Buhari is a master in blaming others for his failures – Dogara

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari, is a master in blaming everybody but himself for his apparent failures.

The speaker made detailed references to prove his point in a statement he made available to newsmen on Tuesday.

He was reacting to a claim by Buhari on Monday in an interview broadcast on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), where the President blamed the National Assembly for the late passage of 2019 appropriation bill into law.

Buhari had said in the said recorded interview: “I asked them how they felt to hold the country at ransom for seven months without passing a budget. Unfortunately, they were not hurting me; they were hurting the country. So, really, in terms of patriotism, I think I rated them very low indeed.”

Part of Dogara’s response to Buhari read, “His first budget was the 2016 budget, which was submitted on December 22, 2015, exactly nine days to the end of the fiscal year.

“The minimum time the National Assembly requires to pass a budget is three months. But he presented it just nine days to 2016’ and that ‘what Nigerians didn’t know and the President won’t say is that the Executive through the various ministries continued to propose additional projects to be included in the 2018 budget even as at April and May which further delayed the passage of the 2018 budget. These were communicated officially and if anyone is in doubt, the letters are there with the dates they were written and received. But here’s Buhari blaming the National Assembly.’

“President Muhammadu Buhari a few days ago, in his usual characteristics of self-righteousness, and buck-passing blamed tardiness in the passage of budgets by the National Assembly for the delay in the completion of projects across the country by his government.

“To be precise, the president said, ‘If the National Assembly takes seven months to pass a budget, then we should be commended for the much that we have achieved, and can still achieve. I personally feel very disappointed. I spoke with the leaders of the National Assembly on the issue that seven months is a long time to work on a budget.’

“Even though buck passing and blame game is not new to Buhari as it is now his stock in trade; in the past few days and weeks, there is no day that passes without the President blaming others in a desperate move to exonerate himself from any blame or failure of the Executive under his leadership to execute projects across the country.

“In fact, very recently, Buhari blamed all his predecessors for failing to build infrastructure. And I wonder why? It was the general consensus that the former employees didn’t perform as expected and that was why Nigerians hired him for a job he has sought for four conservative times but here he is blaming the same people he replaced. If you are the boss of ” Nigeria limited”, what will you do this employee?

“Some weeks ago, he even blamed the media for failing to showcase his achievements.

“I’m very disappointed with the Nigerian press. They didn’t give this government the credit of the go back to the land programme,” he said on 26 October. Time and space would not permit me to list all his ‘blaming’.

“However, it is disingenuous for President Muhammad Buhari to blame the National Assembly for his government’s inability to implement budget and execute projects that affect the lives of Nigerians in the last three years.

“To set the record straight, this is a President who, from the inception of his government didn’t show any sign that he was well prepared and ready for the job he sought for four times in 16 years and for which we voted for him.

“For instance, it took him six months, yes six months not six weeks to form his cabinet. It also took him two years to appoint board chairmen for most government agencies. This is was his greatest undoing and was principally responsible for plunging Nigeria into recession because activities in Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of government were brought to a half for the period since civil servants could not take decisions due to the absence of political heads in a country where public sector spending drives the economy. At a point, he even said he was happily working with civil servants because ministers or politicians were noisemakers because ‘they are only there to make a lot of noises’, he told a French television station in September 2015.

“Now, after three years, with the election in three months, the President is at it again, exonerating himself from the apparent failure of his government thereby throwing the blame right at the doorstep of the legislature. But facts don’t lie and they could be stubborn and here are the facts.

“Since his assuming office, the president has been unable to present the budget on time. His first budget was the 2016 budget which was submitted on December 22, 2015, exactly nine days to the end of the fiscal year.

“The minimum the National Assembly requires to pass a budget is three months. But he presented it just nine days to 2016.

“Again, the 2017 budget was presented on December 14, 2016, just 17 days to the end of 2016. ‘The earliest he presented budget was on November 7, 2017, which was the 2018 appropriations bill. It was less than two months to the end of the year.

“However, his ministers refused to appear before National Assembly committees to defend the budget for five months thereby delaying the passage.

“It was after the leadership of the National Assembly sought the President’s intervention on March 16, 2018, that the ministers reluctantly appeared before the committees, an exercise that takes at least one month to complete.

“In fact, some of them who felt they were super ministers sent in their permanent secretaries.

“What Nigerians didn’t know and the President won’t say is that the Executive through the various ministries continued to propose additional projects to be included in the 2018 budget even as at April and May which further delayed the passage of the 2018 budget. These were communicated officially and if anyone is in doubt the letters are there with the dates they were written and received. But here’s Buhari blaming the National Assembly.”