PDP Campaign Organisation has alleged that the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) spent a whopping N5 billion on the London trip jamboree and ‘arrangee’ Chatham House speaking engagement last week Thursday.
It described the APC presidential candidate, General Muhammdu Buhari’s speaking engagement at Chatham House as “a monumental failure”, saying it further exposed the APC as a party built on propaganda, deceit, make-believe and one which lacks respect for the people of Nigeria.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, Director of Media and Publicity of the PDP campaign organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode, insisted that Buhari was not scheduled to speak at Chatham House but the slot was purchased to divert attention from the real reason he was in London, which was medical.
“The point we are making is that General Buhari was not originally scheduled to go to Chatham House but in order to divert attention from the real purpose of the trip, the Chatham House speaking engagement was hurriedly put in place. The APC leaders begged for the speaking engagement and we are reliably informed that they paid for it,” he said.
Fani-Kayode spoke further, “The information at our disposal indicates that no less than N5 billion was budgeted for the London jamboree. This amount was wasted on General Buhari’s Chatham House speaking engagement, numerous foreign consultants, air tickets for the huge delegation, the contingent of governors, hotels bills, the purchase and renting of vehicles and other logistics. We challenge the APC and its leaders to contradict this information.
“We will like to reiterate our call on the APC to make General Buhari available for debates in Nigeria, if as the APC now claims, he performed very well during his procured speaking engagement. We also wish to ask if General Buhari is now a candidate seeking election in the United Kingdom or in Nigeria, after running away from debates organized by the Nigerian media.
“The ‘arrangee’ Chatham House event is another ploy, like the purported London interview, to hoodwink Nigerians and prevent General Buhari from debating in Nigeria. But we insist, General Buhari must debate in Nigeria.
“As a party, we are happy over this latest development as it will no longer give Buhari any excuse not to debate when he returns to Nigeria. The APC no longer has any hiding place, but to put General Buhari through a similar coaching course like in the UK, to debate in our beloved country on any media of choice with our candidate, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
“Despite this boldfaced attempt to hoodwink the international community, the lying APC and their malodorous and lying spokesman Mr. Lai (or is it Lie?) Mohammed, failed to adequately brief General Buhari, who could not help but display his poor grasp of the issues in Nigeria.
“Specifically, General Buhari goofed when he said at Chatham House that he would draw foreign investors to Nigeria. If the APC and General Buhari were in sane and in their right senses, they would have known that, under President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria has become one of the most preferred destinations for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the world.
“We are happy that General Buhari admitted that under President Jonathan, Nigeria is now the largest economy in Africa with a GDP now valued at $510 billion and economy rated 26th in the world. He also admitted that “on the bright side, inflation has been kept at single digit for a while and our economy has grown at an average for about a decade.”
“This is the first time General Buhari has admitted that anything good is happening in Nigeria under the watch of President Jonathan. General Buhari, however, lied when he said that the Jonathan administration “has created two economies…one economy for a few who have so much in their tiny island of prosperity; and the other economy for the many who have so little in their vast ocean of misery.” General Buhari should have gone further by naming those he knows who live in “their tiny island of prosperity” and who are bankrolling his presidential campaign, having told the whole world that he paid N27 million for his nomination form through a bank loan.”
