Politicians Warn Buhari Against Relying On Foreign Help

Balarabe Musa

Fourteen opposition parties under the auspices of Credible Alternative Alliance (CAA) have stated that it was “too early” for the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to rely on foreign countries, asking for support and direction on policy issues.

The CAA, which includes 13 civil society organisations, revealed their intention to provide a credible opposition to the ruling party of the All Progressives Congress.

Alhaji Balarabe Musa, a former governor of old Kaduna state, Chief Olu Falae, a former minister of finance, and elder statesman Dr. Tunji Braitwaite dropped a hint of doubt about the ability and readiness of Buhari’s administration to meaningfully govern Nigeria.

The Punch reports that the elder statesmen spoke at a press briefing by Damian Ogbonna, the national coordinator of the CAA, on Jume 4, Thursday, in Abuja.

“We note that APC appears to want to cultivate and rely too much on the support of foreign governments. This is not good for the sovereignty of our nation. The CAA calls upon the APC to rely less on foreign support. The party should do more to cultivate domestic support and more so from political parties in the country. You cannot govern effectively when you do so alone; it is not sustainable.

“In conclusion, we wish the new administration well. However, its ability and readiness to meaningfully govern Nigeria remain in doubt. We pray, wait and hope for clarity in the days to come.

“Both the President and other leaders of APC have been in government for decades to warrant knowing exactly what they want to do and how they want to do it. Even those of us here at the CAA with less than a year into our formation do have bold and visionary plan upon which we predicate our drive to govern Nigeria,” they said.

According to its leaders, the CAA is formed to defend and promote progressive, democratic and patriotic organisations and ideals in Nigeria “against reactionary tendencies of a rudderless and immensely corrupt governing system.”

Ogbonna noted that after a careful analysis of the inaugural speech of President Buhari, the CAA would describe it as “embarrassingly tall on promises but depressingly short on vision and boldness.”

“We searched for a silver lining in the speech laying out a new framework for the emergence of the new Nigeria of our dreams, and found none. There is no qualitative difference between the 2015 presidential inauguration speech and the inaugural speeches of past presidents.

“The president talked about enormous challenges; insecurity, pervasive corruption, fuel and power shortages and so on, but in no paragraph of his speech did he lay out new initiatives, new directions, new structures, new federation, new constitution or even new sets of legislation to tackle these enormous challenges,” he added.

Yesterday President Buhari arrived Chad for talks with his Chadian counterpart, Idris Deby, as Nigeria and its neighbours try to find solutions to the lingering crisis in the north-east region of Africa’s biggest oil producer.

Earlier this week, Buhari visited Niger , where he again expressed confidence in the ability of the Nigerian military to wipe out Boko Haram in the country.