The Presidency has urged Nigerians not to stretch what has been referred to as coup scare in the country beyond what the military has said so far.Presidential spokesman Femi Adesina stated this while addressing State House Correspondents along with Senior Special Assistant to Buhari on Media,Garba Shehu and Laolu Akande the acting president’s media aide to mark the second year of the government.
Adesina said: “The Army has spoken and let us take that position. What the Chief of Army Staff said was a routine warning that goes to military officers, don’t hobnob with politicians and the army has explained the position.
“Let’s take that position and not stretch it beyond what the military has said because they are the ones that can give us the definitive position and they have spoken on it.’’
Adesina debunked claims that Buhari;s government has failed when he said, “People can always express their opinions, there is liberty on that but you don’t have a scientific survey that has given you the percentage of people that believed that the APC has failed.
“The second point is that, when a government via a party is voted into office, it is voted for a four year term under our own democratic arrangement.
“When you have spent two years which is like a midterm, the first half of a game, you don’t then determined that it has succeeded or it has failed.
“No. You can be accused of being atomistic using a small part to determine the whole. You can’t write the report card of this administration when it is just hitting the half way mark, that will not be fair.
“This administration will take Nigeria far beyond how it met it. So if anybody says APC has failed just tell them is too early in the day because is a four year-term and this is just two years. You don’t reach definitive conclusions in two years.’’
Malam Garba Shehu insisted ‘there is happiness in the land’ just as he said Buhari has paid his dues.According to him: “The ordinary Nigerian is the most important pillar for the Buhari administration. It is not the rich, and their confidence in the president has remained unshaken all the while. This thing we talk about whistle blower, Nigerians have seen it and Nigerians are happy that their monies that were stolen are being recovered. Look at what we used to have. Boko Haram was active in Abuja. In Kaduna, 20 Okada riders were blown up in one day.
“These were ordinary people. Those who could buy protection for themselves, who could buy bullet proof cars for themselves were not the targets of Boko Haram. It is you and l. Ordinary people who went to church on Sundays, were blown up with bombs.”
Shehu said Government was still detaining a former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, because there were many cases against him.Even more, he said Shiite leader Ibrahim Zakzaky, remains in detention for his own safety.
Shehu who defended Buhari government’s human rights records said, “The Human rights records of this administration are impeccable, there are unimpeachable. I think we should avoid speaking in general terms.
“The thing to do is to pin point specific cases to buttress assertions that people make and then we can tackle them.
“As we speak to you now, we are not aware that the administration of Muhammadu Buhari is in breach of the constitution of Nigeria with regards to the protection of the rights of Nigerians.
“Journalists in this country ought to bear testimony on this, there is no single journalist that has been expelled from his duty because he has reported or failed to report, there is no single journalist who is in government detention because they have expressed some views that the government does not like.’’
He insisted the government was complying with the decisions of Nigeria;s courts.
“I assure that if anybody tries to do otherwise the president will not allow him to get away with it.’’
Akande, addressed the issue of weak anti corruption cases: “The truth of the matter is that our criminal justice system does need a profound and deep reform.
“The important thing is that this government is working on it. As a matter of fact now, the Acting President has put together a national coordination prosecution team for all the prosecution trying to see how in the medium term we can bring some progress.
“But also working on judicial sector reforms on the long term on criminal justice system to strengthen both the investigation and prosecution at the courts.
He said “And I know it is going to take a while for us to address it”.
