President fires back at Metuh

The Presidency has reacted to a statement by Olisa Metuh, saying that President Buhari’s comments about Nigeria being broke, will stop investors from coming to the country.

Metuh, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) spokesman, had earlier said “Mr. President’s recent announcement to the world that the nation, with its abundant human and natural resources, is broke and cannot pay cabinet ministers, not only sends a discouraging signal to the domestic and international business community, but also exposes the ineptitude of the present administration to meaningfully and sincerely exert itself and work with industrious and innovative investors to create and manage wealth.”

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“More worrisome is the fact that Mr. President makes his damaging comments in international fora with potential investors in attendance. It reminds one of the proverbial father who, in the presence of potential suitors, often portrays his daughters as wayward and yet constantly complain of their inability to find husbands," Metuh said.

Responding to the statement, Femi Adesina, the media aide to President Buhari said “Our attention has been drawn to the latest statement by the PDP spokesman, Olisa Metuh, alleging that President Muhammadu Buhari is ‘demarketing Nigeria’.

“We restate for the umpteenth time to Mr. Metuh and his ilk that their attempts to distract President Buhari from the job he has been elected to do will fail.

“President Buhari will remain true to the virtues of honesty, integrity, sincerity, incorruptibility and plain-speaking, which endeared him to Nigerians and made them prefer his leadership to that of a lying and deceptive PDP administration.

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“The President will not, in the guise of ‘marketing’ the country, refrain from telling Nigerians and the world, the emerging truths about the abject state in which years of plundering by a PDP leadership has left the Nigerian treasury and economy.

“President Buhari will not in the name of ‘marketing’ or ‘attracting’ investors, follow in the footsteps of the ousted PDP administration and its discredited officials, who shamelessly lied to Nigerians and the world about the buoyancy and vibrancy of an economy they had bled dry for personal gain, when it was very obvious to the discerning, that the Nigerian economy was headed for serious trouble.”