Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to the President, Mr Femi Adesina, described Nigerian’s view on the topic as “ignorant and mischievous people, who twist everything for their vile purposes.”
Since the statement of The World Bank president, Kim Yong Jim, about President Buhari’s demand for the group to pay more attention to the northern Nigeria, it has led to a bad blood as the presidency lashed out on Nigerians for trying to twist the statement and portraying the presidency in a bad light.
.Femi Adesina further defends the president by stating that reconstructing the North/East has always been one of Buhari’s Agenda and still is. “The truth of the matter is that President Buhari, right from his first week in office in June 2015, had reached out to the G-7 in Germany that Nigeria needed help to rebuild the Northeast, which had been terribly devastated by insurgency. He said the country would prefer help in terms of rebuilding of infrastructure, rather than cash donation, which may end up being misappropriated.”
“Also, during a trip to Washington in 2015, and many other engagements that followed, President Buhari sought the help of the World Bank in rebuilding the beleaguered Northeast, which was then being wrested from the stranglehold of a pernicious insurgency. It was something always done in the open, and which reflected the President’s concern for the region.”
Former Minister of Education and activist Oby Ezekwesili, rushed forward on a twitter session to respond to the criticism and clearing the wave on the World Bank President’s speech, saying that the statement does not means as it sounds because the World Bank makes it a priority to reach out to post-conflict zones and the same is expected of the World Bank to reach out to the North/East to help savage what was left of the affected cities and towns in the north. Here is the extracted tweet by the former minister. : “I want everyone to know that the statement made by the @WorldBank President @JimYongKim is not as it sounds. I should KNOW. I was VP there.
“No. No. No, dear people. The fact of that statement by the @WorldBank President @JimYongKim is not as it sounds. I will explain.
“As a practice, post-conflict zones -e.g. Northern Uganda, Northern CAR, Eastern DRC receive Special Focus from @WorldBank. It makes sense!
“As the destabilization in the North East worsened Human Development Indicators in North East Nigeria, our country sadly joined that List.
“Our Africa Strategy when I became VP of @WorldBank 48 countries including Nigeria prioritized quick reconstruction of Post-Conflict areas.
“The Evidence-Based justification for prioritizing Post-Conflict Reconstruction is that it helps build resilience & prevents a relapse.
“In all the cases of countries like CAR, DRC, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Guinea (both Bissau & Conakry) this was the approach.
“Prioritizing Reconstruction of Post-Conflict zone in any of those countries factually proved to be key for rest of country growth & stability!
“The benefit of becoming a Priority is that our knowledge program (Economic & Social Studies) & sizable portion of Loan will target the area.
“It however does not mean that the rest of such country becomes neglected in the knowledge & lending programs of the Bank. Not at all.
“The prioritizing given to North East in discussion between @JimYongKim & @MBuhari is thus not unusul at all. Let’s not politicize it please
“At time they met in 2015, serious work & discussions already took place among Development Partners on how best to help stabilize North East.
“The current brouhaha is of course triggered by context of existing tensions occasioned by our President’s poor management of our diversity.
“The feedback that President @MBuhari can take from the rage that his discussion with @WorldBank has triggered it is to reflect on his ways.
“Feedback is important for improving governance especially in a country as diverse as ours. President @MBuhari can make this moment count.
“Our President, @MBuhari & his FG @NGRPresident @AsoRock @ProfOsinbajo seize on moment to conduct a diversity review of their administration.
“The terribly indecorous press release by @FemAdesina worsens a fractious debate. This FG cannot be leaders of toxicity in public debates.
The facts drawn out by Nigerians is that the president specifically asked for the assistance of the world Bank for the North/Eastern part of Nigeria, leaving out the major challenge of the country. The Boko Haram Insurgence has not helped the development of the north and if such help is being rendered by the World Bank, who is to say that the developments won’t be in ruin in less than a year? And that is why the World Bank President advised that the country focus on standing on its feet economically so as to do the needful when the time is right, instead of throwing all the assistance it can get for the northern part and watch the country suffer a great deal.
It is of urgent concern that the country prioritize its demands based on the immediate needs of the country and this has been thoroughly addressed by Kim Yong Jim who said : “In my very first meeting with President Buhari, he said specifically that he would like us to shift our focus to the northern region of Nigeria and we’ve done that. Now, it has been very difficult. The work there has been very difficult.”
