Buhari promised change not magic – Femi Adesina

The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, has urged Nigerians to believe more in the President, as he cannot perform magic to facilitate the ‘change’ he promised.

Adesina made this known during an interview with a radio station, Radio Continental, monitored by The Guardian. He also appealed to Nigerians to support the ongoing reforms by the Buhari administration towards making Nigeria a better place, quoting the president as saying; “it would take a minimum of 18 months to revive the economy.”

“President Muhammadu Buhari only promised change but Nigerians want magic. This change will come, but it would follow a process, and it would be enduring. Mr. President said it would take a minimum of 18 months to revive the economy. Nigerians don’t listen to something like that; they want magic immediately. 

It doesn’t happen that way,” he said.
According to the president’s spokesman, things deteriorated over 16 years that PDP was in power, and this is the ninth month of this government. “Nigerians want everything to have changed. It is not real. I think Nigerians have always complained, and we should learn to stop complaining and believe more. 

What government needs at a time like this, is cooperation and support.”
“If you have elected a government because you believe it can bring change, and you have not allowed them to isolate what the problems are, and articulate what the solutions would be, and you begin to have all these complaints, I think it is not natural.

There must be realistic expectation, and realistic expectation will demand that people are patient, supportive, and encourage the government. This is a government that is working for the people. Rather than complaining, let us cooperate, support and encourage. The promised change would come,” Adesina assured.

On the issue of power, Adesina blamed the ‘epileptic supply’ to frequent attacks on installations, saying government is doing its best to check activities of saboteurs, but appealed to the citizens to join hands with the government in that regard, noting that ‘Nigerians are their own problems.’

He said, “You can recall about four weeks ago, the power ministry came out to say that the megawatts we had was 5070, which is an all-time high in 16 years. A few days after, some people blew installations in Bayelsa, we lost about 1600 megawatts immediately. After that, installation was blown in Delta and we lost another 1,000 megawatts. What would the government do in that kind of circumstance?

“If the people who should be provided power are the ones sabotaging installations, they can’t turn round to say government is not providing power. Nigerians need to determine what they want.
Guardian