₦airaland Forum

FACT CHECK: True or false? Verifying claims in Buhari’s October 1 speech

Since the lifting of lines from President Barack Obama’s 2008 victory speech into President Muhammadu Buhari’s “change begin with me” speech, Nigerians have been more critical of their president’s speeches.

His Independence Day speech, his next major speech within the country, has been heavily scrutinised by friends and foes alike.

Issa Aremu, former vice president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said in his analysis that Buhari sounded “romantic about independence”.

But Reno Omokri, special adviser to former president Goodluck Jonathan on new media, believes Buhari’s speech is padded with lies.

TheCable has taken it upon itself to fact-check Buhari’s speech and Omokri’s claim, sieving out the wheat from the chaff.

CLAIM 1: BUHARI WRONG ON HOUSING IN 2014 AND 2015

“President Buhari lied when he said only ₦400 million was voted for housing in 2014. A total of ₦12,888,821,003 was allocated,” Omokri said.

What President Buhari really said: “We have initiated the National Housing Programme. In 2014 four hundred million naira was voted for Housing. In 2015, nothing. Our first budget this year is devoting thirty five point six billion naira.”
Okonjo-Iweala Budget 1

https://www.thecable.ng/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Okonjo-Iweala-Budget-1.jpg
Okonjo-Iweala presenting Jonathan’s 2014 budget

THE TRUTH: President Buhari said nothing was voted for housing in 2015, but according to the budget office, N7.3 billion was voted for the federal ministry of land, housing and urban development in 2015, with N1.6 billion dedicated to capital projects.

For 2014, Buhari said N400 million was voted for housing, Omokri said N12.89 billion was voted, but the budget office says N21.38 billion was voted for housing the federal ministry of land, housing and urban development, with N15.76 billion for capital projects.

CLAIM 2: BUHARI WRONG AGAIN, NIGERIA WAS NOT A “PARIAH” STATE UNDER JONATHAN

“President Buhari lied when he said Nigeria was ‘a pariah’ under GEJ. Then British Prime Minister, David Cameron and incumbent German Chancellor, Angela Merkel do not visit pariah countries. They and many others visited Nigeria under Jonathan,” Omokri wrote.

What President Buhari really said: “Abroad, Nigeria’s standing has changed beyond belief in the last 18 months. We are no longer a pariah state. Wherever I go, I have been received with un-accustomed hospitality.”
Cameron_Jonathan

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Cameron in Nigeria

First, a pariah state is an outcast state; a state isolated by the international community.

According to Wall Street Journal, examples of paraiah state are North Korea, Syria, Sudan, and Iran (until 2015). Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, had earlier said: “You do not run a country by being isolated and the personal presence of the president in many of these forums is very important because before now, we were almost a pariah state.”

In the same breath he said: “What I mean that Nigeria was a pariah state is that before now, the level of corruption was very high that nobody was ready to risk his investment in Nigeria.”

TRUTH: Pariah states are isolated by the international communities. So, with no international trade ban, and the visits of David Cameron, former British prime minister; Angela Merkel, German Chancellor; Christine Lagarde, IMF managing director, Nigeria was not a pariah state.

CLAIM 3: BUHARI AVOIDED THE TRUTH ON FOREIGN INVESTORS

“President Buhari lied by saying ‘Investors from all over are falling over themselves to come do business in Nigeria’. The reverse is true,” Omokri claimed.

What President Buhari really said: “Investors from all over the world are falling over themselves to come and do business in Nigeria.”

THE TRUTH: TheCable can confirm that Buhari avoided the truth. In Buhari’s first year in office, foreign investment sank to a nine-year low. According to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, portfolio investment (FPI) has crashed by 85.5 percent in the past year.

Osinbajo, who was quoting the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said foreign direct investment also took a plunge of 56 percent of from $395 million in Q1 2015 to $175million by Q1 of 2016.
Yemi Osinbajo policy

https://www.thecable.ng/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Yemi-Osinbajo-policy.jpg
Osinbajo speaking on FPI and FDI

We can also confirm the exit of major airlines, such as Siberia and United Airlines from the Nigerian airspace, some South African companies have also closed shop in Nigeria.

The only bright side we know of is the inflow of foreign exchange since the CBN’s latest forex policy. Forex inflow surged by 89 percent in August 2016, showing confidence in the policy.


CLAIM 4: BOTH BUHARI AND OMOKRI AVOIDED THE WHOLE TRUTH

“President Buhari did not say the whole truth when he claims to have generated 5000MWs. He conveniently forgot to mention that those power stations were built by Jonathan and other PDP leaders. President Buhari has not built even one station,” Omokri said.

