The
Presidency on Friday dismissed reports that President Muhammadu Buhari
asked the World Bank to concentrate its Nigeria intervention efforts in
the north.
Reacting to the reports, the President’s Special Adviser on Media and
Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said the World Bank President, Jim Yong
Kim’s statement, was deliberately twisted by “those who specialize in
such acts.”
Media reports had quoted Mr. Kim as saying in Washington DC, on
Thursday that Buhari requested a concentration of the bank’s
intervention efforts in the north.
Adesina labeled such people “ignorant and mischievous” who are out to
make it seem that Buhari’s position was a calculated attempt to give
the north an unfair advantage over other parts of Nigeria.
He said the President, since his inauguration, had been seeking
international support for the rebuilding of the North East which was
ravaged by years of insurgency.
He said what Buhari did in calling attention to the plight of the people of the region was what a leader should do.
He said: “Those who specialize in a deliberate twisting of
information have wailed and raged endlessly on the news item credited to
the World Bank Group President, Jim Yong Kim, who disclosed in
Washington DC, United States of America, that President Muhammadu Buhari
had requested a concentration of the bank’s intervention efforts in the
northern part of Nigeria, particularly in the North East.
“The ignorant and mischievous people, who twist everything for their
vile purposes, are making it seem that it was a calculated attempt to
give the North an unfair advantage over other parts of Nigeria.
“The truth of the matter is that President Buhari, right from his
first week in office in June, 2015, had reached out to the G-7 in
Germany that Nigeria needed help to rebuild the North East, which had
been terribly devastated by insurgency. He said the country would prefer
help in terms of rebuilding of infrastructure, rather than cash
donation, which may end up being misappropriated. In concert with
governors of the region, a comprehensive list of needed repairs was sent
to the G-7 leaders.
“Also, during a trip to Washington in 2015, and many other
engagements that followed, President Buhari sought the help of the World
Bank in rebuilding the beleaguered North East, which was then being
wrested from the stranglehold of a pernicious insurgency. It was
something always done in the open, and which reflected the President’s
concern for the region.
“Those ululating over the disclosure by the President of the World
Bank should be a bit reflective, and consider the ravages that the North
East has suffered since 2009, when the Boko Haram insurgency started.
Schools, hospitals, homes, entire villages, towns, cities, bridges, and
other public utilities have been blown up, laid waste, and lives
terminated in excess of 20,000, while widows and orphans littered the
landscape. The humanitarian crisis was in monumental proportions.
“President Buhari simply did what a caring leader should do. He took
the battle to the insurgents, broke their backs, and then sought for
help to rebuild, so that the people could have their lives back. Should
that then elicit the negative commentary that has trailed the disclosure
from the World Bank? Not at all, except from insidious minds.
“President Buhari has a pan-Nigerian mandate, and he will discharge
his duties and responsibilities in like manner. Any part of the country
that requires special attention would receive it, irrespective of
primordial affinities, which narrow-minded people have not been able to
live above. This President will always work in the best interest of all
parts of the country at all times. Let ethnic warriors sheathe their
swords.”