ASO ROCK VIDEO: HOW CAN BUHARI'S GUESTS GIVE UPDATES FROM THAT DISTANCE WITH COVERED MOUTHS?

The pressure was immense-President Buhari still hadn't addressed nigerians like his counter-parts across the world were doing almost on a daily basis and to compound his woes,there was the audio recording of a lady narrating how he and Abba Kyari were smuggled abroad in the middle of the night.There was a denial by the presidency that ended up doing more harm than good with more voices demanding proof of Buhari's whereabouts.

A nigerian news outlet,Roots TV Nigeria was reporting exclusively that Abba Kyari had been sighted at Wellington Hospital in London.It certainly didn't help that an Australian based influencer by the name of Imam Tawhidi more popularly known as Imam of Peace had taken over twitter and was trending Anti-Buhari hashtags in just a matter of minutes.In addition to the question 'When will Buhari talk to us?', was the question 'Where is Buhari?'.

His aide on new media, Bashir Ahmad had posted a picture of the President working late on Thursday night at an office in the state house but the thing is we had already been told earlier that he would be working from home.There was also a screenshot of picture details posted by Imam Tawhidi clearly indicating that the picture was actually taken on 15th January.

That was of course after Femi Adesina had gone on tv to say addressing nigerians was not 'Buhari's style'.His media team were making a huge mess of the situation and it was clear one way or the other,Buhari would have to show himself at some point.

On Saturday afternoon,a 29 second video was released along with photos of President Buhari at Aso Rock meeting with the Minister of Health, Dr E.O Enahire and the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu.They were there to give updates to the President on the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.It first has to be noted that Buhari being around to attend the meeting doesn't necessarily mean he had been at the villa all along.He has a presidential jet at his beck and call and could have been flown back secretly last night just to pose for the cameras.

Secondly,that is undoubtedly what that meeting was; Buhari posing for the cameras.Nigerians needed to think he was not only around but also working as well.Only in the typically incompetent fashion with which the President and those around him have operated, they didn't take into consideration the fact that Buhari's 2 guests who were there to give him updates wore face masks while the President himself who was supposed to listen to them had none.

In adherence to their own social distancing directive,the health minister and DG NCDC were seated at a distance from the President where it was totally impossible for them to utter anything he would comprehend with their mouths covered by face masks.The issue isn't whether the video and pictures are genuine because they appear very much so,it is about the desperation to portray Buhari as being up and doing when he clearly isn't.

If they badly needed to remedy the situation,while not type up a speech and put him on tv?.At least he won't make a mess of himself if no one asks any questions.At the UN general assembly meeting last year,he was asked about the place of nigerian youths in the country's future (perhaps to get him to remedy calling them lazy) when he took out a prepared speech and proceeded to talk about climate change.The man can at least read.

Addressing nigerians would help his cause way more than a pathetically staged meeting.The DG of the NCDC and the Minister of Health with mouths covered,were only there to act their parts and leave.

More questions are bound to spring up in the coming days.You cannot get infected if you are already infected; Does Buhari not needing to protect himself with a face mask like his 2 guests mean he already has coronavirus?.His bosom friend, Abba Kyari already has it and a Director-General of the NCDC willing to come and take part in a video skit at the request of the President is more than capable of concealing a positive status.Was Buhari flown back to London on saturday night?.

As the need to relieve the President of pressure arises,it should be noted that nigerians are not foolish.

CORONAVIRUS: BUHARI NEEDS TO BE MORE RESPECTFUL

Bowing to public opinion in virtually all cases translates to bowing to what is right.Like the all too popular saying goes 'Vox populi Vox dei' (the voice of the people is the voice of God).Nigerians had grown sick and tired of watching other Presidents not only give regular updates to the press since the coronavirus scourge started but also make themselves available for questions each time they did.

They expected Buhari to lead from the front by reassuring them personally that his administration was doing everything humanly possible to contain the spread of the virus on our soil if at all he was not going to tell them how he planned to utilize the N1trn intervention fund the Central Bank was handing him.Even his rubber stamp Senate was calling on him to speak up.