THE TRUTH: Buhari is right; power peaked at over 5,000 megawatts for the first time in Nigeria’s history in February 2016. Yes, power stations were built by past administrations.
Fashola solar

https://www.thecable.ng/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fashola-solar.jpg
Fashola inaugurates solar power station in Abuja

President Buhari’s administration is actually building new solar power stations, and have commissioned a fresh 1.2MW station donated by the Japanese government. Buhari’s admin has also added to the grid.

CLAIM 5: BUHARI DOWNPLAYS THE TRUTH ON RAINY-DAY SAVINGS

“President Buhari lied when he claimed ‘nothing was saved during years of prosperity’. He inherited over $30 Billion in reserves and savings from Jonathan,” Omokri claims.

What President Buhari really said: “Nothing was saved for the rainy day during the periods of prosperity.”

Oil prices show that the Jonathan administration could have saved more, but to say nothing was saved is totally false. Jonathan left excess crude account at $2.07 billion in May 2015. Foreign reserves also stood at over $29 billion in May 2015.

FACT-CHECK: Buhari’s Independence Day claim on Boko Haram untrue
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“On Security, we have made progress. Boko Haram was defeated by last December – only resorting to cowardly attacks on soft targets, killing innocent men, women and children.” — President Muhammadu Buhari during his 2016 Independence Day speech.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s repeated claim that his administration has defeated Boko Haram has raised several eyebrows.

PREMIUM TIMES partner, Africa Check, had previously looked into a similar context of this assertion when Mr. Buhari made it earlier this year.

On Saturday, in his Independence Day speech, Mr. Buhari repeated an oft-stated claim; saying, “Boko Haram was defeated by last December.”
Boko Haram newBoko Haram

A fact-check of the president’s claim, however, shows it falls short of meeting Mr. Buhari’s own definition of victory and the target he set for himself in the war against Boko Haram.

The Claims

Mr. Buhari’s seeming desperation to proclaim victory in the war against Boko Haram, despite contrary evidence, appears to have been self-inflicted.

It started on August 1, 2015, about two months after he assumed office, when he visited the Republic of Benin on a courtesy call on former President Boni Yayi in Cotonou.

“I assure you that we will defeat Boko Haram by the end of this year,” he said while discussing the military cooperation between the two countries with his host.

He made a similar comment when he administered the Oath of Office on newly appointed service chiefs two weeks later.

“You need to brace up and continue to team up with other stakeholders to come up with a well-coordinated joint effort which will bring a desired end to these insurgencies within three months,” Mr. Buhari said during the State House ceremony on August 13, 2015.

The declaration earned Mr. Buhari the ire of Nigerians and a few security experts from other countries at the time.

Among those who questioned the wisdom in Mr. Buhari’s statement was a former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon.

“I can tell you this, nobody can really talk about when any particular operation is going to end,” Mr. Gowon said. “And as a (former) commander-in- chief, I know this.

“Yes, you can say you target a particular time, but it may finish before that time or it may go slightly beyond. To end it, that is the most important thing.”

But rather than yield to calls for caution, the administration encouraged military chiefs to make public statements about their readiness to beat the deadline as suggested by the president.

“We are currently working on the December deadline by re-addressing our strategies to ensure that we meet the target,” the Chief of Defence Staff, Gabriel Olonisakin, said on October 7, 2015.

Meanwhile, Boko Haram continued its onslaught across the Northeast, where over 50 attacks left hundreds dead and properties worth billions of naira destroyed between August 1 and December 31, 2015.

In December, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said Mr. Buhari had defeated the seven-year long insurgency within six months of assuming power.

Both Mr. Buhari, Mr. Mohammed and other officials brought the message into the new year. They ignored expert opinions and were usually quick to dismiss Boko Haram attacks as desperate tactics by the group’s remnant.

When he played host to the President of Germany, Joachim Gauck, on February 12, Mr. Buhari made another victory claim.

“What they have resorted to is using improvised explosive devices to cause maximum casualties on soft targets as they did yesterday, doing what they are capable of doing now,” Mr. Buhari said. “But for them to organize conventional attacks on military, police installations and take hold towns, I think they are not able to do that.”

From January till now, Mr. Buhari had managed to repeat the claims at meetings with foreign leaders.

The Facts

But daily realities showed that the victory claims are not only premature but also exaggerated as our partner found in the previous work cited above.

Within the last two weeks alone, the media has been awash with reports of intensified activities of Boko Haram across the Northeast

On September 17, the United Nations found that more than two million people are still held in areas controlled by the sect.

The BBC also reported this week that the insurgents had run over settlements and unfurled their flag.

In a September 25 attack, at least four soldiers were fatally wounded by Boko Haram during a gun battle.

Attacks on military outposts and a town near Chibok were also reported within the last two weeks.

Although what counts as ‘victory’ remains vague, but Mr. Buhari offered a compromise during his inaugural speech on May 29 that he seemed to have long abandoned.

“The command centre will be relocated to Maiduguri and remain until Boko Haram is completely subdued,” Mr. Buhari said. “But we cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents.”

The sect showed in one of at least three videos it released within the last six weeks that the girls are still in captivity.

By Mr. Buhari’s own target, therefore, the administration cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram “without rescuing the Chibok girls.”

Also, the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, whom the military claimed had been killed, also appeared in a latest video, threatening to attack the president and more cities.

The administration’s concerted attempts at pronouncing victory over Boko Haram seems like a strategy aimed at allaying the fears of rural dwellers – since government’s messages are usually carried on radio unchallenged.

However, the fact that the president personally defined what constitutes victory against Boko Haram on the day he was sworn in even makes the repeated claims of triumph over the sect doubtful.

nku5:
Reuters Uncovers Buhari's Lie About GE Investment In Nigeria

On October 1, PMB said General Electric was set to invest USD2.2 Billion in Nigeria but it turns out it was actually USD150 million.

Why must Buhari misinform Nigerians in our independence day speech? Why tell lies that people can easily verify? Has any other president of Nigeria told us as many lies as this one? Why must this man keep disgracing us everywhere?

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1231LX

U.S. industrial firm General Electric (GE.N) plans to invest around $150 million in Nigeria by 2017, a senior executive said on Monday.

"There are development projects where we are investing," Jay Ireland, chief executive of General Electric in Africa told the FT Africa Summit in London. GE would also invest in oil and gas industry projects.
Growth in Nigeria - an OPEC member whose economy, the largest in Africa, is in recession for the first time in more than 20 years due to low oil prices - has been stunted for decades by a lack of investment in its road and rail network.

Ireland said the Nigeria investment was part of a plan to spend $2 billion in Africa in coming years.
But the $150 million Nigerian investment falls short of the sum Nigeria's government has said GE would invest.
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Saturday in a speech marking Nigeria's independence day, said GE was "investing $2.2 billion in a concession to revamp, provide rolling stock, and manage" some of the country's railway lines.

(Writing by Ulf Laessing and Alexis Akwagyiram

DLondonboiy:
Blue to just dey book space up and down

daveP:
Blueto you wan leave sport alone ba?


Which way Nigeria.


lowest score of PMB is dissemination and confirmation of information. I score him a wicked F9 on this.


test-01/20

test-04/20

exam-10/60


total-15/100

blueto:
Lets hope he doesn't fire his speechwriters this time, and exonerate himself .

Jesusloveyou:
[s]i dont know where to start answering op many lies, i am so annoyed right-now with this op lies. for now, let me quickly answer ur claim no-4 , how much did ur ineffectual buffoon save. he met $47B and left $30b in reserve upon huge inflow of oil money, again, he met $10b in ECA and left $2b. again he met $20b in SWF and left $1b, and op and saTANist wailers called it savings, and moreso, he wasted more than 30tri naira in 6yrs.[/s]

What President Buhari really said: “Nothing was saved for the rainy day during the periods of prosperity.”

Oil prices show that the Jonathan administration could have saved more, but to say nothing was saved is totally false. Jonathan left excess crude account at $2.07 billion in May 2015. Foreign reserves also stood at over $29 billion in May 2015.

blueto:
Are you alright?? the notion was that president Buhari said Jonathan saved Nothing of which was refuted
.

Jesusloveyou:
i dont really know d type of ipod sch u attend, becos ipods are know for flat and fish brain. is it ur ineffectual buffoon that save the money there, what pmb simply meant is that gej did not add a kobo or save a kobo on his own, instead ineffectual buffoon depleted what he met on our saves, is this difficult for ur likes to understand?

“Nothing was saved for the rainy day during the periods of prosperity.”

Jesusloveyou:
i dont really know d type of ipod sch u attend, becos ipods are know for flat and fish brain. is it ur ineffectual buffoon that save the money there, what pmb simply meant is that gej did not add a kobo or save a kobo on his own, instead ineffectual buffoon depleted what he met on our saves, is this difficult for ur likes to understand?

lecturerdabo:
So Nigerians ve learnt not to trust PMB and His 'change' speeches
Good development!!
Nigerians are getting wiser!!!

blueto:
the statement again, perhaps you will grasp this time If you are unable to grasp this time, it means only God can overhaul it