George Akume: Only a blind person will say Buhari has done nothing

A former governor of Benue State and serving senator of the Federal Republic, George Akume, has fired back at those criticising President Muhammadu Buhari for failing to deliver on his campaign promises.

Akume said anyone who is saying Buhari has achieved nothing since he assumed office is either blind or too myopic to see anything good about the current government.

The former Senate Minority Leader insisted that despite the attacks on the president, the APC-led government has not in any way disappointed the nation since it came on board on May 29, 2015.

The APC chieftain in an interview with Vanguard voiced his conviction thus, “I want to say with all emphasis that APC has not disappointed and has not failed this nation. We must recognise one fact that this government inherited a zero economy, we started from ground zero. Some said it’s even minus. There was nothing. We had a meeting with the president, we know what he told us on what he had to do before they started paying salaries.

“I believe we have not disappointed Nigerians There was no money, don’t forget that when President Olusegun Obasanjo was leaving, we had N64 billion in foreign reserves. By the time President Muhammadu Buhari took over, we had less than N30 billion. The economy was comatose – everything including toothpicks were being imported and irredentist movements were all over the place.

“We had the Boko Haram ravaging the North-East, and in the South South, we had serious security challenges. Don’t also forget the fact that we had serious issues of kidnapping, robbery and the rest. I don’t want to talk about corruption. Nigerians know very well what took place in the past.”

Akume faulted the belief in some quarters that his partyman and governor of his state, Samuel Ortom is helpless over the killings of his kinsmen by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

He said, “Actually, I want to correct the impression you have created that the governor is helpless. The governor is not hopeless, he’s not helpless. The governor has taken fundamental steps as the chief security officer of Benue State, to guarantee the security of lives and property.

“I would come to that later. But I want to state this and very emphatically too, that there had always been a conflict between farmers and cattle rearers, it’s something that can never be completely eliminated, but it’s something that can be brought under control. I was a small boy in those days, I was born in the 50s and I went to school in the 60s."