BMO replies Soyinka, says PDP not Buhari created divisions in Nigeria

The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has said that Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka was wrong in his assessment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s policies and conduct.

Soyinka had recently backed former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s comment that the current level of division in Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was unprecedented.

But responding in a statement on Thursday signed by its chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and secretary, Cassidy Madueke, the Buhari group claimed that “the seed of division was planted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the run-up to the 2015 and 2019 elections.”

The statement read in part, “The highly respected Laureate’s piece is, therefore, a magnificent piece of fiction, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing but malicious discontent and discord.

“It is a bit surprising that the revered Nobel Laureate would jump on the train of coordinated verbal attacks on the President by individuals and groups that never saw anything good in him and who can, in fact, be described as members of the opposition PDP by association.

“Any lover of literature would thoroughly enjoy the piece by a literary giant of Professor Soyinka’s stature, which we see as nothing but a rehash of some of his collection of literary works written in his typical style.

“We believe that it is only in a work of fiction that one would be told that the policies of President Buhari are dividing the nation when in reality, he is correcting the skewed development and politics that PDP bequeathed to Nigerians in 2015.

“Was it not members of the former ruling party that threatened to make the country ungovernable in 2011 if then President Goodluck Jonathan does not respect some unwritten agreement to allow the North complete the expected two-term tenure of his late principal, Umaru Yar’Adua?

“We also saw how the party played up the faultlines of a deeply fractious country like ours by turning the 2015 Presidential election into a religious battle, even to the extent of procuring a British public relations firm, Cambridge Analytica, to push a negative narrative of a Buhari that will impose Sharia Law on all Nigerians if elected, aside from other invectives poured on the All Progressives Congress (APC) which was called janjaweed party and other ethnic slurs used for its political campaigns.

“That was when the seeds of ethnic and religious division, which PDP elements have continued to hold on to, were planted.”

It, therefore, urged Nigerians to rally behind Buhari in his bid to deepen national unity.

BMO, also reacted to attacks on Buhari over borrowing of loans, saying that the president had properly justified that loans he borrowed were for development.

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Buhari had while speaking at a virtual meeting with members of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), said the loans were channelled to fix critical infrastructural projects like roads, rail and power as well as addressing issues on fuel price, electricity tariff hike and agriculture.

Applauding Buhari for those reason he gave to justify his several loans, BMO said:

“More than any other time in our history, we are all witnesses to an administration that is securing loans and truly applying them to infrastructural development with the intent of deploying these to turn the economy around and enable global competitiveness of Nigerian trade and services.

“The country’s failure to provide infrastructure for effective transportation had robbed the country of its well-deserved status, as well as the West African hub for air cargo transportation and trans-shipment of goods.

“The President’s explanation captures the need to address and redress our productivity vulnerabilities without which our economy would continue to stagnate while individuals will continue to exist in unmitigated misery.”

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