President Buhari’s Federal Excuses Council
MAY 30, 2016

On January 22, 2016,

I tweeted a joke which went viral. I had said that at meetings of the Federal Executive Council, the minister of information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, would address members and say ‘turn to your neighbour and say, neighbour have you blamed Jonathan today’!

Yes, it was a joke, but like most good jokes, it had and still has a basis in reality!

The President and his ministers appear ill prepared for office and the evidence of this is their inability to take responsibility for the situation of things in Nigeria.

Was it not John Burroughs who said “a man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else”?

Those words should be embossed on a plaque and placed in a very prominent location at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa.

Seeing this admonition weekly may help members of the Federal Executive Council take responsibility and stop acting the victim.

For example, Nigerians were shocked when the minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said in December of 2015 that the Jonathan administration, which had left office six months ago, was responsible for the biting fuel scarcity the nation was and still is grappling with.

That statement by Mr. Lai Mohammed is a classic case of psychological projection (a psychological disorder characterized by a patient defending himself against his own unpleasant realities by denying the existence of the reality while at the same time blaming another for it).

And it gets worse. It is bad enough that this administration refuses to take responsibility for its own failures, it also wants to take credit for the success of others.

In a treatise bothering on megalomania, the publicity and communications team of President Buhari’s office claimed the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (AKA TSA) as the major achievement of the first 365 days of the Buhari administration.

But for a government that prides itself on anti-corruption, that statement, fraudulent as it is, is dishonest and ‘fantastically corrupt’!

First of all, the Treasury Single Account WAS NOT an idea of the Buhari administration and secondly the present government DID NOT initiate its implementation.

The TSA was conceived by the Jonathan administration and there was to be a staggered implementation because from an expert point of view, it was thought that if all Federal Government funds were suddenly pulled out of the commercial banking sector in one fell swoop, the shock on that sector would be so immense that it would trigger job losses and perhaps bank failures. It was thought that a gradual implementation would allow banks recover such that the baby would not be thrown out with the bath water.

Enter the Buhari administration which, in a hurry to claim credit, did not tread with caution, but in one fell swoop forcefully withdrew all Federal Government funds with the threat of sanctions to non compliant banks.

Rather than claim this as an achievement, this administration should chalk this one up as a big failure because in their rush to implement something that should have been gradual they have unleashed an unintended consequence on the banking sector such that Nigerian banks over the last year have shed something like 50,000 jobs.

As a matter of fact, the pro-Buhari Leadership Newspaper had as a major headline on September 12, 2015, ‘Banks Begin Massive Sack Over Treasury Single Account’!

Yet, even as the reality of their rushed action stares them in the face, a Presidential spokesman has the nerve to accuse former President Jonathan of lacking the will to implement the TSA!

And the excuses continue! In order to explain away its lackluster performance, various ministers and mouthpieces of the current administration have been touring media houses blaming the precarious state of the economy on the refusal of the Jonathan administration to save for the rainy day when crude oil prices were high.

In fact, President Buhari himself said “In the First Republic, more enduring infrastructure was built with meager resources. But in the past 16 years, we made a lot of money without planning for the rainy day.”

But even as this administration is set on revising history, it should not be forgotten so soon that the Jonathan administration met about $6.5 billion in the Excess Crude Account, ECA, and increased it to almost $9 billion by 2012. However, the Nigerian Governors Forum, using their influence at the House of Representatives, had gotten that August body to declare the Excess Crude Account illegal in 2012.

So excruciating was the pressure from the NGF and most notably from the then Rivers state Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, for the Jonathan administration to end the Excess Crude Account and the Sovereign Wealth Fund and instead share the funds in those accounts amongst the three tiers of government that they approached the Supreme Court, to challenge the legality of the Excess Crude Account and Jonathan’s decision to transfer $1 billion from that account to the Sovereign Wealth Fund.

Working in tandem with Amaechi and his supporters in the NGF, the then minority APC members of the House of Representatives approached a Federal High Court on the 7th of February, 2014, for a perpetual injunction restraining the Jonathan administration from operating the ECA and to pay all the proceeds of that account into the Federation Account for sharing amongst the three tiers of government.

