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Solomon Dalung, the former Minister of Sport and Youth Development during the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, said the immediate past federal government failed to deliver on the expectations of Nigerians.
The former minister also claimed that Buhari now lives in regret seeing how his name is being 'dragged in the mud' by some of his allies.
Dalung, who served as a minister during Buhari's first term between 2015 and 2019, said as a founding member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), he felt responsible for speaking the truth.
The Plateau State-born politician disclosed these in a recent interview with Trust Radio, owned by Media Trust Group.
“We failed to meet our expectations, and I am not hypocritical because as a major stakeholder who campaigned vigorously in 2015 and went to the nooks and crannies of the north, of all the promises we made, we fulfilled none of them,” he said.
Dalung added, “The political covenant we had with Nigerians while campaigning was that we were going to address the security situation; we were going to revamp the economy; and we were going to give corruption a major technical blow so that we could minimize it to the barest minimum.
“Looking back, reflecting and evaluating the situation as it is today, we failed woefully.”
Though he described Buhari as a very honest, leader who believe in people around him, he said the former President got his name dragged in the mud by the same people he trusted.
However, the former minister believed that the APC administration he served in recorded some modest feats, especially in the area of security.
“He (Buhari) is a very honest man who believed that everybody around him was an honest person, he brought them and trusted them. Today, I believe he is living in regret.
“They have dragged his name and integrity not only into the mud and they’ve reduced his image.
“Banditry and terrorism got minimized in terms of attacks, but it’s still flourishing, the complete change of dynamics in the security situation worse than ever before in the history of this country, and is a remarkable failure and indictment too on the APC, because these were not part the democratic covenant they had with Nigerians,” Dalung added.