Buhari was quiet and his fellow country men didn't look like they would stop banging on his door.Then finally on Sunday 22nd March, his aide on new media, Bashir Ahmad posted a 23 second video of Buhari telling nigerians he was working together with the Ministry of Health to tackle the spread of the virus.He had bowed to the voice of the people but to be quite frank, Buhari couldn't have displayed a more blatant disregard for not only the Nigerian people but the gravity of the situation his inaction and improvidence has landed them in.Is Bashir Ahmad's twitter page now the official medium to address 200 million nigerians?.Since when did we matter so little?.

If Buhari was refusing to talk,there were ways of disguising his reluctance like a written statement for example instead of being recorded speaking for 23 seconds with no clear beginning indicating whom he was referring to and no definite end to a video that stopped while he was still talking.

For a man that has failed his people and is the singular reason why we are in this mess,Buhari needs to be remorseful and show us some respect.

Nigerians run to places like China,Italy and the US to treat ailments our hospitals can't handle.The mere fact that these places were struggling to deal with this disease is the reason why a responsive government would have restricted entry from the coronavirus hot spots after the very first case.We simply can't afford to have an epidemic here.

If you lock down a nigerian city for a week,there are people the government would have to start making plans to feed because they might have to attack and steal from those with enough food.How can a government that occasionally joins us to lament figures on how many people in Nigeria live in poverty fail to take into consideration what it would do to most nigerians if you tell them to abandon their means of livelihood and stay at home?.What about those in the rural areas?.Are we capable of catering for them just as well as we would those in the cities?.How many medical facilities and medical personnel do we even have in these places?.

Whether due to a 'disease no dey kill black man' mentality or out of sheer wickedness,Buhari sat back and did nothing even when an overwhelming number of nigerians were calling on government to ban entry from high risk countries.A third case was confirmed just hours after the first 2 were testing negative and we were coronavirus-free.The only logical explanation to Buhari's refusal to fight the world's biggest health scare with travel restrictions despite most countries having done so was that he wanted to deal with a problem we would rather not have instead of preventing it.

A lot of nigerians were ecstatic when his coronavirus committee eventually announced an entry ban from 13 highest risk countries but when we were told barely an hour later that we had recorded 5 new confirmed cases at once from persons coming in from the UK and the US, you just had to see it what for what it really was-a damage control measure intended to absolve Buhari of blame.People would be too carried away with news of the ban to go hard at him for refusing to shield us from these easily preventable 5 cases; by far the highest we had ever recorded at once.

On a sunday people were waiting to see if the President would at least suspend his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Garba Shehu for not only posting an invite to a gathering of Barewa College old boys a day earlier in flagrant disobedience to the government's call for such events to be discouraged but also for attending as keynote speaker,Buhari chose the twitter page of his aide on new media to hand us a 23 second bumble on his government doing its best to tackle coronavirus.

It is important no one laughs too hard at the 'Covik 1 9' sound bite to forget that the man who made us all sitting ducks to this virus feels throwing a 23 second video through an aide on twitter would pass for an address to the good people of this country.Such disrespect must not be tolerated.

THESE TOP NIGERIAN ARTISTES BADLY NEED A HIT..

Music is a very professionally run business overseas.Labels have carefully thought out pre and post release plans after they have decided on what time is best for artistes to drop new songs.

And in determining such perfect time,a lot of considerations are weighed.From the most common-the buzz or release schedule of bigger acts to the most curious like weather season of the year.

Knowing when to do what is just as key in these times as having the talent itself.Yemi Alade's Oh My Gosh remix with Rick Ross came 4 months prior to her Woman Of Steel album and had everyone's attention.The video of her Shekere song with Angelique Kidjo released just last month is boosting her stock right now but if she had released it right after the song with Rick Ross as a pre-album video,it would have done her body of work a whole lot of good instead of just the artiste as it is currently doing.Be that as it may,not everyone is lucky enough to have a Shekere help out when the chips are down.

Below are 4 top nigerian artistes that badly need a hit.

WIZKID

Nigeria's most loved musician has always had a very loyal fan base that will hype even the worst of songs out of proportion on social media but the plain truth is that Wizzy's numerous misses are starting to take a toll on his career.He has not had a bonafide hit for quite some time and with the insane last 2 years Burna boy has had,he has lost the number one African music export tag.Wizkid's biggest undoing has to be releasing an unimpressive EP on the back of poorly accepted singles.If ever anyone was reluctant to jump into hasty conclusions as to the dire times Wizkid was facing,that EP cleared their doubts.

