Buhari leaving Nigeria worse than he met in 2015 — Clark

An elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, has said that the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari is leaving Nigeria worse than he met it in 2015.

Clark, in a farewell address to Buhari during a press conference on Sunday in Abuja, said Buhari was bequeathing a bouquet of unfulfilled promises, divided nation and myriad of other challenges, including insecurity.

Clark, a former Minister of Information and current leader of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), said a sizable number of the Nigerian youths, particularly the professionals, left the country in droves to other climes, particularly Canada, Britain and USA, in search of greener pastures under the Buhari administration.

He said, “The truth is, President Muhammadu Buhari is leaving the nation, especially the Niger Delta region, worse than he met it. In the past eight years, President Muhammadu Buhari has demonstrated in most cases that he did not belong to the whole country, but to a group; his tribe and religion, which is contrary to what he said in his inaugural speech that he belonged to everybody.

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“The sad truth is that the South South geopolitical zone has been treated very unfairly by the outgoing administration despite the region’s contributions to the national economy.

“What is needed, indeed, is a just, equitable and more egalitarian approach to the administration and management of the nation’s resources and the conduct of state affairs. This country belongs to all of us.”

‘He has done well’

But the APC Professionals Forum has argued that Buhari has done well in office and that Tinubu will take over from where he stopped.

In a statement, the Chairman of the forum’s Board of Trustees (BoT), Mallam Isa Yuguda, said the Buhari administration had put in place projects and policies that the next administration could easily ride on to build a more prosperous nation.

He said, “So much has been said about the eight years of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, but contrary to the position of those who are not prepared to acknowledge its achievements, there are a number of things worth celebrating.

“As professionals in the ruling APC, we can easily point at road and rail projects, many of which have been completed, while several are ongoing, that were non-existent before 2015.”