Fani-Kayode Blasts Buhari on Terror War

Former director of media of the

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential campaign committee, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, has taken President Muhammadu Buhari to the cleaners on the war against insurgency by his administration.

In an open letter to the president released on social media, Fani-Kayode alleged double-speak, insincerity and lies against some pronouncements of President Buhari with regards the war against Boko Haram.

Specifically, he accused the president of ‘contradictory assertions and buck-passing’ in the last seven months, which he said has negated Buhari’s campaign promises.

“We, your subjects look up to you for consistency, strength, unequivocal commitment, a firm resolve and the ‘leadership from the front’ that you promised during your presidential campaign in this war. We do not want and neither do we need doublespeak, lame excuses and buck passing.

“Initially, you claimed that your predecessor in office, president Goodluck Jonathan, never bought any arms and that, instead, he squandered and stole all the money that was appropriated for the procurement of arms.

“Yet, when the British Minister of Defence visited you at the Presidential Villa the other day, the story changed. You did a U-turn and gleefully told him and the world that former president Jonathan bought arms with raw cash.

“One wonders which story you shall come up with next and which one you will conjure up in the future.

“Kindly tell us what the position is: is it that Jonathan did not buy arms at all and stole all the money or is it that he used cash to buy arms? You cannot have it both ways. It is either one or the other,” the letter read in parts.

Fani-Kayode also took on Buhari on the unending attacks by Boko Haram in spite of assurances that the war against the insurgents “has been won technically.”

He continues: “Instead of conceding that you had told the Nigerian people a pernicious lie, curiously, the next thing that you did was to tell them that you would persuade Boko Haram to drop their arms.

“One is compelled to ask: why would you have to persuade them to drop their arms if you had already defeated them and won the war against them?

“In any case, this would be the first time in the history of modern warfare that a sitting president has sought to destroy and defeat a vicious and relentless terrorist organisation and win the war against terror simply with the awesome and devastating weapon of persuasion,” the letter added.

Fani-Kayode, who is also a former Aviation minister, urged Buhari to live up to his billings and the expectations of Nigerians by coming out clean on the situation on ground as regard the prosecution of the war against terrorists.