SAN FRANCISCO, May 02, (THEWILL) – President Muhammadu Buhari has spoken on former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s January 23 ‘Special Statement’, which asked him not to seek re-election in 2019 saying it was abusive.
The President spoke in the United States (U.S.) during an interview on the Hausa Service of the Voice of America (VOA) in Washington D.C.
He revealed that despite perceiving the letter as abusive, he refrained from replying in kind but rather, he said, he authorised that the government’s reaction should be to tell the country what it has achieved.
“Even when the Minister of Information and Culture wanted to reply that abusive letter written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, I told him not to. I later allowed him but only to highlight the achievements of our administration,” Buhari stated.
Speaking further, the President said he had ordered the recruitment of 6,000 policemen to boost security in the country.
He added that he feared that states might not be able to fund their own police, which many governors and others are pushing for and urged Nigerians to abide by constitutional provisions on the matter.
“I have approved the recruitment of 6,000 policemen by the police authorities and I directed that those recruited must come from all the 774 local government areas of the federation,” he said.
“Even if it means recruiting one person each from the 774 local governments, they should do that instead of going to motor parks, railway stations or market for the recruitment.
“We must carefully look at the position of the Constitution on the issue of state police before we take a final decision on the matter; if the Constitution allows state police, so be it.
“But don’t forget that many times the Federal Government gave out what we referred to as ‘bail out’ to state governments for payment of workers’ salaries. How many states can pay salary promptly? And you want to add more financial burden to them.
“It is not proper to employ a person, train him on how to handle weapons and then refuse to pay him – you can imagine what would happen in such situation.”
He also insisted that his statement on some Nigerian youths being lazy was quoted out of context saying the media only preferred to interpret and report what they liked about his comment on youths during the Commonwealth Business Session in London last month, instead of concentrating on developmental issues.
