Special Adviser to the President, Femi Adesina, said Muhammadu Buhari will be leaving Nigeria better than he met it in 2015 in terms of security and economy.
The Presidency also defended Buhari on his alleged lopsided appointments of security heads in the past eight years, saying appointment of service chiefs and heads of security agencies cannot be subjected to ethnic balancing or federal character.
Buhari will be exiting May 29 after completing eight years of two terms.
Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, confronted with verifiable data that between May 2015 and May 2022, over 55,000 Nigerians were killed by terrorists, bandits, and armed gangs, Adesina said the President has left the security situation of the country better than he met them in 2015.
“The figure has been coming down progressively over the years and it’s a fact of history. Nobody can change it,” he said.
“In 2015, we knew where Nigeria was. A minimum of 17 local governments in this country were under the control of insurgents.
“Talking of control, I mean they were sitting in emir palaces, they sitting in the seats of the local government chairmen. NYSC could not even do orientation; they could not even post people to those places.
The presidential spokesman also added that “The emirs are back in their palaces. The local government chairmen are back in their offices. NYSC orientation is opening in those states and corpers are being posted to those states. Are you now telling me there has been no improvement? No, let’s be factual.”
On the alleged worsening economic situation under the Buhari’s administration, Adesina also said the economy has been diversified by the government and that the economy no longer depends solely on oil.
“This government met a mono product economy, an economy that depended solely on oil so that any time oil prices crash in the international market, Nigeria crashes with it, but today it’s no longer so. Oil contributes less than 10 per cent of our GDP (Gross Domestic Product) today. Oil used to contribute about 90 per cent.
“For the first time in our history, Nigeria has a diversified economy. Diversification has long been a promise but today it’s no longer a promise, it’s a reality. I think people must credit the Buhari’s administration for that because we now have agric, we now have ICT, and also manufacturing to an extent.
“We have so many things contributing to Nigeria GDP apart from oil. The economy has been diversified first time in over 60 years, that is something nobody will deny the Buhari administration.”
