President Muhammadu Buhari has promised that he’ll dispense dividends of his presidency equitably–even to regions who gave him paltry votes in the Presidential election.
Buhari had incensed a section of the country and the social media following comments he made in the United States during a question and answer session.
The President had said: , “(Going by election results), constituencies that gave me 95 per cent cannot in all honesty be treated, on some issues, with constituencies that gave me 5 per cent. I think these are political realities. While, certainly there will be justice for everybody but the people who voted, and made their votes count, they must feel the government has appreciated the effort they put in putting the government in place.”
But he had quickly added that: “Remember I had made a promise that I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody. If I come clearly and show that I marginalise a certain group of people because they didn’t vote for me, then I have already contradicted myself and I’m sure people would be quick to pick that against me.”
The Presidency says it is intriguing that critics have left out the last part of those comments.
“People should just have been patient to listen to the entire trend”, said Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina in a chat with the Punch.
He added that:
“The President said it truly that people who gave him 95 per cent may get more attention in terms of reward and all that.
“But he also said that fortunately, the constitution has guaranteed the rights of every part of the country.
“What that means then is that even those who voted five per cent will get their dues and will not get things commensurate with five per cent votes.
“Some people deliberately decided to take part of what he said and refused to balance it.
“The balanced perspective of what the President said is that it is natural politically to give more to those who supported him but then those who did not support him will not be given the shorter end of the stick because the constitution already protected them.”
