“I think the issue of the Chibok girls is really a great embarrassment to this country” - Buhari

Speaking at a security summit organized by his campaign team, the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential flag-bearer General Muhammadu Buhari lamented about the

failure of the administration to put the country’s refineries in shape, saying his agenda in office would be to tackle insecurity, corruption and the destroyed economy.

Noting the administration’s strategy against insurgency, he faulted the absence of a comprehensive welfare policy or plan for soldiers in the battlefield, saying it was irrational to send soldiers to battle on an empty stomach.

Buhari said: “I think the issue of the Chibok girls is really a great embarrassment to this country.

“Since independence, I do not think we have been reduced to such a position as a nation as the disappearance of 220 girls between the ages 14 and 18 for almost a year and government could not do anything about it and this is the same government that says it wants to remain in place.

“I have said that APC as a party has identified three fundamental problems in this country. You cannot repeat them so often because everybody talks about them. They are insecurity, the destruction of the economy and corruption.

“The state of insecurity, as we said when the election was extended by six weeks, is that if the government and the military could not tame Boko Haram for five years, what will they do in six weeks? But I think that some positive moves have been made, but we are still at it.

“The first thing they should have done is to make sure that you have a good plan on ground to take care of the welfare of the law enforcement agents.

“You cannot send someone on an operation for months, when his family is living in wants without medical care, no school and no good neighbourhood and you want him to serve the country.

“So, one gets disappointed now that soldiers on road block have started saying wetin you chop remain? as many of their colleagues were doing many years ago.”

Economy, naira devaluation, refineries

Buhari, who frowned at the fall of naira, stating that the managers of the economy were wrong in the devaluation of the currency.

He said there was international pressure on him as head of state then to devalue the naira and remove subsidy, but that he refused to succumb and instead worked to increase the capacity of the refineries.

He said: “Again, I think that the incompetence of the government in managing the economy, beside security, is what has led us to where we are.

“When we came into power in December 1983, we were approached by the world power at some stage to devalue the naira, remove petroleum subsidy and remove subsidy on flour, but we refused.

“The issue was that if we get plenty of naira, what are we going to do with it? We even stopped farming and the only thing we got money from them was oil and that was being paid in dollars.

“If you have excess of groundnut, cocoa, cotton or palm oil, you sell it in foreign exchange. If you devalue the currency, the naira will be affected and Nigerians will get their goods and services.

“I was told to remove subsidy on petroleum and because I had the honour of being in charge of petroleum for three and half years, I do not know in terms of Nigeria, who is subsidizing who.

“To the best of my knowledge then, it is Nigeria’s petrol and capital was used to develop the refineries up to the time I was there.

“We built the refineries from one of 50,000 bpd to four of 450,000 bpd, laid pipeline of over 3,000 kilometres, built more than 20 depots without borrowing a kobo for that development.”