President Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday, asked those who have been criticising his administration, particularly the nation’s elite, to be fair in their criticism.
In criticising his administration, Buhari said critics should first consider the state of the country he inherited in May 2015.
According to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the President made the call while receiving the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Christian Pilgrims Commission, Rev. Yakubu Pam, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The statement was titled “Criticise us fairly, President Buhari appeals to Nigerian elite.”
Apart from the state of the country at the inception of his administration, Buhari also asked his critics to consider the resources available to the Federal Government under his watch while criticising him.
He said, “Those criticising the administration should be fair in terms of reflecting on where we were before we came, where we are now and what resources are available to us and what we have done with the limited resources.
“We had to struggle paying debts, investing in road repairs and rebuilding, to revamp the rail and try to get power.
“This is what I hope the elite when they want to criticise will use to compare notes.”
Buhari also gave his government a pass mark on the security situation in the North East.
Although he admitted that there are still what he called “occasional Boko Haram problems,” the President said there was a lot of improvement when compared to the past experience of the residents of the affected states.
He added, “What was the situation when we came? Try and ask people from Borno or from Adamawa for that matter and Yobe. What was the condition before we came and what is the condition now?
“Still, there are problems in Borno and Yobe, there are occasional Boko Haram problems, but they know the difference because a lot of them moved out of their states and moved to Kaduna, Kano and here (in Abuja).