BENIN CITY- TWO Time former Governor of old
Bendel State and a member of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) Board of Trustees, Dr Samuel Ogbemudia,
said yesterday that Nigerians will not forgive President
Muhammadu Buhari if he fails them, therefore warned
Nigerians to stop criticising the President over his recent
appointments.
He also described as unnecessary attempts by some Nigerians
to access the administration in its one hundred days in office,
“when they knew that the man said he met everything in bad
shape and in such situation you need to clean up the system
so as to start on a good note”.
The elder statesman bared his mind yesterday when he met
members of the committee which he set up to oversee the
yearly Award of the Best Journalist in Edo state, led by a
former General Manager of the Edo State Broadcasting
Service (EBS) Pastor (Mrs) Sibi Lawal-Igioh.
According to him, “Nigerians asked him (Buhari) to appoint
people who can work with him and he can only appoint people
he knows. If he fails by appointing a United Nation they will
say it was his fault, they ought to have known. But he is
now picking people he has tremendous trust in their ability.
So those criticizing him should let him do his work. If at the
end of four years he did not perform, then Nigerians have
another opportunity to either say carry on or stop.
“All these criticisms, I do not buy them. And the people who
are criticising him probably they have never held any
government position, they don’t know what is happening
there, that all that glitters is not gold”.
On the issue of one hundred days in office, Dr Ogbemudia
asserted that “First and foremost, Buhari was elected for
four years and in the programme of events which led to the
elections, at no time was hundred days mentioned. That they
are being done in the past was perhaps a persuasive
authority but that does not mean that everybody should keep
to it. A programme well thought out to bring Nigeria back to
the line of development, the line of security and so on,
planning alone takes more than a hundred days.
“ So I expect that when eventually he finished the home
work he will come out with something big. When he was
elected, Nigerians have very high expectation of his
performance and in order not to disappoint Nigerians, he
wants to take time to plan his programme so that when
eventually he pushes it out they will welcome it.
“ So they can excuse him because the Buhari they knew
earlier on is no longer the same Buhari because this is a
democracy. He has the National Assembly and the judicial
arm now. His powers then is being shared with these two
arms now. He cannot join the bandwagon, as a matter of
fact that is why he wants to change the evil ways things are
done before so that Nigeria will be better” he stated.
Explaining the reason behind his decision to commence a
yearly Award for the best Journalist in Edo state, Dr
Ogbemudia said, “when you go to Observer (state owned
Newspaper), you see reporters who have worked hard over
the years but no recognition. So what we want to do is that
at the end of the year we will find out which journalist has
excelled over the year and give him a plaque and a little
money attached.
“What we are going to do is open a fix deposit account so
that the interest we make in the deposit can be used for the
award even when I am gone. We have journalists who are
working hard in this country and I feel we have to start
from Edo state first to recognize them” he stated.
Comments
Post a Comment