The
Presidency on Friday dismissed reports that President Muhammadu Buhari asked
the World Bank to concentrate its Nigeria intervention efforts in the north.
Reacting
to the reports, the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr.
Femi Adesina, said the World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim’s statement, was
deliberately twisted by “those who specialize in such acts.”
Media
reports had quoted Mr. Kim as saying in Washington DC, on Thursday that Buhari
requested a concentration of the bank’s intervention efforts in the north.
Adesina
labeled such people “ignorant and mischievous” who are out to make it seem that
Buhari’s position was a calculated attempt to give the north an unfair
advantage over other parts of Nigeria.
He
said the President, since his inauguration, had been seeking international
support for the rebuilding of the North East which was ravaged by years of
insurgency.
He
said what Buhari did in calling attention to the plight of the people of the
region was what a leader should do.
He
said: “Those who specialize in a deliberate twisting of information have wailed
and raged endlessly on the news item credited to the World Bank Group
President, Jim Yong Kim, who disclosed in Washington DC, United States of
America, that President Muhammadu Buhari had requested a concentration of the
bank’s intervention efforts in the northern part of Nigeria, particularly in
the North East.
“The
ignorant and mischievous people, who twist everything for their vile purposes,
are making it seem that it was a calculated attempt to give the North an unfair
advantage over other parts of Nigeria.
“The
truth of the matter is that President Buhari, right from his first week in
office in June, 2015, had reached out to the G-7 in Germany that Nigeria needed
help to rebuild the North East, which had been terribly devastated by
insurgency. He said the country would prefer help in terms of rebuilding of
infrastructure, rather than cash donation, which may end up being misappropriated.
In concert with governors of the region, a comprehensive list of needed repairs
was sent to the G-7 leaders.
“Also,
during a trip to Washington in 2015, and many other engagements that followed,
President Buhari sought the help of the World Bank in rebuilding the
beleaguered North East, which was then being wrested from the stranglehold of
a pernicious insurgency. It was something always done in the open, and
which reflected the President’s concern for the region.
“Those
ululating over the disclosure by the President of the World Bank should be a
bit reflective, and consider the ravages that the North East has suffered since
2009, when the Boko Haram insurgency started. Schools, hospitals, homes, entire
villages, towns, cities, bridges, and other public utilities have been blown
up, laid waste, and lives terminated in excess of 20,000, while widows and
orphans littered the landscape. The humanitarian crisis was in monumental
proportions.
“President
Buhari simply did what a caring leader should do. He took the battle to the
insurgents, broke their backs, and then sought for help to rebuild, so that the
people could have their lives back. Should that then elicit the negative
commentary that has trailed the disclosure from the World Bank? Not at all,
except from insidious minds.
“President
Buhari has a pan-Nigerian mandate, and he will discharge his duties and
responsibilities in like manner. Any part of the country that requires special
attention would receive it, irrespective of primordial affinities, which
narrow-minded people have not been able to live above. This President will
always work in the best interest of all parts of the country at all times. Let
ethnic warriors sheathe their swords.”
Source: thenationonlineng
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