The 2016 Independence Day speeches by President Muhammadu Buhari and former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi is a reflection of the differences in the powers of their minds, writes Reno Omokri
What I find most ironic about this past October 1st is that Peter Obi and President Muhammadu Buhari both spoke on Independence Day, yet we cannot remember what President Buhari said and cannot forget what Peter Obi said. Days after, the Nigerian media has moved on from President Buhari’s speech and is still digesting and re-digesting the powerful points that Peter Obi gave without reading from a speech! President Buhari read from a prepared speech, yet made little impact. Peter Obi spoke from his heart and made lasting impact on Nigerians!
And I began to ask myself: when will we get leaders like Peter Obi and Ben Murray-Bruce? People who know our problems and proffer solutions?
Why are we as a people so ‘blessed’ with people who think there is virtue in knowing how to blame others for things that they should be responsible for? I listened to the President’s Independence Day speech and there was no clear cut plan to inspire Nigerians that our leader knows how to pilot us out of the recession. I listened to Peter Obi’s speech on the same day and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was a man who knew what to do to get Nigeria out of recession.
For a President, who prides himself on personal integrity, President Buhari’s speech was full of lies. I think it is better to plagiarise than to lie. If the President could fire the deputy director, who allegedly plagiarised President Obama’s speech for him, then he should consider sacking the man or men who wrote the pack of lies that was his Independence Day Broadcast.
Hear the President: “Investors from all over the world are falling over themselves to come and do business in Nigeria.” Really, Mr. President! The sad thing is that three days before President Buhari made that unfortunate statement, the World Economic Forum had just released its 2016 Global Competitiveness Report and their verdict was that of the 138 nations ranked, Nigeria is the 127th worst nation in the world to do business!
Just weeks before the President’s statement, Bloomberg had reported that there is a massive disinvestment of foreign investors from Nigeria! I later found out that President Buhari had appointed a second Personal Assistant on Social Media to add to his four existing media aides bringing the number to five! Maybe they are the foreign investors that are ‘falling over themselves’ to invest in Nigeria!
But on a serious note, the exact amount of Foreign Portfolio Investment that existed in Nigeria in the second quarter of 2015 (Jonathan’s era) was $2.81 billion. The exact amount that existed in the second quarter of 2016 (President Buhari’s era) is $245.3 million. Mr. President, your advisers have deceived you. The truth is that foreign investors are falling over themselves to get out of Nigeria!
No fewer than eight international airlines have left Nigeria. This was the headline of Bloomberg just six months ago ‘Nigeria Promise Turns to Peril as Investors Head for the Exits’. Many of those airlines which have chosen to remain in Nigeria have instead moved their office and staff to Ghana and only come to Nigeria to pick up passengers!
And yet our President looked us right in the camera and said “investors from all over the world are falling over themselves to come and do business in Nigeria.” No wonder we all forgot about your speech almost as soon as it was over! Who needs their intelligence insulted by such blatant lies?
Peter Obi and President Buhari are a perfect example of Mind Power (Obi) and Might Power (President Buhari). Which power do you think Nigeria needs? That is a question I will leave to your conscience!
-Omokri is the founder of the Mind of Christ Christian Center in California and the host of Transformation with Reno Omokri
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I listened to the President’s Independence Day speech and there was no clear cut plan to inspire Nigerians that our leader knows how to pilot us out of the recession. I listened to Peter Obi’s speech on the same day and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was a man who knew what to do to get Nigeria out of recession