BURNA BOY

In an article i wrote on Burna boy years ago,i said he lacked the enchanting appeal of Wizkid and Davido and that unlike both who were guaranteed to still have fans around even when the music isn't good,Burna boy enjoys no such luxury.

His fan base stretches across that of every other artiste around.They may not love the man seperated from the music but they sure love the music.To put it another way,people who love Burna boy are fans of good music and once that is lacking,everyone is off.He has been criticized for his last 2 songs; Money Play and Odogwu with the case of the latter being particularly sad because it came right after Burna boy's twitter rant about being the best since Fela and Africa's music messiah.For a guy that most people were indifferent about outside the music,he stacked the odds against himself.

The award season is over and with the exception of maybe the headies which may have a slot or two for his African Giant album,he has to define his destiny going forward.Like we've seen happen with Wizkid when he was in the global spotlight,there will be a couple more international features and then it will start to go downhill if he can't get back to making songs like he used to.

NAIRA MARLEY

The Marlian movement caught fire when Naira Marley was neck deep in his travails with the EFCC and when he was released on bail,everything he touched turned to gold.He was no longer the artiste with just a hit song bigger than he was (Issa Goal).He had arguably the biggest song of 2019 in Soapy and also had the streets vibing to Mafo but then the demystification of Naira Marley started when he chose to drop an EP that wasn't well accepted.He has videos out for the 2 best tracks of that project in Tesumole & Tingasa featuring his signee,C-Black and if there is one thing i can say with all certainty,it is that each very much had the potential to continue Naira Marley's winning streak if released as a single.He is more involved these days with helping his Marlian Records artistes have a solid footing in the industry but then a waning artistic reputation isn't helping his cause.

NINIOLA 

The Akpata sisters-Teni and Niniola are the closest contenders to Tiwa Savage's number one female artiste title and while Teni would escape being on this list on the back of the decent impact her Billionaire song has made despite both her debut EP and current single, Marry being heavy misses, Niniola hasn't come close to making appreciable impact since Designer featuring Sarz.

She was not only the hottest female artiste in the country when the This is Me album dropped in 2017,she wrote her name in gold for introducing the Nigerian audience to the afro-house music genre.

Last year she released Broda Sodiq and Omo Rapala; both great songs that didn't hit the expected heights and though some fans have always chosen to over look impact and focus on quality, her latest single with Femi Kuti titled Fantasy makes it practically impossible to under-play the Niniola situation.She needs to get as much love as she used to.Just a hit would heighten the frenzy round the Niniola name and ensure her good songs don't go to waste.

12 SUPER TUCANO PLANES: BUHARI NEEDS TO EXPLAIN WHERE $167M OF OUR MONEY WENT

In 2018,President Buhari hurriedly withdrew $496M from the excess crude account without the approval of the senate as is stipulated by the Nigerian constitution to pay for 12 Super Tucano planes.In a letter sent after the money had already been withdrawn, Buhari deliberately left them in the dark as to the model of the planes and told the senate that he was rushing to meet a deadline.That is the first red flag as far as the purported $496M purchase of 12 Super Tucano light assault airplanes is concerned.Was our President being duped by fraudsters?.

The US government (which sent us $40M in aid just weeks ago by the way) would ordinarily buy and hand us those planes if they could, considering our well publicized fight against terror and not set a deadline for the purchase of fighter planes from a defense contractor operating in its territory.It was absurd.But somebody played his card well.

The Bukola Saraki led senate wasn't Buhari's rubber stamp.It would grill him or anyone he sends over on the costs of those planes after finding out all there is to know about them.Buhari then would be forced to disclose the model and why he is paying a staggering $41M each for them when a quick search will reveal an A 29 model ranges from $25M to $30M at the very most.

An article i stumbled on by The Defence Post about a week ago made things explicitly clear.The man didn't want anyone knowing how much was really going to be spent on those planes.The US government has to approve arms requests to defense contractors and it turns out the US Department of defense issued a press release on Wednesday 28th November 2018 saying the Pentagon had awarded a $329M contract to Sierra Nevada for the construction of 12 A 29 Super Tucano light assault air planes for the Nigerian Air Force.

