The Presidency has hit hard at the critics of President Muhammadu Buhari over his recent visit to Lagos.
Buhari’s critics including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has kicked against the President’s visit to Lagos when some states are under attacks by either bandits or insurgents.
The President had on December 9th visited Lagos to commission a Made-in-Nigeria naval defence ship, NNS Oji. The President also used the occasion to attend the book launch of former Interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande.
However, critics ignored the induction of military assets by the President but focused on Akande’s book launch.
But the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, on Monday lampooned the critics.
On the importance of the visit, Shehu said: “On 9th December in Lagos, President Muhammadu Buhari launched a made- in-Nigeria naval defence ship, NNS Oji, and inducted other vital military assets that improve the country’s capabilities to fight increased piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. With the waters off the coast of Nigeria seeing increased attacks – with 35 cases in 2020 – these new naval ships enter service at the most opportune time.
“Designed by Nigerians and built by Nigeria’s Naval Dockyard, the ships are the largest military vessels ever produced domestically. Key to President Buhari’s commitment to self-reliance as a nation and determination to build Nigeria into a manufacturing power, the ships pave the way for construction over time of larger more capable warships. In the future, Nigeria will move to become no more an arms importer to a defence exporter.
“In addition, the President surveyed and inaugurated a naval helicopter that will join the new vessels in scouting for and countering piracy that impedes security and trade.”
The Presidency justified Buhari’s visit to Lagos. It decried the position of PDP and others.
According to him, “While in Lagos the President also graced the launch of an autobiography by Bisi Akande – a leader who played a crucial role in keeping democratic opposition to military rule alive, and later a critical place in the development and ultimate unity of that opposition to create today’s APC.
“Without visionaries such as Bisi Akande, the corrupt PDP and its acolytes who have done so much to strip our nation of its wealth, stunt its growth, and subject it to derogation abroad would still be in office.
“But, of course, those in the PDP who have nothing positive or new to add to the debate about the future of the nation seek to trivialise the President’s Lagos visit: they choose to ignore the crucial launch of the naval vessels; they suggest the primary reason for going to Lagos was to attend a book launch.
“They try to make further mileage by claiming the President should not have attended given the attack by bandits elsewhere in the country that same day.
“Should the president not have launched the naval ships the day after that attack? Should he listen to the PDP who feign concern for those affected by banditry when they did nothing to combat it for decades – not on land or at sea? Should our famously austere President not attend a book launch of his friend and fellow democratic opposition veteran when it coincided with a visit to Lagos to tend the affairs of state?
“Through their attacks, the PDP reveal their priorities. Of course, for decades, as the PDP enjoyed their decadent parties at others’ expense, the navy and the armed forces rotted through negligence.”
The Presidency noted that the critics have not criticised the President for boosting the country’s seaborne defence capacity, but only manage to make the attack personal.
“It reveals the chasm of difference between a president who cares for the country while managing to show courtesy to his comrades – and the opposition who corrupted the country through the sharing out of its wealth while celebrating and splashing about stolen public money.
“Sadly, these opportunistic opposition elements, in a desperate search for political points, have dragged respected religious leaders into the discussion, feeding them misleading information who have in turn used this distorted picture to blackpaint the President in the eyes of gullible and innocent members of the public,” Shehu said.
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