruption.”
Jonathan accused his opponent of making spurious claims against him.
The President said, “They are saying that
government is corrupt but they are not telling us what they are going
to do to stop corruption. Let them go back to their consultants to coach
them, then I will listen to them.
“They should tell us how they are going to manage the economy better than we do.
“They are saying we stole foreign reserves, nobody can steal foreign reserves – spurious allegations.”
He also reiterated his claim that Buhari did not equip the military while he was the head of state.
Jonathan said that he had done more than his predecessors to shore up the country’s defence.
“For 30 years, we had only one frigate, now we have four additional frigates,” he said.
In the same vein, he pointed out that
Buhari did not find any woman worthy enough for appointment when he was
the military head of state.
The President asked Nigerians to assess
him and Buhari by looking at how they performed during their respective
periods in office.
He said, “They have deceived us before and they want to deceive us again.
“Go and find out whether these people are deceiving you or are telling you the truth.
“People are assessing me because I have run this country for some years – they have run this country for two years.
“They came with promises but immediately they came in, what they did was to jail Jim Nwobodo for 201 years.”
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