Not only that, a caveat was included in the undefinitized contract for the sum not to exceed $344M.That answers why Buhari hurriedly withdrew $496M; a staggering $167M more than the contract sum.Be clear on this,there was never any ambiguity as to the price he claims to have paid for those planes-$496M!!.And At no point did he say it included other purchases.

There were media reports as early as February 2018 that Buhari had paid for the planes and not until April 17th 2018 did the Senate get his letter explaining why payment had to be quick.HOW DID BUHARI PAY IN EARLY 2018 FOR A CONTRACT THAT WASN'T EVEN AWARDED TILL LATE THAT YEAR?.The press release from the US Department of Defense also clearly states that payment would be made shortly after the award of the contract.Technically,Buhari couldn't have paid for those planes any earlier than 28th November 2018 despite having written to the senate 7 months,2 weeks and 3 days before that saying he didn't seek their approval in accordance with our laws because he had to rush payment.It is as clear as day,Buhari is not being honest.When he sought and got approval from the governors to withdraw $1bn from the Excess Crude Account to tackle insecurity,quite a number of people screamed to high heavens about it being a ploy to reserve money for the 2019 elections.Buhari's dubious purchase has all but confirmed that.

The contract entered into on our behalf by the US government with Sierra Nevada for those 12 planes clearly states that the contract sum is $329M and that it must not exceed $344M.That is a term on which the validity of the contract stands so it is not in any way possible for Buhari to pay more than that amount.He owes us $167M or at the very least, $152M.

Before i read the Defence Post article,i had said much earlier that there was a great chance the americans used the shady plane purchase to scare Buhari behind the scenes into releasing activist,Omoyele Sowore.They had him by the balls so bad,he added former National Security Adviser,Sambo Dasuki as a bonus; a man who ironically, Buhari is prosecuting for embezzling funds meant to fight boko haram.Even without this piece of overwhelming evidence,the $41M Buhari claimed to have paid for each of the 12 light assault planes was just too outrageous.The fact that they weren't forthcoming with the model of the planes meant they were hiding something.

Just days ago,the US raised alarm over Buhari's plan to hand $100M out of an Abacha loot they had recovered to Governor of Kebbi state,Atiku Bagudu and Buhari's people are denying without being confrontational.They don't want to make an enemy of the americans.

Now it is out in the open, the United States government entered into a $329M contract for 12 A 29 Super Tucano light assault planes with Sierra Nevada; planes President Buhari claims to have paid $496M for.Buhari owes us an explanation as to where $167M of that sum went.

IS PRESIDENT BUHARI A BOKO HARAM MEMBER?

Senator Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe state is sponsoring a bill to create an agency to handle the rehabilitation of boko haram members.The bill like the social media and hate speech bills,is believed to be a brain child of the Buhari administration which started the Operation Safe Corridor programme in 2016 for the same purpose; rehabilitating boko haram members.

The causes Buhari is passionate about have almost all the time been sold to us by people other than himself-Lai Mohammed dealt with us on the issue of the FG's plan to start a fulani radio station while Audu Ogbeh handled that of RUGA settlements.

Quite a number of prominent nigerians in commentaries on the current spate of killings in the country, have at one point or the other over the last few years,hinted of an islamization and fulanization agenda.Some even accusing the security agencies of complicity.At this point,it is not safe to wave those concerns aside.

Why is this government very interested in releasing captured boko haram fighters in a war it is still fighting?.It is one thing for boko haram to surrender or fall to the might of the nigerian military and another thing altogether for these terrorists to be released because they say they have 'changed' while their colleagues are still out there killing innocent nigerians at an alarming rate.Quote me anywhere,no country in the world does that.

Captured boko haram terrorists need not bother denying whatever they are accused of,all they have to do is just say they have 'repented'.My heart goes out to every soldier at the battle front laying his life down for this country.We don't deserve it.He loses friends fighting these terrorists but still musters enough courage to carry on.Some he has had to sit and watch being slaughtered in videos.

