Falsehood and empty promises will not end recession.

“I am going to bore you with what we met….When we came in, I screamed to high heavens because I had promised a lot while seeking votes. I asked where is the saving? There was no saving. There was no infrastructure, power, rails, roads, there was none.” – President Buhari, Abuja, PUNCH, October 1, 2016, p 8.

Buhari was speaking the day before to people that were tagged “creative youths”. One only hopes they had brains as well. He also vowed to continue to blame past administrations. Whether that was a threat or promise is difficult to say. But, to Buhari’s stubborn insistence to continue to bore Nigerians, a late Vice President of the United States, Hubert Humphrey, 1911-1978, had given the appropriate riposte as far back as 1965 in Madison Wisconsin, on August 23.

“The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.” So, the President can exercise his right to repeat himself everyday – as long as he recognizes the right of Nigerians to ignore what he says. Or worse still, take it as a joke. There is no Presidential right to bore people – except captive audiences at Aso Rock.

Furthermore, when the subject is the current recession ravaging the country, Buhari does not have a monopoly of recall of history and the factors which were responsible for the situation in which we find ourselves today. Interestingly, the President, as is always the case with those pointing accusing fingers at others, had inadvertently pointed at least three at himself in that statement to the so-called “creative youths” – most probably sons and daughters of those close to the corridors of power.

To the best of anyone’s knowledge there was no advertisement asking for creative youths to meet the President. So, how were they selected and by who? Was the attendance free and voluntary? There are more questions to ask, but, those will do for now – just to let those wanting to solve the problems posed by recession with propaganda know that people are wiser now.

Buhari disclosed that he made promises to voters during the campaigns which he is now finding it difficult, if not impossible, to fulfill. It is generally expected of honest men that when promises are made, the individual must have every reason to believe he can deliver on those promises. Otherwise in economic terms he becomes a con man. So what were Buhari’s expectations and on what facts were they based at the time?

Are we to assume that the person who went about promising free money, food and training did not have the foggiest idea how he would deliver on those promises and was instead waiting for Jonathan to leave him with savings to redeem his promises? In other words, Buhari promised expecting Jonathan to pay. Is that political/economic honesty on display?

That, however, is small potatoes compared to the outright falsehoods contained in that statement to the youths – who if they have been following the news trend would have realized that Baba was not nearly correct. In fact, he was wrong; dead wrong.

Start with savings – which Buhari said was not there. By the end of May 2015, Nigeria had in external reserves about $36 billion. That was about ten times what Obasanjo found in the same reserves in 1999. In fact, it was the second highest amount any of the three Presidents before him would find waiting for him. Today he had spent $10 billion of external savings he claims don’t exist and he still has $26 billion left.

Additionally, there was $2.3 billion in Excess Crude Account. Finally, there was $1.5 billion in Sovereign Wealth Fund Account. Any primary school two boy or girl can tell that $39.8 billion was waiting for him on May 29, 2015. He should go and ask the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria if that was not the case.

That was not all, within the federal establishment, funds tucked in various accounts, which were ordered transferred to the Treasury Single Account, TSA, totaled N1.8 trillion. So what does one make of the statement by Buhari that he asked for savings and there was none? Who did he ask? Certainly, it could not be Godwin Emefiele; surely not the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Finance at the time. So who told him there were no savings? And, if nobody told him, why is he repeating this falsehood? What can the nation gain from this?

To listen to Buhari, one would get the impression that Nigeria was indeed the heart of darkness until he came last May. There were no roads. So how did he go about campaigning? There was no power supply. So Nigerians including this writer who paid trillions of naira to Distribution Companies for power supply, admittedly epileptic, were wasting their money and liking it.

He inherited eleven aircrafts from Jonathan (that is surely nothing if you expected twenty five or thirty) which must have been landing and taking off on grassland. Just a few weeks ago, Buhari launched the Kaduna-Abuja rail system. Obviously, the project was conceived, funded, and executed all in the sixteen months since the President came to office.

All the roads on which Nigerians travel today, death traps mostly, must have been built by super Minister Babatunde Fashola since he was appointed in late October last year – at least that is the inescapable inference from the “story” Buhari was telling those poor impressionable kids invited to Aso Rock for “God-knows-what”. But, if the summary of the President’s submissions was truly rendered by the media, it is certain that one thing the kids did not get was the truth. That is most unfortunate.

Because, if leaders cannot tell the kids the truth and the whole truth, then economic recession might abate for a while, but intellectual recession will last for decades longer. Buhari needs to be told one of the eternal truths about the economy of nations. “Behind the facts of economics are the facts of psychology….The emotions of fear and confidence…” (Arthur Dewing, VBQ p 45).

How on earth can people invest confidence and funds in an economy led by a President who wants to keep repeating what they know is untrue? Is there nobody in the whole world who can tell him to stop doing this damage to himself and the country?

(today)