Reacting to Buhari’s Independence Day broadcast, Afenifere the president has further exposed the disconnect between his government and Nigerians.
Afenifere said the “picture painted by Buhari of the Nigeria situation was at variance with what is on ground.”
In a statement by its spokesman, Jare Ajayi, the organization said: “The 61st Independence broadcast by President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, October 1, 2021, further showcases the dishonesty on the part of those governing the country and the disconnection between them and the people they govern.”
Ajayi also compared Buhari’s current speech with that of last year.
He said: “In the 16th paragraph of his 2020 Independence anniversary speech, the president conceded that the country’s major institutions – and by implication, the services they were supposed to render to the nation – were on the decline. In his words, “institutions such as civil service, police, the judiciary, the military all suffered from a general decline”.
According to Ajayi, “There is no indication on ground that this assessment given last year by the president has changed for the better. The services being rendered to the people of Nigeria by these institutions continue to be on the decline in terms of value delivery. The reason for this being lack of requisite resources and motivation.
“It is, therefore, unfair on the part of the president to accuse ‘critics’ of misdiagnosing “incremental progress as stagnation” as he did in his 2021 independence anniversary speech.”
Afenifere further said that the president’s claim that a lot has been achieved in the last six years “in infrastructure, social care, governance, Nigeria’s image and influence in Africa and the international community” is against the reality on the ground.
“There has never been a time in the annals of modern Nigeria that the country’s infrastructure was this decadent, social care near-absent and the image of the country was so battered. Indeed, the difference between now and in the days of the late Sani Abacha was that the head of state then was wearing Khaki while the present head of government wears civilian dress and there are democratic institutions like the legislature that were absent then. In terms of the country’s influence in Africa, how many countries in Africa now respect Nigeria going by the inhuman treatments Nigerians are subjected into in different parts of the world including Africa these days?”
(DailyPost)
