Since the establishment of the most populous black nation by the colonial master of falsehood, The British, the products that had remained constant in the Presidency have always been the combination of lies and deceit. And, as the nation transitioned from one republic to the next, as power changes hands, so does the falsehood in the Presidency seems to metamorphose in shapes and sizes.
Looking back, you would agree with me that with every regime in the government, the falsehood has a similar pattern but with different intonation. This article aims to prove that the present ruler’s (not a leader) utterances and promises are nothing short of emptiness. And this demonstrates, beyond a shadow of a doubt, how far the Federal Government will go to promote untruth as fact, in the hope that repetition will make it true.
I genuinely feel for Buhari, who has suffered greatly as a result of his six years in administration. It must be humiliating for a man who has run for office four times to be forced to selling his failures as great accomplishments. Nobody is required to run for public office, especially if they are clearly incapable of doing so.
The President, as we all know, lacks two critical abilities for leading a modern national economy. He does not grasp the fundamentals of economics and public finance. And, given his educational deficiencies, he may never be able to comprehend them. As a result, he completely relies on what his subordinates create for him to read; as long as it makes him look good on paper, that is it!
That explains why, on June 12, he could make a statement to the world community that would have more enlightened Presidents throughout the world shaking their heads in bewilderment. To demonstrate how erroneous Buhari’s claims were, I will start with the government’s own words. They are not always sincere and truthful.
The Data from the Federal Government examined.
For more than ten years, persons living on less than two dollars ($2) per day have been the global standard for poverty. This equates to N500 per day and N15,000 per month at the exchange rate of N250/US$. The official exchange rate is N500 at the time of writing. So, anyone in Nigeria who earns less than N1000 per day or N30,000 per month is poor. Compare those numbers to the claim that a household of five individuals will receive N10,000 each month. Each citizen is given N2,000 per month, which is less than a sixth of the global minimum.
Is it any wonder that following their encounter, former President Trump questioned his staff, “Is that the President of Nigeria?”
Buhari’s staff are deceiving him, and he is completely unaware of it
The new President announced a Social Investment Programme, or SIP, in his inaugural address to Nigerians on May 29, 2015, with the goal of lifting 5 million Nigerians out of poverty by giving them N5,000 per month.
This regime is clearly untrustworthy, as readers can see. N5,000 per person per month was lowered to N2,000 per month from 2015 and June 12, 2021. Was N5,000 enough to pull somebody out of poverty? The figures are shown below once more.
At N250/US$, N5000 will cost you only $20 a month, or less than $1 per day. At the current rate of N500/US$, you will receive $10 each month, or $0.3. Even a good Primary School student can see right through the falsehood that the Federal Government of Nigeria (comprising PhD holders, Professors, and SANs) is trying to foist on the public.
Surprisingly, this is not the first time the Buhari administration had been called to order as regard its false statements. I have seen that the more badly a government fails, the more it relies on lies to justify its existence. Deliberate deception is now the first line of defence for the government.
Poor households’ national registry
“We now have a National Register of poor and vulnerable households.” That was Buhari’s unequivocal statement. When he made that remark, I felt sad for him. No President of any country should be put in a position where he is forced to say things he does not believe.
Is a register available? “No,” is the answer. I know because the Vice President and his Senior Special Advisers, Mrs. Maryam Uwais (wife of ex-Chief Justice) and Dr. Laolu Akande, who were in charge of the SIP, were asked to provide it on multiple occasions but were unable to do so. It is something I have known for a long time. But, just in case you do not believe me, here is proof that the National Register of Poor People is a complete fabrication.
“The Federal Government on Wednesday, [June 16, 2021] said it was compiling a list of Nigerians lifted out of poverty.” News Report.
Umar Bindir, the new National Coordinator of the National Investment Programme (the name keeps changing; but what is in a name?), exposed President Buhari’s un-presidential falsehood four days after he declared, “We now have a National Register.” He went on to say more about it. “Every single individual who has benefited from the NSIP, whether a student in school or someone who was employed in one form or another (will be recorded) …. We will track them down.” Notice the phrase “will” – not “we have identified 10 million people who have been pulled out of poverty,” as Buhari claims.
Bindir, who was new to the job and had not yet been enrolled into the official lying syndicate, had a perfectly valid argument to make. “You do not just raise someone out of poverty because you pay him N30,000 monthly for six months or more,” he remarked. That is a fact that the others have kept from Buhari – Vice President Osinbajo, Akande, Mrs. Uwais, and others. They tricked the uncouth fellow into thinking he was able to raise others out of poverty with just N5,000 each month.
The entire globe is paying attention.
When the President of a significant country in a region speaks, the entire world pays attention. Nigeria is Africa’s most important country, notwithstanding its relative poverty. According to my diplomatic contacts, copies of the June 12 message would have been distributed to various divisions in every Nigerian mission. They would have read and studied the portion on poverty reduction as well as Buhari’s false assertions.
They would have attempted a conversion of his statistics to dollars, only to be greeted with the deception. For the reasons given, every Head of Government in the world would have been urged not to believe such assertion. The Nigerian President would have gone down in history as someone who should not be believed when he speaks. Buhari is not to blame. But who is going to tell him that his people are lying to him?
Recent developments in the fight against poverty.
“Buhari inaugurates committee to lift 100 million from poverty.”— News Report, June 23, 2021.
If the aforementioned evidence is not enough to persuade you that the President is befuddled, consider this. Buhari eventually establishes a committee to realize his hazy vision ten days after promising the world that he had pulled 10 million people out of poverty in six years.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was once again named Chairman of the fictitious committee. How on earth could the Osinbajo committee achieve in two years what took six years to elevate unknown 10 million out of poverty – that is 1.6 million per year? At the very least, he conceded that 100 million Nigerians are poor.
That terrible record would be credited to no preceding Head of State in Nigerian history. Osinbajo is a contributing factor to the situation. Even if he had a thousand years, he would never be able to solve it. It is quite a shame Nigerians elected this time waster and destiny crusher in the person of Buhari into office. And, to think that those that survived the past six years of his terrifying reign in office must be strong-willed; for your information, the dark clouds over Nigeria still looms until we hit the poll in 2023, with the hope that a new, resourceful, well-meaning leader would emerge to blow the clouds away so the sun could shine again on the land.
