By Ishaya Ibrahim
Acting News Editor
Second Republic lawmaker and Russian trained medical doctor, Junaid Mohammed, says the action and policies of President Muhammadu Buhari are responsible for Nigeria’s current economic woes.
He doubts Buhari’s capacity to bring Nigeria out of economic recession.
“Let me say this straight away. The handling of the national economy by Buhari has been a compound disaster.
“It is a disgrace to this country and all its educated elite and political elite, and also a terrible disaster to the common people,” he told TheNiche in a telephone interview.
“Second, Buhari has had a reputation around him. One, integrity. Two, his concern for the common man.
“Now what is obvious today from what he has been able to do or not to do from May 29 (2015), up till today that I am talking to you has shown that whatever was said about his integrity has been false.
“His integrity has vanished.
“Number two. It is clear to Nigerians that Buhari has no concern for the common man. His concerns are one, his friends in the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank, and his relations and friends who apparently are determined to be wealthy during the period he is in power.
“That is the crux,” said Mohammed, a former staunch supporter of Buhari.
He faulted the moves by the government to sell some national assets.
“Wherever you see this stripping of national assets and selling them at what you call begging prices, it is normally a way of selling it to friends and cronies. And that is what is called crony capitalism.
“I want to assure you that every asset of consequence that is going to be sold, is going to be bought by friends, whether internally or externally of Buhari and certain leading people in his party.
“The real argument behind whether to strip and sell national assets or not, as far as I am concerned, there are ways countries have gone through temporary economic difficulties.
“Nigeria is not the first to have gone through recession. In fact, recession is part and parcel of capitalism for the 250 years it has been in existence.
“So if we want to run a capitalist economy, the idea that we cannot have recession is simply nonsense.
“If however we want to make sure we have a recession which is shallow, which also does not extend over a long period of time and therefore does not maximise the suffering of the common people, there are ways it can be done.
“But from the very beginning, Buhari has made up his mind that the only people who know how to govern and how to manage the economy are the people he has decided must know.
“If he has decided in his narrow minded economic illiteracy, then what he does is he would make those he likes … he will give them appointments even if that means leading the country into an economic disaster. And that is what he has done.”
When asked to provide evidence of Buhari’s lack of concern for the common man, Mohammed said: “I don’t know whether you are a special person but I regard myself as a common man.
“I know what it means to go to the market or to give my wife money to go and buy foodstuff. I know what foodstuff used to cost and I know what it has cost especially from May 29 last year.
“As far as I am concerned, it is what I see in the market and what I pay for petrol, for diesel to power my generator, for foodstuff and commodities that I pay for.
“These are the things which make me determine that this government which pursues these kind of policies which lead to this kind of disaster for all Nigerians except for less than 1 per cent, cannot claim to have any concern for the common man.
“Buhari said, ‘I am not going to do magic for you.’
“If you have been buying your own foodstuff, if you have been buying petrol, you know the difference in what petrol was costing when Buhari came to power and what it costs today.
“The same thing with diesel and the same thing with foodstuff. I am talking about garri, I am talking about rice, whether imported or grown here and sold in the market, semovita and all the basic foodstuff.
“At the minimum, they have doubled in terms of prices which the common man is supposed to pay.”
Mohammed also picked holes in Buhari’s agriculture policy.
“Sadly, I also know that Buhari made the development of agriculture the corner stone of his policies.
“And because he is an economic illiterate, he does not know that if you want to diversify a national economy from one sector of the economy to another, or from petroleum to agriculture and manufacturing, you have to invest in those sectors.
“He has not invested in agriculture. I have a little orchard behind my house. And averagely I buy two to four bags of fertilizer every year.
“Last year I paid N4,000 for a bag of fertilizer. This year I paid N11,000 for a bag of fertilizer. And the two fertilizers are adulterated.
“I took one of the bags to the Kano State government and showed it. So you can see that what I am telling you is not a joke.
“I am absolutely persuaded that Buhari cannot govern this country because he has too many negatives – (a) he is an economic illiterate (b) he does not read (c) he is a very selfish person (d) he is also what you call a nepotist. He believes in nepotism.
“To govern a country like Nigeria with 180 million people by bringing your own brothers and sisters and nephews, your in-laws into the government when they know nothing in the areas you are appointing them is nothing but recklessness and is a shameless sense of greed and hypocrisy.”
