The president said a number of political promises were made in 2015 during the election campaigns that even President Muhammadu Buhari, as a candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), also never knew.
Femi Adesina, Buhari’s special adviser on media and publicity, who said so on the Channel’s Politics Today program on Monday, spoke out amid criticism of Buhari and alleged violations of campaign promises.
In particular, Adesina responded to Buhari’s criticisms by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah on Sunday in his Easter message about the sale of part of the president’s fleet.
In response, the adviser questioned the veracity of such a promise and criticized Kukah for letting his opinions be politically tinged.
His words,
“Those things don’t do credit to Father Kukah’s intellectual posture. He is somebody that we had always admired for his intellectual bent but his opinions have been coloured by politics.
“He talked about selling the presidential fleet. Was that ever promised? In 2015, there were promises made that even the candidate did not know about.”
Adesina clarified that what Buhari promised was to take a look at the fleet and not just sell them off indiscriminately.
The media aide added that the President has fulfilled his promise in that regard by selling two to three jets from the presidential fleet and two to three of the helicopters given to the Nigerian Air Force.
“President Buhari promised to look at the presidential fleet which he did. Helicopters were given to the Air Force, two or three jets were sold off.
“That is cutting off excesses. What some people expect is selling off all the jets and start flying the Nigerian Airways if Nigerian Airways still exists,” he said.
Also, Adesina during the interview, claimed Buhari’s eight-month sickness in 2017 caused a setback for the aspirations of the current administration.
He said,
“It should be because when he fell sick in January 2017, he came back in March (and) went again in April and didn’t come back till August 19.”
“About all, eight months. That sickness took eight months of his time in the office. Of course, nobody would like that. But what we are glad about is that he came whole, sound and better than he went.”
