Says Igbo benefitted from PTF project under Buhari
*Adds 2nd Niger Bridge captured in 2016 Budget


Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on
Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, Weekend, was guest
on Radio Continental, 102.3 FM. Here are excerpts from
the interview posted on his Facebook page.

What do you have to say about the Chibok schoolgirls?
Any negotiation in progress with Boko Haram?

We need to know a little bit of what happened behind
the scenes, between the last government and some
people masquerading as the leadership of Boko Haram
who wanted to get the Chibok girls released. They
actually turned it into a franchise, it became a
commercial thing and they got money, possibly in
millions of dollars, only for government to discover it
had been swindled. They kept saying they could get the
girls released , they could interface with Boko Haram
and they went smiling to the bank with all that money,
and nothing happened. So you should understand why
this government is being careful and the President has
said the genuineness of the leadership of Boko Haram
must be determined before any negotiation takes place.

The commendation actually goes to you and your media
team, for the media chat of President Buhari a few days
ago. Arising from that chat, it is reported that the
president said that he would not grant bail to former
NSA, Sambo Dasuki, and Nnamdi Kanu of Biafra. What
was in the mind of the President.

Our president is a straight shooter, whatever is in his
mind is what he tells you. He doesn’t believe in
manipulating or any form of rigmarole. What he said, was
that those people had grievous charges against them,
but then, he does not preclude bail, if there are no
pending charges against them. The situation now is
when bail is granted, before that bail is perfected, those
who are prosecuting them would have come with fresh
charges, which warrant their being held further. So, that
is the position, if there are no fresh charges, and there is
bail, there is no reason to hold them. But the truth is
that there are fresh charges leveled against them.
One of the APC men has been arrested by EFCC, and that
is Col Jafar Isa. What does that mean to you?
It means that in this corruption fight, no friend, no foe.
One of the quickest ways for President Buhari to lose
confidence in anybody is for that person to be tarred
with the brush of corruption, and if proven to be true,
you are on your own. All those who have said he is
selective, it is because they do not know him. We know
how much he detests corruption, and if any case is
proven against anybody, no matter how close the person
is, no matter how high ranking, that person will answer
for it.

[b] Does Mr President actually hate Igbos?

When the President ran for political office in 2003, who
was his running mate? Dr Chuba Okadigbo. And in 2007?
Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke. If he hated Igbos would he run
with them?
That shows you the respect and the regard he has for
Igbos, it was political reality that compelled him to come
south-west in 2011 and in 2015. Let me tell you a story.
There is a prominent Igbo family in this country, if I
mention their names you would know them, they are
very prominent in the society. They told me a story that
in the 70s, President Buhari was Minister of Petroleum,
the family wanted to join the petroleum industry and
then they made a bid. By then, there were not too many
Nigerians playing in that industry, and there was a lot of
scepticism from those around the then Lt Colonel
Buhari, who was Oil Minister.
They all said they don’t believe that the company as
represented by that family had the capacity to play in
the industry. This family told me that eventually, they
got to Lt Colonel Buhari, he listened to them, and asked
them; ‘Are you sure you have the capacity to do this?’
And they told him, ‘we can do it’. Then he removed his
military cap, banged it on the table and told them, ‘it is
done.’ And he instructed that they give them that
opportunity they wanted in the oil industry and today
that family is so big and they never forget that the then
Colonel Buhari as oil minister gave them the break they
needed. They told me that story about three weeks ago.
The next day, when I saw the president, I told him the
story. He laughed and then went on to tell me that when
people say he is against the Igbos, it baffles him, that
really he never knew that family, he just trusted the
assurance they gave him that they could play in the oil
industry, and today they are very big. He went further to
say that even under PTF, so many Nigerians, including
Igbos, benefitted a lot. So there is no way you can say
the man hates
The second Niger bridge is on the budget in 2016. Let’s
recall that the last President sometime in 2011 said that
he would complete that second Niger bridge before 2015.
He didn’t even go beyond the architectural drawing, but
in 2016 budget, that project is there. [/b]

