World Bank: Why Buhari should not be crucified – VON DG, Osita Okechukwu.

The Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr. Osita Okechukwu at the weekend advised those attacking President Muhammadu Buhari over the statement of President of World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, to in the fullness of time judge him by his project performance across the length and breadth of the country.

The World Bank President had disclosed that Buhari asked him to concentrate in the Northern Nigeria.

Accosted by journaliists in Enugu at the weekend to react to the statement credited to the President of World Bank, Okechukwu said: “methinks it is better we judge President Muhammadu Buhari in the fullness of time with his project deliveries across the length and breadth of the whole country.”

“The statement Kim made is not as it sounds as our dear sister, Oby Ezekwesili posits; for as we approach 2019 general elections, more stories will surface either fake or real. After all, the simple definition of election in liberal democracy is a referendum on the performance of the incumbent. Use your vote to judge his project performance not propaganda performance. Leaders like Buhari come once in a generation I bet you.”

When confronted with more adverse reactions and criticisms from Nigerians of diverse cultural groups, Civil Society Organisations and politicians condemning the said statement as unpresidential and unpatriotic, Mr. Okechukwu said, “whether you agree that the North in question is the Boko Haram devastated North East or not, my primary position is that instead of listening only to the propaganda of the likes of Governor Ayodele Fayose and his clan, the cardinal questions are – are the $11 billion Coastal Railway, the N14 billion 2nd Niger Bridge payment, the $1.5 billion Lagos-Kano Railway Standardisation, $500 million East-West road completion, N120 billion Bony-Bodo road, Enugu-Onitsha, Enugu-Port Harcourt etc in the North?”

On Ohanaeze’s visit to the President last week, Okechukwu who had lamented about Buhari’s letter of November 2014 and his January 2017 congratulatory message, which were all rebuffed by Ohaneze leadership, said he was happy indeed that Ohaneze Ndigbo finally has opened this vital channel of communications with President Buhari, instead of throwing stones from the sidelines.

Full story at Daily Post.

By Emmanuel Uzodinma.