Nigeria’s President Retd Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has stated during an interview on Channels Television that until the addition of consensus candidatures, indirect primary options to the mode of selecting a candidate for an election, as against the initial direct mode as the only option to conduct primaries by political parties are included in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill would he be willing to sign the bill presented by the National Assembly.
Buhari made this disclosure during a live television interview monitored on Channels Television hosted by Maupe Ogun and Seun Okinbaloye, where he also cited the cost of conducting a direct primary election, the security challenges, and possible manipulation of electoral processes by political actors as part of the reasons for his decision to withhold his assent to the bill as presented.
President Buhari of Nigeria also during the interview opined that he does not support direct primary because the people would not be open to making a choice, and suggested that three options should be made available so as to have a consensus candidate and an indirect process of conducting parties’ primaries, he said.
He also attributed the sufferings experienced by Nigerians under his government to be the late realization of his administration to note that only 2.5% of the country’s land are being cultivated in a country of over 200 million people but gave the assurance that his administration would ensure that the people go back to farm the land.
The President also spoke about a number of burning issues including security, economy, and politics, among others.
President Buhari assessed his administration’s performance since he assumed office in 2015, especially in the three key areas of security, improving the economy, and fighting corruption.
The President believes the situation has improved and his administration has continued to improve the economy, despite the nation’s dwindling resources.
According to the Nigerian President, he said, “For Nigerians to be fair with his administration is to try and find out from the time he won the election in 2015 till now, on the three promises he made – improving security, improving the economy, and trying to fight corruption; securing the country in the North East, if you ask anybody from Borno State, from Yobe State, from Adamawa State, there are a number of local governments – about 18 – that were in the hands of Boko Haram, no local government now is strictly in the hands of Boko Haram or ISWAP. So, in that respect, we have done something,” he asserted.
He further said that “In the economy, a check with the central bank or NNPC concerning the production capacity from 1999 to 2014 which was 2.1 million barrels per day and coupled with incidences militancy of that period in the South-South which his administration met in 2015.
President Buhari said the situation then forced down production capacity to half a million barrels per day, and that coincidentally, the price again collapsed to about $37 per barrel, he, however, asked citizens to compare what his administration had done within the time frame and the resources available to his government relative to the government he inherited.”
President Buhari went on to declare during the exclusive interview on Channels Television, that whenever there was a need to secure more foreign loans, his administration would do so not minding data from the Debt Management Office, -DMO which shows that Nigeria has borrowed $2.02 billion as loans from China from 2015 and that the country’s debt portfolio from China has risen to $3.40bn as of March 31, 2021.
He was also quick to cite the Lagos and Ibadan express road as one of such projects the loans were used for and not to talk about other infrastructural developmental projects ongoing across the country.
President Buhari while erasing fears in some quarters that Africa’s most populous nation might be plunged into a debt trap from the Chinese loans were welcomed when they indicated readiness to give loans to help Nigeria develop the Power, rail, and roads sectors across the country.
During Nigeria’s President’s interview on the privately-owned Channels television, President Buhari defended his government’s decision to source loans from China adding that if anyone was willing to assist the country to develop its infrastructure without resulting in loans, are welcome, he said.