On Forex policy of CBN, and Miss Christine Lagarde of
IMF talking down on Nigeria, despite corruption
allegation against her back home
If Miss Christine Lagarde has any corruption allegation,
it is not Nigeria that has brought it against her. Nigeria
has absolutely no role in that, we know what happened
to her predecessor in office, when he had issues over
sexual assault and all that. He was removed and he
answered for it in court. We leave that to them for them
to handle.
But in terms of talking down, there was no talking down
at all. I was at the meeting that she held with the
President, there was absolutely no talking down, she
spoke nicely and decently, I don’t agree that she spoke
down on anybody. In fact she ended up commending the
President, commending Nigeria, and she said she
wouldn’t expect to hear a knock on her door any day
from Nigerians asking for support because she has seen
that Nigeria has all it takes to pull through this rough
patch that she is passing through. I wouldn’t agree with
you that she talked down on anybody, she had the right
as MD of IMF to make prescription, Nigeria has the right
either to accept or reject.
When would the disability bill be signed into law?
This is the second time this is coming up on this show,
because I remember this question came up the last time
I was here and now that the Ministers are about two
months in office this is also something that I would
bring up.
Please lead us into the privacy of the President.How
does the President carry the enormous problem of this
nation? How true is the statement that the only thing he
is doing now is fighting corruption, neglecting issue of
economy, infrastructure and welfare of citizenry?
I would like to begin by saying that corruption is central
to every other thing in this country. If we want to talk
about the economy, education, health care, if all the
funds we would need to address these are squirreled
away, how then do we address them? Fighting
corruption is central to Nigeria’s development, therefore
the President has taken it as one of the key things that
his administration would do. But then, that doesn’t mean
that corruption is the only thing he is fighting, you need
to see the man’s schedule. He gets to the office in the
morning about 9 a.m, the first thing he has required us
to do is get the highlights of newspapers ready for him,
and so before he comes in, we have reviewed the
newspapers, we have done all the highlights and that is
the first thing he looks at. Then he begins to attend to
all the other things lined out for him. Across all the
sectors, ministers and directors of agencies are meeting
with him. He is a hard worker and at 73, I wonder how
he does it.
He does that till early evening, when he then retires
home to have a late lunch and a rest, and then in the
early evening he takes on people that have been
scheduled to meet him, if there are. One thing about this
President is that as much as possible, you don’t get to
his house and see a market. I was told that in the last
dispensation the place would still be a beehive of
activities as late as 2 a.m. But this man is methodical,
he plans his days and in the process he is able to
attend to much more. All the sectors are receiving
attention, I can assure you.
Funding the real sector is going to be very important in
getting diversification, in getting the economy back on
track. What about our developmental banks?
Talking of the real sector I know of BOI because, I
engage with them, the MD, the corporate affairs people,
we spoke two days ago and they have this programme
on television which I follow. I think BOI is doing well
and they have to be further empowered to do more.
Talking of Treasury Single Account (TSA) it is work in
progress, the rough edges are being smoothened. You
heard the President on National Media Chat saying that
about N1. 5 trillion has been harnessed into TSA. If you
don’t harness this money, how do you use it? Now that
that money is there, that is when we can talk of using it
for the real sector.
What is the plan of the government on state police?
I know that the APC had some promises in that respect,
don’t forget that APC promised to look at our federation,
and re-tune it, rework it, and part of the promises was
to look into state police.
The Nigerian Labour Congress is threatening to call out
Nigerians to embark on strike, the reason is based on
subsidy removal, which was alleged would bring untold
hardship to common Nigerians. Could you shed light on
this issue?
What hardship can be greater than what Nigerians
passed through in the past four- six weeks, queueing
endlessly to buy petrol and at the end of the day buying
it at N200, N250, N300 per litre; what hardship can be
greater than that? On the flip-side, what we are entering
into now is something that would make life a lot easier
for Nigerians, getting petrol, making sure that the supply
is sustained because with crude oil prices down, why
should Nigerians pay so high for refined petrol?
That is what government is doing. Now that crude prices
are down, this is the opportunity to arrive at appropriate
prices for refined petrol, that is why we now have N86
from NNPC, N86.5 from other marketers, and it has also
been said that this would be subject to review every
quarter. That means if oil prices inch up again, it would
affect how much we buy petrol. Labour, I am sure will
look at the matter again, and know that it would be
better that Nigerians get petrol at clearly affordable
prices, reacting to prices of crude oil, rather than a
subsidy regime that is fraught with so much corruption.
What are the foreign policy plans of this administration?
We just had a minister of foreign affairs, who is settling
down. The Ministers would just be two months in office
soon. Economic diplomacy is very important for us. We
know that we have engaged with the West, we have also
gone East; China for instance is doing a lot of with us.
Economic diplomacy is very important for Nigerians at
this time, because like the President says, no country in
the world can afford to stand alone again.
Even President Obama said it at the UN General
Assembly last September, no country in the world can
afford to stand alone again because the things that unite
the world now are economy and security. No country
can afford to do it alone, so Nigeria’s foreign policy
would also be conditioned by that.
Restructuring our federalism, what is the President
approach to it?
As I said earlier, restructuring the federation is part of
the promises the APC made when it campaigned, but
you would also agree that it is not a one man show; it is
not the President that would say, this is the way to do
it. No, It has to be a deliberate policy, starting from the
party, to the national assembly and then it becomes law
and all that. It is not the President that would direct it.
We want to bring five members of this parliament to Aso
Rock, I mean people who call in on this radio, and
present our needs to the president.
I assure you that it can be done. I will raise it with the
President
Most business people are having problems funding their
transactions. What is being done in terms of bridging
this?
It is not targeted at anybody. It is a policy from the
Central Bank. During the Presidential Media Chat, the
President promised that he would get the CBN governor
to look at the matter again. He said it openly and
publicly. But one thing about economic downturn and
revival is that it is not at the snap of a finger, economies
don’t collapse in a flash, it is a gradual thing. So you
can’t expect that it’s going to be by the snap of the
finger, and the economy is revived again. It has to be
rebuilt, the foundation has to be relaid, that is what this
government is doing, and with a government that is
serious and focussed like this one, we would get there.
All of us have to be patient to get there.



