The presidency revealed on Monday that some political promises were made in 2015 during campaigns that even President Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, was unaware of.
Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, stated this during an interview on Channels Television.
He spoke against the backdrop of some criticisms leveled at Buhari, as well as allegations of failure to keep campaign promises. Adesina was specifically responding to the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, who criticized Buhari in his Easter message for selling a portion of the presidential fleet.
But Adesina in response queried the authenticity of such a promise and slammed Kukah for allowing his opinions to be coloured by politics.
He said;
Those things don’t do credit to Father Kukah’s intellectual posture. He is somebody that we had always admired for his intellectual bent but his opinions have been coloured by politics.
He talked about selling the presidential fleet. Was that ever promised? In 2015, there were promises made that even the candidate did not know about.
Adesina clarified that what Buhari promised was a review of the fleet rather than a blanket sale. According to the media aide, the President has kept his promise by selling two to three presidential jets and two to three helicopters given to the Nigerian Air Force.
President Buhari promised to look at the presidential fleet which he did. Helicopters were given to the Air Force, two or three jets were sold off.
That is cutting off excesses. What some people expect is selling off all the jets and start flying the Nigerian Airways if Nigerian Airways still exists, he said.
Sickness Hampered Buhari’s Performance
Also during the interview, Adesina claimed Buhari’s eight-month sickness in 2017 caused a setback for the aspirations of the current administration.
The presidential media aide said;
It should be because when he fell sick in January 2017, he came back in March (and) went again in April and didn’t come back till August 19.
About all, eight months. That sickness took eight months of his time in the office. Of course, nobody would like that. But what we are glad about is that he came whole, sound and better than he went.