So it is quite clear that President Buhari made the accusation he made on April 4th, 2016 without cross checking the facts or consulting history. If the President is not happy that more funds were not saved in the Excess Crude Account, he should call a Federal Executive Council meeting and ask members to get up and point accusing fingers at his ministers of transport and Power, Works and Housing.

In the last 365 days, the most consistent thing that has emanated from the Federal Executive Council is blames, excuses, finger pointing and a refusal to accept responsibility.

As at last count, the President and his ministers have excused their inability to stem the economic tide, fully defeat Boko Haram, provide jobs for Nigerians, maintain the availability of petrol, fix roads and improve power on the previous administration.

The funniest thing is that just as the media team of the Buhari led Presidency was reeling out its achievement in office on its first anniversary, two state governors were also doing the same thing.

The shocking thing however is that if you get the list of achievements released by Rivers state Governor, Nyesom Wike and Lagos state Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, and compare them with what has been released by the Presidency, the shocking verdict is that in terms of tangible achievements, like roads built and houses constructed and public infrastructure, both of these states have individually outperformed the Federal Government!

Do not take my word for it. Google their released anniversary documents and compare and contrast them by yourself. Ignore such silly and intangible achievements included in the Presidential list like ‘motivated the military’ and ‘no more road blocks and curfews’ (believe me, the President’s team listed these as his achievements!) and focus on tangibles like roads constructed or hospitals built etc and it becomes clear to even the most brainwashed Buhari supporter that both Lagos and Rivers individually beat the Federal Government hands down.

Both Wike and Ambode took over from predecessors that did not really support them and who left huge debts and a high monthly wage bill, yet despite these seeming obstacles, both of them have proven the adage true that you will either find a way or you will find an excuse.

And for those who are saying that it is not realistic to expect a new government to achieve much, let me remind them that in his first year in office, former President Jonathan did not deliver excuses or blames.

In fact in his first year, former President Jonathan revived the Nigerian Railway Corporation and for the first time in decades the Lagos to Kano rail services commenced in 2012 at a cost of ₦1500. He also built nine new universities including the only federal university in Katsina state where President Buhari hails from. Inflation reduced from 10.2% to 9.4% in his first year and remained at single digits throughout his tenure. Average Life Expectancy increased from 47 years to 52 years (according to the UN). In the same period he also launched the NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X satellites to expand Internet Bandwidth and provide early warning to prevent natural disasters as well established the Automotive Development Fund amongst others.

Many Nigerians must be wondering that if the Jonathan administration was as bad as the Buhari government says it is, then how come he had to leave office before they started experiencing double digit inflation, negative economic growth rate and ‘budget padding’?

In conclusion, the word ‘execute’ means to carry out or put into effect something. When you have a body of men and women who are not carrying out anything, it is hard to see how you can honestly call them a Federal Executive Council. What are they executing? Put it this way, are you an executive if all you do is execute excuses?

Reno Omokri is the founder of the Mind of Christ Christian Center in California, author of Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God and Why Jesus Wept and the host of Transformation with Reno Omokri

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/05/president-buharis-federal-excuses-council/

It is still better than the Federal Armed Robbers Council or Federal Looters Council of our Hero, The Mandela of Otuoke.

Mr Reno Omokiri, the fake pastor that wrote a document to indict others, the Drunken Master of Otuoke that you saved led us to where we are today. Even his Min of Finance said he lacks political will to save.

Bismarck Rewane said he has both Trust and Fiscal Deficits. he was simply a mistake.

ok

SuperS1Panther:
It is still better than the Federal Armed Robbers Council or Federal Looters Council of our Hero, The Mandela of Otuoke.

are you still staying with your parents?

BUHARIISCURSED:

are you still staying with your parents?

See who is asking JAMB question?

Your monicker says it all -- hating wailer.

