PDP has questions to answer on squandered wealth – Buhari

…Describes PDP 16-yr-rule as irresponsible. Says it wasted $16bn on power
…Salaries, pension payment our finest hour with Buhari – Wabba
President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) still owes Nigerians explanation on how it expended the humongous resources that accrued to the country from oil sales between 1999 and 2014.

Buhari said this on Thursday when he received the leadership of organised labour which came to felicitate with him on his electoral victory at State House, Abuja.

The President said the current administration met a country with dilapidated infrastructure all round in 2015, and it calls to serious question what the party that was in power for 16 years did with the country’s earnings from oil, which reached a peak during the period.

He said: “PDP has not successfully explained to the country what they did with the money. “There were no roads, no rail, no power. They said they spent $16 billion on power, but where is the power?

The irresponsible expenditure of that period has not been explained, and Nigerians deserve an answer on that terrible mismanagement of the country.”

The President thanked organised labour “for the support and patriotism you have shown during the presidential election, especially after the unexpected postponement.

You and your members stepped in to support willing Nigerians to exercise their civic and patriotic rights to vote.

You intervened as patriots, and not for political, religious or tribal purposes. You simply did the right thing during a difficult period for many of us.”

On what Nigerians can look forward to in the next lap of the journey, President Buhari said he would continue pushing the Change Agenda, “and remain focused on our core pillars of security, economy, and fight against corruption.”

He urged organised labour to partner with the government to make the country peaceful, prosperous, and corruption free.

Buhari recalling the negotiations that led to the approval of the N30,000 minimum wage, he said he had to asked the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, to remind the workers what his administration met on ground and what it has been able to achieve with minimal resources.

President Buhari said: “During your negotiation with the minister of labour and when he briefed us in council on N30, 000 minimum wage. I gave an analogy of a mad woman, who went to fetch firewood but then she realised it was too heavy for her to carry, instead of reducing it, she added more.

“I said, we are struggling to survive as a nation. You (workers) knew what this country was earnings between 2009 and 2015, you knew the state of infrastructure when we came in, God gave them 16 years of unprecedented earnings.

Multiply 2.1 million by $100 by 16 years. I don’t think the PDP has been able to successfully explain to Nigerians what they did with that money.

Because some of the roads especially the main ones, from here to Onitsha, to Port Harcourt since PTF days not to talk of new ones…monies they earned from petroleum in 16 years.

You know the rail was virtually gone and power, I asked, where is the power? They spent $16 billion on power and Nigerians are asking, where is the power? It was unprecedented, irresponsible expenditure.

Most of you are unanswerable to Nigerians, I appealed to you through our mutual friend, the minister of labour to tell you where we found the country, where we are, and what we have been able to do with the resources available to us.

“Oil Production from 2.1 million barrels per day went down to half a million. The militants were unleashed on this administration, and yet as confirmed by your leader, we had to ensure pensioners who were dying to collect their entitlements”.

The leadership of organised labour comprising Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) led by the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, were on a congratulatory visit.

In his remarks, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, lauded the President for being worker-friendly, as exemplified in the granting of bailout funds to state governments to pay backlog of salaries and pensions.

The NLC President: “We all remember the special bailout and budget support you introduced to support state governments during the recession.

Your directive during this intervention was that state governments must offset accumulated arrears of salaries and pension liabilities. I remember you publicly asked state governors, ‘how do you manage to sleep at night when the salaries of workers in your state are not paid?’

“For us, that was one of the finest moments we have had with any President in this country…I can stand here today and say your intervention was the difference between life and death for many workers.

“We also commend you for paying off the pension and accumulated entitlements of disengaged staff of Nigeria Airways and many other pensioners whose pension had been left to accumulating by successive governments. Despite the recession, you did the right thing.”

The labour leader appealed to the National Assembly to earnestly pass the National Minimum Wage Act, while also asking the President to thereafter sign it into law within the shortest possible time.

Organised labour pledged to remain “veritable partner in progress with government,” counseling the President to continue to “make the Nigerian people, especially the poor, the centre-piece of your policy initiatives and actions.”

The NLC President urged Buhari as he plans for the next four years to focus on job creation, for unemployed youths, provision of affordable power across the country, reactivation and upgrading of the nation’s refineries and pipelines infrastructure, continued diversification of the economy,

increased funding for agriculture research, upgrading of hospitals and academic institutions, revitalisation of the public service and revisit the tenure policy which has made the civil service top heavy resulting in indiscipline and stagnation.