ABUJA — On his first day at the Aso
Rock Villa since his inauguration on May 29, President Muhammadu Buhari said,
yesterday, that he inherited a “virtually empty treasury”, from his
predecessor, Dr Goodluck Jonathan with debts running into hundreds of millions
of dollars.
The President disclosed this on a day he ordered the withdrawal of
the military from internal security operations as part of a comprehensive
review of national security operations.
The President who spoke while
meeting with members of the State House Press Corps said it was a disgrace that
Nigeria is unable to pay workers salaries, adding that this was as a result of
bad management. According to him, there was already a lot of pressure on his
government due to the huge expectations of Nigerians on what they desire from
the administration.
While calling on the media to
cooperate with his administration, President Buhari said he chose Femi Adesina
as his Adviser because he is ‘one of the best’.
His words: “It is not by accident
that I got the best of you to be the special adviser, one of the 15 aides I had
to get clearance from the Senate. He is one of the best Presidents of the Guild
of Editors that I can have as special adviser. I brought one of the best of you
so that he can consistently defend me against you.
“Whether my job is a difficult one
or easy is up to him, but I’m here to thank you in advance for what good and
ill you are going to do to me. I have to quickly come and see you and welcome
you to this place. I hope what happened of recent between the former President
and one of you (the withdrawal of the accreditation of the Radio Germany
reporter) will not happen between me and you.
“I hope we are starting and this
culture of 100 days is bringing so much pressure with treasury virtually empty,
with debts in millions of dollars, with state workers and even federal workers
not paid their salaries. It is such a disgrace for Nigeria. I think Nigeria
should be in a position to even pay its workers. This bad management that we
find ourselves in, we really need your help to protect us from people before
they march on us”, he said.
For members of the State House Press
Corps, it is the first time that they would be meeting a sitting president,
starting from President Obasanjo up to President Goodluck Jonathan.
Chairman of the State House Press Corps, Kehinde
Amodu, who spoke on behalf of members of the corps, pledged to work with the
government in the interest of Nigeria
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