President Muhammadu Buhari has rejected an accusation by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that his utterances amounted to “demarketing” Nigeria, adding that he owed it to Nigerians to always tell them the truth.
A statement issued by President Buhari’s special adviser on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, reacted fiercely to a statement by the PDP’s national publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh. The presidential spokesman warned that Mr. Metuh and his ilk were attempting to distract the president, adding that their effort would fail.
“President Buhari will remain true to the virtues of honesty, integrity, sincerity, incorruptibility and plain-speaking which endeared him to Nigerians and made them prefer his leadership [to] that of a lying and deceptive PDP administration,” said the presidential statement, titled “President Buhari Will Always Tell Nigerians The Truth.”
Mr. Adesina added: “The President will not, in the guise of ‘marketing’ the country, refrain from telling Nigerians and the world, the emerging truths about the abject state in which years of plundering by a PDP leadership has left the Nigerian treasury and economy.
“President Buhari will not in the name of ‘marketing’ or ‘attracting’ investors, follow in the footsteps of the ousted PDP Administration and its discredited officials who shamelessly lied to Nigerians and the world about the buoyancy and vibrancy of an economy they had bled dry for personal gain, when it was very obvious to the discerning, that the Nigerian economy was headed for serious trouble.”
The presidential spokesman stated that the PDP should be remorseful for the harm the party had done to Nigeria and should offer support to President Buhari in his “efforts to salvage and revamp the national economy.”
Mr. Adesina accused Mr. Metuh of seeking to “remain relevant on the national stage by unjustly denigrating the President who continues to strive with all his might to alleviate and reverse the harm done to the nation by PDP misrule and corruption.”
Describing Mr. Metuh as “a broken record,” the presidential spokesman said the Presidency would be prepared to listen “If the PDP spokesman ever has serious matters to bring to our attention.”