Media
Office of former President Goodluck Jonathan has accused the federal government
and the Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media, Mr Femi Adesina of
peddling falsehood over claims that Nigerians did not protest the hike in fuel
price by the Buhari government because they trusted the government.
In
his response to Adesina and the federal government, over the claims, Jonathan’s
Media Office said fear, not trust was why Nigerians did not protest en masse
against fuel price hike under Buhari.
“When
Femi Adesina says that it is because of trust that Nigerians did not rise up
against the Buhari administration when it increased the pump price of
petrol from N87 to N145, he betrays a deep ignorance and arrogance.
“First
of all, it was not Nigerians that rose up again the Jonathan administration when
that government increased the price of petrol on January 1, 2012. It was
actually members of All Progressive Congress who sponsored the protests,” said
the statement signed by Mr Reno Omokri on behalf of Jonathan Media Office.
The
statement said Nigerians had not so soon forgotten how Mr Nasir El-Rufai led
other chieftains of the opposition to Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota,
Lagos, where they attracted crowds by inviting top musicians to perform and by
giving out free food and drinks.
It
continued: “On December 15, 2015, the Nigerian Army, under President Muhammadu Buhari’s
command, killed 347 unarmed Shiite men, women, children and infants and buried
them in a mass grave as revealed by the panel of inquiry instituted by Kaduna
State government.
“The
excuse given by the military for this massacre was that the Shiites had blocked
a road during one of their procession and this allegedly affected a
trip by the chief of army staff. After killing his followers and destroying
their place of worship, Mr Ibrahim Zak Zaky, spiritual leader of the Nigerian
Shiite community, was illegally and unconstitutionally detained and has not
been seen or heard of in public since December 15, 2015.
“So
when the Buhari administration increased the pump price of petrol,
Nigerians wisely reasoned that if the Buhari administration can kill
347 unarmed Shiite men, women, children and infants for blocking a road, it
would be suicidal to give them an opportunity to do the same thing to them on a
wider scale,” said the statement from Jonathan Media Office.
Under
Buhari administration, it said human life had become so cheap that the
military and security services routinely kill innocent Nigerians be
it Shiites, peaceful demonstrators or IDPs at the Rann IDP Camp.
“To
say Nigerians trust an administration that publicly boasted that it
would not tell Nigerians how much of their own money the President spent in
treating himself in London when the State House Clinic cannot boast of ordinary
Panadol (by his own wife’s testimony) is to speak a lie. Nigerians can judge
the nature of the man whose number one campaign promise was that “no Nigerian
Public official should receive medical treatment overseas at public expense”.
For him lies are cheap even if they are expensive for the Nigerian public who
has to pay the price.
“Nor
have Nigerians forgotten the promise to end corruption when the $25 billion
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation scam is ringing in their ears along
with the denials by the Vice President that he never approved any
contracts. How can they trust a government that has still not released or
acted on the SGF’s grass cutter contract probe after six months?
“In
the five years that he governed Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan spent N16
trillion. The economy grew. The Naira was stable. We had the greatest expansion
of infrastructure since the Gowon years and inflation was in single figures.
In the two years that President Muhammadu Buhari has ruled Nigeria, he has
spent N15 trillion. We have had recession. Naira collapsed.
“Inflation
has gone back to double digits and the only infrastructure that he has started
and completed is the Daura helipad. So Femi should spare us his
propaganda and accept the truth that he is the mouthpiece of a murderous regime
sustained by propaganda and surviving on corruption,” the statement from
Jonathan Media Office said.
Source: Thisday
No comments: