Etcetera in his Saturday column writes on the Presidential media chat and 2016 and raised some very interesting points. Read below:
I felt totally embarrassed watching the disgrace called presidential media chat.
It is totally shameful that we are still staging this kind of farce as presidential media chat in Nigeria. The organizers of these so called presidential media chats should note that it is nobody’s fault that the president cannot adequately express himself and defend his own policies. The president should have known what he was getting himself into when he decided to contest for election.
Patronizing the president with nursery school questions won’t do him and the nation any good. Where did they find those so-called journalists who couldn’t ask critical questions and make the president sweat for Christ sake? Make him openly defend all the crazy policies of his that are already causing unnecessary hardship for everyone in the country.
Till date nobody has a clue of how the president intend solving the epileptic power situation in the country and he hasn’t uttered a word on how he will revive the economy. We don’t even know if he has a plan for anything. For God’s sake, why didn’t they ask him about the two cars giving to him by the office of the NSA? How come he didn’t declare them among his assets? If the presidency can’t organize a simple thing as a media chat, how can they govern the country properly? Nawa oooo!!!
They should have asked the president what type of government he operates. This surely is not democracy. He has to define this new system of government he has introduced, because his total disregard for court orders is what I was taught in school as dictatorship. Hearing him defend the disregard for the rule of law in the cases of Sambo Dasuki, Nnamdi Kanu and Patrick Akpobolokemi in his media chat was very disturbing.
The president is obviously not living by his oat to protect the constitution. Where are all the pro-democracy activists that fought the government of Sanni Abacha to a halt? It is time to rise up and challenge president Buhari before things get out of hand. We must not sit back and allow this brand new dictatorship to mature and throw us in the same path with Zimbabwe. Orders from the courts must be obeyed by everyone including the president. Whether Dasuki or Nnamdi Kanu are guilty or not is secondary. The rule of law and the constitution is paramount. That the State Security Service and DSS operatives refused to allow Dasuki go home on bail, even after the court granted him bail is totally undemocratic and cast a shadow on this regime. Nigerians must stand firm against this impunity now before it destroys the judicial system and throw the entire nation into a state of anarchy and lawlessness.
THE PROPOSED 2016 BUDGET IS THE MOST CORRUPT IN THE HISTORY OF NIGERIA
1. N3.7 billion for the purchase of unspecified number of BMW salon cars for the Presidency’s principal officers: Every year we keep buying new cars for these government officials. What happened to the cars purchased for the officials of Jonathan’s government a couple of weeks back? Did they take them home? I thought with president Buhari’s change mantra the era of reckless spending and frivolities are over? But a whooping N3.7 billion on cars is the worse I have heard so far.
2. N189 million to buy tyres for various vehicles being used in the Presidency: So after they have spent N3.7 billion buying the cars, another N189 million will be spent on buying tyres for the cars? The cars wey dem wan buy no go come with tyres? Abi na tokumbo cars dem wan buy with N3.7 billion, wey dem wan change the tyres? Even if dem wan change tyres sef, how much be tyres for market? Naija I hail oooo!!!
3. N1.415 billion for local and international travels, 46.7 per cent more than what Jonathan was allocated for the same item in 2015: Oga president, where you dey travel to wey you wan spend N1.415 billion? Even if you wan go clubbing for moon every weekend, oga dat money too much. Ahan make una softly softly dey wack dis our money naa!
4. N326 million allocated for Aso Rock Wildlife Conservation, including the purchase of exotic animals as against the N24. 6 million budgeted last year by Jonathan: These guys must be kidding me. Exotic animals? What kind of exotic animals? Are they purchasing whales and Anacondas for the president as pets? I have been to the presidency and all I saw were dogs. And Jonathan spent N24.6 million. Now Buhari is planning on spending N326 million. Even Mobutu Seseseko wey get crocodiles no spend reach dis amount of money.
5. N89 million for acquisition of presidential canteen materials and kitchen equipment for the Presidency: What kind of kitchen equipments are they talking of here? Except they are telling us that in this canteen, you will be fed by robots. That all you have to do is open and close your mouth and swallow. Even at that, N89 million is damn too much. And what happened to the kitchen equipments used in Jonathan’s time? Abegiii, this is total madness.
6. N102.9 million foodstuff and catering material: Hahahaha, so catering materials are different from kitchen equipments? Mehn, I love naija. We have our own definition for everything. Whoever came up with this budget must be rewarded with the “Member-of-the-order-of-scammers” (MOS) award for his ingenuity.
7. N104.7 million on refreshments and meals for State House: Hmmmmm! No comment. Na only God know wetin dem dey chop for this state house. I sure say even Idi Amin Dada wey get human meat for him menu, no spend reach N104.7 million on meals. May God help us.
8. N16.6 million for supply of foodstuff and catering services for the Vice President’s office in 2016: Hmmmm!! So Osinbanjo too sef go chop N16.6 million from the budget? Haaa… I think say na only Buhari waka come ooo! This is definitely the government of the choppers, by the choppers and for the choppers.
9. N3.65 billion for the maintenance of the 10 aircraft in the Presidential fleet in 2016: 10 aircrafts? Shebi baba say him no need too many aircrafts? How come we still get 10 aircrafts for the presidency? And now dem wan spend N3.65 billion for maintenance? Well, Nigerians kukuma sabi pray. Oya make una begin pray make “change” remain for the money oo. Lol… Nigerians, una don see the “change” wey una vote for ooo!!
10. N764.67 million for construction and provision of recreational facilities in the Presidency: Abeg, who wan use this recreational facilities for the presidency? Na so dem tell us say president Yar’adua dey play squash for ten hours every day before him die. Maybe president Buhari wants to add six packs and biceps for the cameras. But, are there no recreational facilities at Aso rock before now? What are they planning on building this time? Another Old Trafford stadium?
11. N322.4 million for the linking of cable for the driver’s restroom at the State House: this is the most insulting and ridiculous of them all. These cables must be covered with diamonds. For a country languishing in abject poverty, I sincerely hope that the lawmakers would look into this wickedness called budget proposal and cut off the entire proposed frivolous expenditures of the presidency.
Do leave your comments.
Have said it before the media chat with the president that it’s all stage and we’ll rehearsed to make Buhari look good.
What’s most annoying about the whole sh!t is, they expect us to buy it.
First of all, I think power has been anything but epileptic! the light in jabi where I live is very good, same goes for the area where my mum stays in Lagos, asides for 2days, there was light but for shorter hours. I saw an article in passing on nairaland about 2wks ago where it was claimed the president had withdrawn the budget for adjustments. As for not allowing Dasuki and co enjoy bail conditions, efcc and dss have obeyed court rulings! there is nowhere in the law which prohibits re-arresting of an individual. As someone on twitter explained, rather than efcc levy a bulk of charges at once at an individual they are doing so one at a time, hence the continuous re-arresting of these people, they are being arrested on new charges entirely. if the governments past had not squandered our wealth we wouldn’t be in this mess! when dollars was being distributed in the last elections like pure water where was ecetera to write about the impeding harsh economic situations it could result to? We need to start reading deeply please, and doing better research, students abroad can still use their atm cards to withdraw! it’s the daily amount to be withdrawn that has been reduced! I think it’s now $150 per day, what is a student doing with that much money anyways on a daily basis?
@hhb – it will do no one any good hiding behind a finger. I advice you get a copy of the proposed 2016 budget and objectively go through it and be honest in your analysis. Irrespective of political affiliation, ethnic or religion, Buhari remains our president today and their actions will affect all of us and even our children, as etcetera advised, it’s high time we stood up and reject all unconstitutionalism and corruption especially now things are pointing towards negation to promises and expectations.
@HHB you really started of intelligently but ended up sounding dumb. Do you know that you are not allowed to detain someone for more than 48hours without charging the person to court?? So if you rearrested someone, wouldn’t you have charged the person to court as stipulated in the constitution your promised to uphold as a president. It’s only naive lots like you that don’t know that Mr buhari doesn’t know what he’s doing. You can see how he has messed up the Nigerian economy. And what have you got to say about the bogus unrealistic budget as listed by the writer which is way above the previous administration he criticised. People like you have chosen to live in self denial. Your president certainly doesn’t know what he’s doing. He belongs to the medieval era.
@HHB you really started of intelligently but ended up sounding dumb. Do you know that you are not allowed to detain someone for more than 48hours without charging the person to court?? So if you rearrested someone, wouldn’t you have charged the person to court as stipulated in the constitution your promised to uphold as a president. It’s only naive lots like you that don’t know that Mr buhari doesn’t know what he’s doing. You can see how he has messed up the Nigerian economy. And what have you got to say about the bogus unrealistic budget as listed by the writer which is way above the previous administration he criticised. People like you have chosen to live in self denial. Your president certainly doesn’t know what he’s doing. He belongs to the medieval era.
For the very first time in my stay with MDB I agree with Etcetera hook line and sinker. For HHB u are so shallow minded, Kay thanks for telling him.
In what aspect was he shallow minded? I felt HHB made reasonable contributions therein….. The truth of the matter is….. that was the tactics EFCC employed to keep Dansuki and co behind bars. They didn’t submit all the charges the FG has against them at once. Immediately court granted them bail, they rearrested them under a different charge, and in my opinion, that is still constitutional…….. Maybe the $150 restriction per day, that I don’t know much about…..
I have always agreed with this Etcetera guy. I don’t know why some sycophants have problems with his articles. PMB/APC are simply clueless without a plan and if at all they have any plans, they obviously have poor presentations and defence of such!!