My heart goes out to the families of the Auno attack victims who were told their loved ones were set ablaze in vehicles conveying them to Maiduguri.Their leaders obviously aren't worried about sending out reinforcements to these blood suckers; reinforcements to the tune of 1,400 persons going by the figures presented days ago by the Borno state government.

If the military chooses to believe its own lies then that is its problem but to be frank,they are nowhere close to defeating boko haram.I don't think any President would be stupid enough to send out 'rehabilitated' members of a terrorist group at this point of a war in spite of the very frightening chances of strenthening them.Except of course he is a boko haram member himself or is at the very least,sympathetic to their cause.

President Buhari's extremist tendencies are no secret.

As a matter of fact,former presidential candidate of the AAC and publisher of popular news site Sahara Reporters,Omoyele Sowore said while still in DSS custody that he was denied phone calls to his family while boko haram commanders not only enjoyed that privilege,they also had access to televison sets and cable tv in their cells.In 2001,Buhari said "We will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of sharia in the whole country.I will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria ".Also in 2012,the boko haram sect of all the people alive,appointed President Buhari to mediate on its behalf in a proposed sit down by the Jonathan administration.

I don't know about you but for me,anyone appointed a mediator on behalf of a group is presumably well acquainted with its ideologies and goals.

Buhari's recent statements on boko haram have quite regrettably appeared more PR for the sect.Shortly after it had killed a Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, boko haram executed a christian student of the University of Maiduguri named Ropvil Dalyep on his way back to school and openly declared war against christians in that video.Buhari said boko haram had killed even more muslims than christians.If he was trying to depict boko haram as targeting more muslims than christians,he failed woefully.Most people already know anyone; muslim or christian who doesn't believe in what boko haram is selling is considered an enemy.Buhari acting like he didn't know is not a good look.

During his condolence visit to Borno after the Auno massacre,his comments suggesting the local leadership in Borno were in bed with boko haram at such a delicate time could have just been a carefully orchestrated plan to cause chaos,promote distrust and allow the terrorists more room to operate than a genuine grievance.Everything points to that there is an ulterior motive behind the efforts Buhari,Geidam and co. are putting into releasing boko haram members.

None of them is worried about what it would mean to the christian population for a people that have openly promised to wage war against them to be released.Or what it would do to the morale of soldiers fighting the war against terror to know government with its eyes very wide open sent the enemy possible reinforcements by the thousands.None of them care what the average nigerian that has been asking how many arrested boko haram terrorists have been prosecuted will think.

May we know the whole truth some day.

LETTER TO EL RUFAI @ 60-YOUR REPUTATION FOR HYPOCRISY OVERSHADOWS THE GOOD YOU DO

Dear Mallam El Rufai,

Happy Birthday.Let me first start by saying i have nothing personal against you.Expect to see me singing your praises when next you do anything that calls for such.You i must say, are a queer type of politician.The type everyone agrees does well any time he is called upon to serve but is also curiously enough, widely despised for aligning personal interest with public discontent to pursue his selfish ends.Your reputation for hypocrisy is legendary.

The people you worked for and sang praises of are also the same people you have turned on to move up in life.However i must say that in 2010,you rendered the most honest of your duplicitous declamations when you described President Buhari as 'expired and perpetually unelectable'.You went on to not only sing his praises as a member of his party but to actively work for his victory in 2015.What you said has proven true.

I am sure over the last few months you have seen several old tweets of yours against the Jonathan administration being dug up and spoken of in relation to the current state of the country under President Muhammadu Buhari.You expressed worries over our debts doubling under President Jonathan in 2012 and how it would affect the future of the younger ones.Today you have not only remained mute while our debt profile has trippled under President Buhari from N7.8trn to over N27 trn,you have sat down as head of an ad-hoc committee on the ownership of power distribution companies to say N1.7trn has been pumped into the power companies in 3 years.

Note also that Vice-President Yomi Osinbajo had mentioned earlier that government had spent N900bn since coming into office on power and was planning a further N600bn in 'intervention'.Going by what you both have told us,the Buhari administration has already spent about N3trn on power.What Buhari is probing Obasanjo for spending in 8 years with no results,he has already done in 5.If you point a finger at someone, 3 are pointing back at you.You all will never take that probe seriously because it will arouse much interest in Buhari's own expenditure since he assumed office.

