PDP Founding Father Speaks About Buhari, Jonathan, Names Those Behind Naira Depreciation

Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi used to be a minister of state for education in the Jonathan administration. In a rare interview, a founding father of the Peoples Democratic Party, a lawyer and a criminologist speaks about the depreciation of naira, current affairs, why Nigerians must give a chance to Buhari and his team, and many more.

Read the excerpts of the interview below:

Goodluck Jonathan is a lucky man to have lost the election

“We had reached the end of the road under him (Jonathan). That we had a change of government, itself, has given us a breather. What the breather means is that we have a better hope than before. A lot of Nigerians now expect something as against when we had no expectation. What we are looking for now is how President Buhari will get us out of the messy situation we are in.”

Why Buhari has difficulty picking ministers

“You have to be extra careful with some appointments. I know that Nigerians can be impatient. We are becoming restless. What Buhari is going through is as a result of the distrust we have for our leaders. We cannot live in a country like this. The president now has difficulty appointing ministers not because he does not want to appoint ministers.

“What the president saw when he got to that office was shocking to him. It is shocking that Nigeria has degenerated to that level. Now looking at the whole states you have 15 names you go and vet the names all you will see are former thieves. So, I ask that people should be a bit patient with Buhari.”

Buhari had not done anything different by appointing people from his part of the country

“There are appointments that the president has to make under constitutional conditionality, but there are some that are strictly under his prerogative. We can compare him with other former presidents of Nigeria and see if he had done anything different. You cannot appoint a Minister of Niger Delta from Lagos. It is not possible because the constitution has taken care of that. But if you talk about some appointments, it is based on what the president wants.”

We don’t have any reason for naira to be over N200 to one US dollar

“If President Buhari does what he needs to do properly with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Department of States Services, the currency will appreciate. The only reason our currency is going down is because we are doing round-tripping. At the end of the month, governors, local government chairmen, doctors, ministers go to black-market and convert all the money belonging to tax payers to dollars and carry it away. So, with proper check and balance with the Bank Verification Number and what we are now going through the currency will drop. We don’t have any reason for our currency to be over N200 to a dollar.”

Buhari’s fight against poverty: give him time till the end of this year

“Warri refinery is now producing at 90%, Kaduna is also producing. Leave Buhari to settle down and let us attack him when we need to attack him. Let us give him till end of this year then next year we can start asking questions. A great father just sits down in the house and by his behaviour all his children behave well. If you watch, people who rushed for appointment in Jonathan’s government are running away from going to pick appointment in Buhari’s government. Nigeria has gotten something good.”

Details on Vanguard

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