THE Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON) Osita Okechukwu has said that despite the negative reactions which trailed President Muhammadu Buhari’s independent anniversary speech, the bond between him and the masses remains unshaken.
Okechukwu noted, “The uncommon bond between President Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian masses was once more on the front burner yesterday. The bond was renewed in the early morning independent anniversary speech, where Mr President took time to explain how he expended N1.6 billion on salary and pension arrears of civil servants and retired ones – N200 billion 2015, N441 billion 2016 and N1 trillion 2017. The bond remains intact, no matter whatever anybody says” The VON boss in a statement made available to Tribune Online on Monday, recalled that Ohaneze Ndigbo took exception to Mr President’s swipe on Igbo leadership, asking the President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief John Nwodo, whether he replied the profound congratulatory letter President Muhammadu Buhari wrote to him immediately he was elected before he joined Nnamdi Kalu?
“The same Buhari wrote a letter on 7 November, 2014, to the then President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo calling for dialogue before the election. It was never replied”, Okechukwu also recalled.
“Gentlemen of the Press, let’s talk peace aspect of the speech. It will be recalled that on assumption of office on 29, May, 2015, Mr President was confronted with the crisis of hunger and dire situation in some states, controlled incidentally by both major political parties – All Progressives Congress (APC), and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and minor ones, owing salaries ranging from 6 months to 18 months and pension arrears of God knows how many years”
“One remembers vividly how opinion was divided in the presidency. One school of thought cautioned Mr President to leave the states and their burden, that Nigeria is a federation and each federating units should use their allocations and internal generates revenue to solve routine items like salary and pension arrears. Capping it up with the fact that it is better to utilise the money in physical infrastructure like construction of federal highways, which they reason is politically more correct. They even said that the totality of the civil servants Mr President will be addressing is less than 20% of the population of the country.
“Mr President sharply differed with the aforementioned school of thought saying that yes the civil servants at states and local government councils units may not be up to 20%; but what of the provision stores traders, electricians, carpenters, doctors and teachers being owed by the unpaid civil servants and pensioners over some months if not years?.
“He said collectively they may be over 50% of our population and brushed aside the issue of whether it was politically correct or not, to dole out such humongous amount, maintaining that his primary concern is the alleviation of poverty of uncountable families.
On the alleged lopsided appointments of the Buhari’s regime, Okechukwu said, “appointments are transient and temporary, and in no distance time Mr President will rectify it, one understands that some service chiefs are heading to retirement, lets wait and see.
On the alleged lopsided appointments of the Buhari’s regime, Okechukwu said, “appointments are transient and temporary, and in no distance time Mr President will rectify it, one understands that some service chiefs are heading to retirement, lets wait and see.
“I challenge Ohaneze to spare a minute and call a meeting to ask either Geofrey Onyeama, or Okechukwu Enelamah, Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Investment respectively, how best to attract foreign investment to our region? They are busy with Afenifere while the main faction of our South West brothers are coasting home with major foreign investment at Abuja. My appeal is that we join Mr President in revamping our decayed physical and social infrastructure”, he concluded.