Former President Muhammadu Buhari has berated a journalist, Sonala Olumhense, over his write-ups on the ex-Nigerian leader’s administration.
Buhari, in reaction to Sonala’s claim that the former president owns an estate in Abuja, debunked the report published in a national newspaper on Sunday, September 17, 2023, saying it was fake and shouldn’t be taken seriously.
He noted that Sonala, who has since migrated to the United States, has only been seeking his (Buhari) attention.
The former president said these in a statement issued by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, on Monday, September 18.
Shehu stated: “In the latest column he wrote on Sunday to, as usual seek to delegitimize Muhammadu Buhari, Sonala cited a report in an unrecognisable junk newspaper that once wrote an unsubstantiated article alleging the ownership of an Abuja estate.
“He said since the report was unchallenged by the Presidency, it must be true. No one who has an inkling of knowledge of the essential Buhari would have taken this report seriously.
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“But more is expected of someone as Sonala, very high on journalistic ranks: provide the evidence. Facts are the stuff of good journalism.”
The former presidential spokesman added that the second thing Sonala did to delegitimize Buhari was the journalist’s report on the stolen funds from the Gloval Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) which occurred in 2014-2015.
Shehu noted that the stolen funds were uncovered and dealt with by Buhari’s administration when it came into office in 2015, saying that contrary to what Sonala wrote, “a lot was done to win back the confidence of the donors and for which he should have given credit to President Buhari.”
He said GAVI stopped funding programmes in Nigeria through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) following unsatisfactory findings from a programme audit in 2015.
Shehu added: “The Buhari administration investigated the fraud, following which the agency head of the NPHCDA was removed. All Directors in the agency were investigated and retired in public interest and as the new man who took over the helm at the NPHCDA, Dr Faysal Shuai’b reported, ‘every naira of the misused funds was paid back, we improved the image of the Agency through establishment of fit-for-purpose structures aimed at checkmating the then prevalent forces of impunity and total lack of accountability’.
“In addition to this, the administration partnered with GAVI and KPMG to put in place global best practices which led to the restoration in 2017 of direct funding through the government agency by GAVI.
“Confidence generated here-from reassured GAVI to invite Global Fund and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation into the nation’s healthcare delivery system.
“To the very end, the government continued to preserve the confidence of donors through accountability policies put in place to enable greater transparency and closer grant monitoring and management.”
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