http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/01/buhari-dont-hate-ndigbo-femi-adesina/

Lalasticlala do you believe Adesina?

True talk

They are the ones that hate themselves

Whether he hates Igbos or not is irrelevant. Let him just respect the constitution that he is currently tearing apart with his tyranny. Igbos will outlive him whether he loves or hates Igbos.

missKiffy:
They are the ones that hate themselves

How can one hate himself?

Anticabal:
Whether he hates Igbos or not is irrelevant. Let him just respect the constitution that he is currently tearing apart with his tyranny. Igbos will outlive him whether he loves or hates Igbos.

#Word

We dont care, Buhari is an insignificant nincompoop.


Buhari is an ant and we have to strain our eyes to vene notice him.

"He removed his cap and slammed it on the table and said,"it is done".
At this point, I stopped reading.
like KOK in Nollywood films.

Montaque:
"He removed his cap and slammed it on the table and said,"it is done".
At this point, I stopped reading.
like KOK in Nollywood films.

Lol. Call it praise singing

We want 2nd Niger bridge

Functioning International airport in Enugu.

Fix the FG roads in the entire Eastern region

Seaport in PH or Ibaka Seaport in Akwa Ibom.


Fix all these and the Igbo's will feel welcomed in the Nigeria project.

jonathanOz:
How can one hate himself?

Don't say you didn't get that phrase.