Even if N1.7trn was really spent on the companies in 3 years as you have claimed,don't you think its stupid to pump that much with your eyes wide open and then heap the blame on them?. My point Mallam Nasiru is that you have not only remained mute while a worse panhandler than Jonathan continues to mortgage away our future,you are a key component of the system and was caught more or less justifying a classic case of how our future is being wasted away.

At the very least you were assured of a ministerial appointment if Buhari won.The motive was never our best interests.The few that doubted it then will agree now.The most intriguing recollection of your past utterances the internet has spawned over the last month has to be an interview you had with tv news station,TVC while President Jonathan was in office.Let me quote some of the things you said-

"We are just applying military force and we think we can resolve an insurgency?.Its not going to happen.I have been in government.I have ran a territory.I know the amount of information i get, security reports i get as Minister.The President gets 50 times that.And i put it to you and i challenge anyone including DG SSS to this; the SSS knows who these insurgents are.They are not ghosts,they know them.The President knows them.They are just unwilling to do it".

Going by this logic President Buhari knows who boko haram is.And to be quite honest,Buhari should not only be accused of knowing who and where boko haram are but also of being in bed with them.His extremist tendencies are no secret.In 2001,he said "We will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of sharia in the whole country ".

As you very well know also,they appointed him a mediator on their behalf in a proposed dialogue by the Jonathan administration in 2012.Political activist and Sahara Reporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore said while in DSS detention,he was denied calls to his family while top commanders of the sect had access to Phones,TVs and Cable in their cells.Since the Operation Safe Corridor programme began in 2016,a mind-blowing figure of 1,400 boko haram terrorists have been released.

Nigerian soldiers who spoke to TheCable are bitter as to why that is the case with one even quoted as saying they go through a lot to arrest these terrorists only for some top persons to come and negotiate their release.That is not done anywhere else in the world.No one captures ISIS or Al-Shabaab terrorists and lets them go after a short while only because they say 'they have repented'.Except of course they are part of the 'cause' or are at the very least, sympathetic to it.

The only time President Jonathan considered releasing boko haram terrorists was when they proposed an exchange for the kidnapped Chibok girls.Mallam,you are silent.

As you turn 60,i hope you dedicate the remainder of your days to speaking the truth at all times to power and not only when it works in your favour.You are said to be angling for a VP slot in 2023 with the visits of Former President Obasanjo and Former Vice-President Namadi Sambo being interpreted as a ploy to buttress political value.

The fact that you are not much coveted despite having done well in office is entirely your doing.I hope you transit from self-love to genuine love for country.Happy Birthday once again.

WHY IS BUHARI BORROWING $22.6BN TO 'COMPLETE' PROJECTS LESS THAN HALF THAT SUM WILL FUND FROM START TO FINISH?.

The United States government will soon send over a fresh $308M looted from our treasury by late head of state and former boss of President Buhari, General Sani Abacha.The Attorney General of the Federation,Abubakar Malami in a statement published on the website of the American embassy,said the funds will be put into the 2nd Niger bridge,the Lagos-Ibadan expressway and the ,Abuja-Kano expressway.Evenly spread across all 3, that would mean N37bn to each and a significant raise in levels of completion.

The Senate under Bukola Saraki if you remember withheld a $29.9 bn loan approval on the ground that there was nothing sent to it indicating what the money would be used for.Eventually Buhari got approval for a $6 bn loan and is now before this senate seeking its nod to go for about $22.6 bn which Saraki's red chamber did not approve.Though many doubt it will happen,the senate claims to be considering a public hearing before it makes a decision.

Buhari has set forth as his reasons for seeking this fresh loan,the completion of '5 Legacy Projects' which are the 2nd Niger bridge,the Lagos-Ibadan expressway,the Abuja-Kano expressway,the East-West road and the Mambilla power station.Also note that in 2018, Lai Mohammed specifically told nigerians that the Buhari administration had set aside $1.5bn for these same 5 projects.The monies that have been tied to these projects since their commencement are enough to build a world class city and it is time we wake up and start asking the right questions.