Mr rhino,ur cow-bo hat wearing boss spent 6years in office,what exactly did he do...other than to leave the barn open for ruthless goats to coman eat the yams



sai baba

What i see here so far in the comments here a war between facts and fiction, malicious debate and reason.

A man makes statements giving fact with clear timelines, you don't disprove the facts, don't disprove the statements, just get out of here, that is all you know. Yet when the government of the day is constructively criticized, you will call it hatred.

Reno Omokri once said that in the last one year 1.5million Nigerians have lost their Jobs; I said he's a bloody liar. 1.5million?? Na so you like Jonathan reach, but then he asked not to be quoted that the statistics came from the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics.....now that shocked me.......government agencies are usually in favour of their employers (in the case of NBS) Federal government. Meaning it is also possible that the figure is underplayed, for NBS to say 1.5milkion Nigerians are sacked is no joke. For the record, Google NBS, they have a website, all the information is there for Nigerians to behold.

The President of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that 2 months into Buhari's tenure, 50,000 people lost their jobs in Abuja. Reno said Virgin Atlantic left Nigeria.......gerrahia mehn......ok, try and book a flight to Newyork from Lagos on Virgin Atlantic and see if anything happens. Airfrance is leaving, Qatar air is leaving, British airways are saying if FG policy is remain restrictive, they too will leave.....

Everybody simply says, 16years of PDP, Oil isn't selling like before, treasury is empty, Nigeria is broke.......but according to the same NBS.......For much of 2012 -2014, Oil accounts for only 15% of our GDP..............the real money is inTelecomms, construction, consumer products, service industries and technologies and that was how we were marked as the largest economy in Africa......take note we didn't mark ourselves.

The only challenge for now is that oil is the quickest source of Foreign exchange. It has continually been our steady source of income, but not the only possible income. Unfortunately as well, we are an import based economy, the biggest mistake from the start was adopting a restrictive foreign exchange policy and selling the President as the man behind the policy that sent everybody out...

Diamond bank today has allegedly sacked 400 but In-house staff swear by everything they own that it was a thousand that were sacked. Zenith have already done 1200, First bank 1000, FCMB shut down 40 branches across the country.....

All this tied to a poor FX policy which must be reviewed else Buhari no go fit hide again ooooooo

Since 1999 no govt has been this kind of empty.
APC is more clueless by far

Wendell Slim

God will need your hand on this nation.

Khd95:
Mr rhino,ur cow-bo hat wearing boss spent 6years in office,what exactly did he do...other than to leave the barn open for ruthless goats to coman eat the yams



sai baba

One of the characteristics of zombies.

I love buhari

Buhari a great dullard

Call him a wailer, call him a hater, this man just hit the nail on the head... well, after I read d reason he was overthrown in 1985, I realised that history is repeating itself and 2019 is still very far.

https://www.nairaland.com/3118620/bri-gen-dongoyaros-speech-overthrow

.

Time v will tell

only a bad work man quarrels with his tools

I would want the zombies to tackle Mr reno points one by one And show where he erred

if not let them forever hold their piss

"the previous administration is no longer in charge of the economy, it's now your problem"
oby ezekwesili to femi adesina

Hmm, This one is strong

Federal Excuses Council

They have rolled out more excuses than we can count.

NIGERIA !

A case of once beaten
Twice shy...


1983-1985 REPLAY
Enjoy the playback NIGERIA

It is well, let them keep blamng GEJ

Reno said some truth shaa. But PMB shall conquer in the long run. We need to kill corruption first and every other thing will fall in place.

Alhaji Lie the liar & his Federal Excuses Council.

Baba

This is the best lecture which the government of the day needs to work on in order to succeed. Criticism, when rightly approached helps one to change for the better.

Mr Reno Omokri, your day will come!

They say he still has "3 solid years" to cause more havoc perhaps. "Give him curry & thyme"

Mumuism ti take over Nigeria I swear.

wait o....motivating the military and releasing budget were GMB's major achievements??

wonderful..

Facts are really hard to dispute. APC really has to get their acts together because the implications of their bungling is scary. Even if it means secretly reaching out to NOI and her team.