Presidency Slams The Economist Magazine For Endorsing Gen. Buhari

The Presidency on Friday faulted the influential United Kingdom-based magazine,The Economist, for saying that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), is more competent than President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party.

In a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the Presidency said it noted the magazine’s “tongue-in-cheek” endorsement of Buhari ahead of the presidential elections with surprise.

Abati described the magazine’s view of the President as “baseless, jaundiced and rather malicious.”

He said contrary to the magazine’s claims, Jonathan retains the trust and confidence of majority of Nigerians as the outcome of the presidential elections would show.

He said, “We are sure that many Nigerians and other readers of the usually urbane, thoughtful and well-reasoned editorial opinions of The Economist will be shocked that the magazine has taken the very ill-considered decision to throw its weight behind a candidate who, as a former military dictator, curtailed freedom of speech, ordered the kidnapping of opponents and jailing of journalists, and is accused of incitement to violence and grave human rights violations in Nigeria’s current democratic dispensation.

“The Economist may feign ignorance of President Jonathan’s remarkable achievements as leader of his country in the past six years, but Nigerians who, unlike the magazine’s opinion writers, will actually vote in the country’s forthcoming presidential elections, know that President Jonathan has worked very hard to fulfill all the major promises he made to them on assumption of office.

“Nigerians know that President Jonathan has developed our economy and created more jobs, they know that he has given policy support to the real sector of the economy, so that small and medium enterprises can thrive, they know that he has encouraged locally owned enterprises to take advantage of our resources in growing the domestic economy and they also know that he has successfully attracted greater foreign direct investment to the country.”