Former Minister of Works and Housing,Babatunde Fashola told nigerians in 2018 that the 'main work' for the 2nd Niger bridge would cost N210 bn.With the benefit of retrospection, 'main work' now very much appears government's illusionary tactic to evade accountability.Just months later,the same government Fashola represented went ahead to award a N206 bn contract to Julius Berger Plc for its construction.To shock you,the contract was awarded after the spokespersons of both arms of the national assembly in a joint statement said unequivocally that there were allocations for the project in the 2016 and 2017 budgets that were NEVER UTILIZED; N12.5 bn in the 2016 budget and N7.5 bn in the 2017 budget.That means a total of N20 bn was supposed to go into the 2nd Niger bridge project but didn't at a time a contract for its construction hadn't even been awarded.

In December 2018, government released (not just approved), N33 bn for the construction of the bridge.Add that to the N20 bn the Senate said wasn't used and that gives you N53 bn.If half of the Abacha loot ($160M) is sunk into Nigeria's most expensive construction project, the Buhari administration would have paid for half of it already.The senate in justification of its slash in the funding of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway project to about N10bn in the 2017 budget accused the then Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola of lying to nigerians about the project and said only N26bn was released by Buhari out of the N40bn allocated to it.Give or take,government has so far spent much more than N40bn out of an estimated N168bn in the name of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.Especially if you consider also the $1.3bn Lai Mohammed mentioned.

Julius Berger like we all already know received an initial N50bn for the N155 bn Abuja-Kano expressway.Minus of course budgetary allocations and Lai's $1.3bn largesse.The case of the East-West road project is a very curious one.It is estimated to cost N167bn and the Federal Government allocated N6.7bn to it in the 2017 budget and N20bn in that of 2018.In April 2019,the then Minister of Niger-Delta,Pastor Usani Uguru told the house of representatives that government had allocated it N24bn and just days later,he was telling the National Gas and Oil Host Producing Communities (HOSTCOM) that President Buhari had approved N100bn for its completion.

WHY IN THE WORLD DOES BUHARI NEED AS MUCH AS $22.6BN JUST TO COMPLETE THESE PROJECTS?.Just $2bn (N726bn) will start and finish the N220bn 2nd Niger bridge,the Lagos-Ibadan expressway estimated at N168bn,the N155bn Kano-Abuja expressway and the N167bn East-West road with N16bn to spare.Note that i said start and finish.These are all on-going projects where although the several dubious amounts of huge sums being tied to them may not be commensurate to what it is on ground,some work has been done.Why is Buhari trying to borrow money that will start and finish them about 20 times over?.

The man is mortgaging away the future of this country and is sure to feel much more relaxed now with a National Assembly leadership he helped put in place.If you didn't back then,i'm sure now you are starting to understand why a sum as outrageous as N37bn would be allocated to the NASS for renovation.They need the money in place to be disbursed when issues like this come up.Fears of Buhari going for a 3rd term have abated after the man's express denial of harbouring such intentions but the manner in which public wealth is being unaccounted for means Nigerians have to be wary of a last minute dollar rain for that purpose.

As things currently stand,experts have said we would at least spend the next 30 years servicing the debt Buhari has piled on us.Government itself estimated the Mambilla Power project to cost a total of $5.8bn.Even if we choose to over-look the many times government has told us it has set aside money for all of these projects and have not asked what the money ended up being used for, $7bn is more than enough for what he has listed as 'legacy projects' including Mambilla.Nigerians need to push for the senate to make its hearing public.Let Buhari or whoever is coming to represent him explain to the country why they need $22.6bn to 'complete' on-going projects when much less than half that sum would start and finish them.

El Rufai was saying weeks ago that the Federal Government had spent N1.7trn on the Power companies in 3 years.They know the companies will not raise their voices for fear of losing their licenses.I ask-what degree of imbecility does it require to keep pumping in as much as N1.7trn without any tangible results?.Especially into companies the FG itself regulates.

They have spent N1.7trn on power with supply now worse than it used to be and by the time Buhari leaves in 2023 (If he does),they may have surpassed Obasanjo's N3trn.Remember that he was asking to borrow $1bn for power from the World bank just last year.Ponder no more on why Buhari will never take Obasanjo's power probe seriously.If he does, people will start asking about his own expenditure.

The entire Abacha loot will go into projects Buhari has been financing and wants to get a whole $22.6bn loan to complete.Even a blind man can see something is not right.