Reno Omokri, a former aide of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has told Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, that the only federal university in Katsina state was built by the last administration.
Federal University Dutsin, Katsina, is one of the nine universities which Jonathan founded in February 2011.
In a statement on Tuesday, Omokri said Shehu’s claim that there was no capital project completed under Jonathan “further exposes his intellectual laziness and failing memory”.
“It is quite sad that Garba Shehu does not know that oil constitutes only 15 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP and thus a fall in the price of oil should not lead to a collapse of the Nigerian economy as has been experienced under President Buhari,” the statement read.
“If Garba and his boss are willing to learn, the Jonathan Foundation and the Peoples Democratic Party can arrange a course for them to be tutored on the subject-how to grow your economy to be the largest in Africa. We make bold that we are experienced in that area.
“Obviously Garba Shehu has forgotten that when his boss was commissioning the Abuja-Kaduna 187KM fast railway that enables Nigerians work in Abuja and live in Kaduna, he was forced to admit that the project was conceived, built and completed by the Jonathan administration.
“At that event, President Muhammadu Buhari said about the $1.5 billion project and I quote ‘This project was conceived by a previous administration, started by the last government.’ My question to Mr. Shehu is this-who is a liar between him and his boss?
“I also urge Garba Shehu to take note of the fact that the only Federal University in his boss’s home state of Katsina was built by the Jonathan administration in addition to 13 other universities and 165 Almajiri schools built all over Nigeria. For people who don’t value education, I am not surprised that they see this as “nothing to show!”
Reacting to Shehu’s claims that 21 states owed salaries during the previous regime, Omokri asked if the presidential aide does not know that Nigeria is a federation and as such, the federal government cannot control the states.
“No wonder they are against restructuring and want to throw the report of the 2014 National Conference into the dustbin,” he said.
“Mr. Garba Shehu would do well to remember that his boss promised Nigerians 3 million jobs every year. Rather, according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, 4.58 million jobs, created by the Jonathan led PDP administration, were lost in his boss’s first year.”
Omokri said the Jonathan administration revived the “moribund” Nigerian Railways Corporation, adding that it is “laughable” for Shehu to cite the fight against corruption and the terror war as major achievements of the Buhari administration.
While questioning the present administration’s claim that Boko Haram has been “technically defeated,” he asked: “How can a defeated Boko Haram now have the ability to kidnap policewomen and oil explorers? How can a defeated Boko Haram attack military formations? How can a defeated Boko Haram carry out more suicide bombings in the last eight months than at any other time in Nigeria’s history?”
“Garba Shehu can continue living in his fool’s paradise but he should give Nigerians more credit than to issue the pathetic tissue of lies that he called a response to former President Jonathan’s comments at this past weekend’s non elective Congress of the PDP.
“The time for propaganda is long gone. Anybody who wants to differ should speak to those issues raised, and not boasts about accomplishments that are not visible. The succeeding administration has been on the saddle for more than half of its four-year tenure.”
