Buhari Praises Late Dictator Abacha, Accuses Obasanjo Of Wasting $15billion On Phantom Power Projects.

President Muhammadu Buhari has said while late military dictator Sani
Abacha building infrastructure, former president Olusegun Obasanjo
squandered $15billion on phantom power projects.Buhari who has a history of never accusing Abacha of corruption despite
millions of Dollars being recovered from the late dictator, took a veiled
attack on former President Obasanjo.

Speaking at the villa on Tuesday when he hosted the Buhari Support
Organisation (BSO), led by Hameed Ali, Comptroller-General of the Nigeria
Customs Service (NCS), Buhari said that regardless of what anyone thinks
about Abacha, it must be remembered that subsequent civilian presidents
spent billions on naira in infrastructure yet have had little to show for
it.

Buhari specifically noted: “You know the rail was killed and one of the
former Heads of State between that time was bragging that he spent more
than 15 billion American dollars not Naira on power. Where is the power?
Where is the power?”

The President also spoke about the nation’s buoyant crude oil earnings in
the past, compared to the meagre earnings during his administration,
wondering why past governments ended up in debt rather than a deep purse.

“I have to repeat what I want public to know here. Some of you may not
have heard it. Either there is no power in your place or even in the
television, I said and I challenge anybody to check from Europe, Asia and
America. Between 1999 and 2014, Nigeria was getting 2.1 million barrels
per day at average cost of $100 dollars per barrel,” he said.

“It went up to $143. So Nigeria was earning 2.1m million times 100 times
16 years seven days a week. When we came, it collapsed to $37-38 and it
was oscillating between 40 and 54 sometimes. I went to the Governor of
Central Bank; thank goodness I did not sack him; he is still there! I went
with my cap in my hand but there were no savings, only debt.

“And you know more than I do the condition of the roads and some of them
were not repaired since PTF days. No matter what opinion you have about
Abacha, I agreed to work with him and the PTF road we did from here to
Port Harcourt, to Onitsha, to Benin and so on… On top of other things in
the institution, education, medical care and so on.

“You know the rail was killed and one of the former Heads of State between
that time was bragging that he spent more than $15billion, not naira, on
power. Where is the power? Where is the power? And now we have to pay the
debts and this year and last year’s budgets I took to the National
Assembly were the highest in capital projects: more than N1.3trillion.

“Let anybody come and confront me publicly in the National Assembly. What
have they been doing? Some of them have been there for 10 years. What have
they been doing? So, really, this country, luckily for me, I said it about
eight years [ago] that we have no other country than Nigeria, we should
remain here and salvage it together no matter what you have outside.”