Buhari Denies Knowledge Of Many Promises Made To Nigerians Before 2015 Election

Patrick OdeyApril 28, 2023

1 minute read

With a few weeks to the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, the Presidency has denied knowledge of many promises made to Nigerians in the buildup to the 2015 general elections.

According to the Presidency, many of the promises were made by support groups of which Buhari was not aware.

During electioneering ahead of the 2015 presidential election, several flyers and billboards were promising that if elected, Buhari would fix the economy and fight insecurity and corruption.

The promises include making Nigeria’s naira equivalent to the American dollar, drastically reducing the number of aircraft in the presidential fleet, and rescuing the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls.

On April 14, 2014, 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped from the Government Girls Secondary School in the Chibok community in northeastern Nigeria, sparking public outrage. Over 90 of the girls have yet to be found even though there were promises that Buhari would rescue all of them if elected as President in 2015.

But speaking on Channels Television Sunrise Daily programme on Thursday, Buhari’s Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said Buhari was not aware of some of the promises.

Buhari nor his campaign team did not deny any of the promises at the time.

Adesina said in 2015, “there was a rash of documents passing off as the party’s manifesto”.

“You didn’t know which one was from the party or a support group,” he said.

Giving an instance, Adesina said there was a document titled ‘100 Things Buhari Will Do In 100 Days’, which he said Buhari later told him he knew nothing about.

“It was when I resumed as his media adviser that I asked him about that document and he knew nothing about it.

“I’m not strictly a party person, so I do not know if some promises are part of the manifesto. But I know that each party would have promises before being elected into power and whoever is elected to power must key into those promises.

“What I’m telling you is that as at 2015, there were various types of documents which even the party (ruling All Progressives Congress) didn’t know because there were many support groups who came out with their own promises,” the presidential aide added.