How President Buhari saved Nigeria from disaster, by Onu

• ‘His govt incapacitated by skewed appointments’

The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu said the election of President Muhammadu Buhari saved Nigeria from collapse and going the way of South American country, Venezuela.

In an interview with The Guardian in his office in Abuja yesterday, Onu said Nigeria, like Venezuela relied solely on one commodity, oil. And with the global crash in oil prices, the minister observed that the countries which depend solely on oil wealth ran into trouble.

But while the Venezuela economy, with the world’s biggest oil reserve has virtually collapsed with its citizens relying on neighbouring countries for food and vital supplies, he said Buhari was able to effectively steer the economy to stability. “Otherwise, what is happening in Venezuela would have been a child’s play compared to Nigeria.”

Reacting to insinuations that the All Progressives Congress (APC) may have aborted the hope of change it promised Nigerians, the minister noted that, “President Buhari has done well so far in implementing the manifesto of the party. He is working with the support of the party.”

According to him, the President promised to improve on security and that has been achieved. “Nigerians may have forgotten that Abuja was under attack and who knows what would have happened if the government did not come in with respect to security. Buhari also promised to fight corruption and he is doing that with vigour. We must appreciate the fact that corruption has gone so deep into our system. We had corruption in schools, offices and even on the roads. If you are fighting corruption, you don’t expect to see the result immediately,” he stated.

Meanwhile, the National Coordinator of Nigeria Advance Movement (NAM), Dr. Sylvanus Ikeotuonye yesterday said President Buhari’s administration is incapacitated by biased appointments.

Ikeotuonye, in a statement lamented that this situation would continue till 2019.According him: “The presidency under Muhammadu Buhari, which took off on May 29, 2015 with enormous goodwill from Nigerians, got incapacitated after months of skewed appointments by concentrating power in the hands of close associates and distant relations. This transformed the President from a man of integrity to an ethnic jingoist.

“For a government whose basis for seeking power is to sanitise the polity, equity, fairness and good conscience could have served as guiding principles, instead imperial megalomania and high handedness took over. Without respect for the ethnic nationalities that make up Nigeria, Mr. President incapacitated himself with the critical appointments he made.”