President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday threw a jibe at former President Olusegun Obasanjo for spending $16bn on power projects during his tenure as the President without corresponding power supply to Nigerians.

Although he did not mention any name, Buhari said a former Nigerian leader was bragging at a time that his administration spent the amount on power sector, yet there was nothing to show for the expenditure.

Buhari spoke at the Presidential Villa, Abuja while receiving members of the Buhari Support Organisation led by the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (retd).

The House of Representatives had in 2008 described the $16bn spent on power projects by the Obasanjo administration as a colossal waste.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project had also in 2016 called for an investigation into the expenditure.

On Tuesday, Buhari insisted that past administrations failed to invest in infrastructure in the country.

He gave an indication that no roads were repaired in the country after his days at the Petroleum Trust Fund.

The President said, “You know more than I do on the condition of our roads. Some of them were not repaired since the PTF days.

“No matter what opinion you have about (late Gen. Sani) Abacha, I agreed to work with him and the PTF. We constructed road from here (Abuja) to Port Harcourt, to Onitsha, to Benin and so on.

“This was in addition to other things in education, medical care and so on. You know the rail was killed and one of the former Heads of State between that time was bragging that he spent $16bn, not naira, on power. Where is the power? Where is the power? And now we have to pay the debts. “This year and last year’s budgets that I took to the National Assembly were the highest in capital projects: more than $1.3 tn.

“Let anybody come and confront me publicly in the National Assembly. What have they been doing? Some of them have been there for 10 years. What have they been doing?”

Buhari said anybody who claimed to be fighting for the country should not be misappropriating or misapplying the nation’s resources the way some people did.

He reiterated his position that past Nigerian leaders did not save during the oil boom era.

He said, “I have to repeat what I want the public to know here.

“I said and I challenge anybody to check from Europe, Asia and America; between 1999 and 2014, Nigeria was getting 2.1 million barrels per day and was selling at an average cost of $100 per barrel.

“It went up to $143. So, Nigeria was earning 2.1 million times 100 times 16 years seven days a week.

“When we came, it collapsed to between $37 and $38 and it was oscillating between $40 and $54 sometimes.

“I went to the Governor of Central Bank, thank goodness I did not sack him, and he is still there. I went with my cap in my hand and say oya (give me money). He said there were no savings, only debt.”

Buhari’s allegation based on ignorance –Obasanjo

But responding, Obasanjo said the President’s allegation that $16bn was wasted on power project, was rooted in ignorance.

In a statement issued on his behalf by Kehinde Akinyemi, his spokesman, Obasanjo said, “The answer is simple: the power is in the seven National Integrated Power Projects and eighteen gas turbines…”

The ex-President referred Buhari to his autobiography, My Watch, saying he had cleared allegations about the power project in the book.

The statement read, “It has come to the attention of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo that a statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari, apparently without correct information and based on ignorance, suggested that $16bn was wasted on power projects by “a former President.” We believe that the President was re-echoing the unsubstantiated allegation against Chief Obasanjo by his own predecessor but one.

“While it is doubtful that a President with proper understanding of the issue would utter such, it should be pointed out that records from the National Assembly have exculpated President Obasanjo of any wrongdoing concerning the power sector and have proved the allegations as false.

“For the records, Chief Obasanjo has addressed the issues of the power sector and the allegations against him on many occasions and platforms, including in his widely publicised book, My Watch, in which he exhaustively stated the facts and reproduced various reports by both the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which conducted a clinical investigation into the allegations against Chief Obasanjo, and the Ad Hoc Committee on the Review of the Recommendations in the Report of the Committee on Power on the investigation into how the huge sum of money was spent on Power Generation, Transmission And Distribution between June 1999 and May 2007 without commensurate result.

“We recommend that the President and his co-travellers should read Chapters 41, 42, 43 and 47 of My Watch for Chief Obasanjo’s insights and perspectives on the power sector and indeed what transpired when the allegation of $16bn on power projects was previously made. If he cannot read the three-volume book, he should detail his aides to do so and summarise the chapters in a language that he will easily understand.

“In the same statement credited to the President, it was alleged that there was some bragging by Chief Obasanjo over $16bn spent on power. To inform the uninformed, the so-called $16bn power expenditure was an allegation against Chief Obasanjo’s administration and not his claim. The President also queried where the power generated is. The answer is simple: The power is in the seven National Integrated Power Projects and eighteen gas turbines that Chief Obasanjo’s successor who originally made the allegation of $16bn did not clear from the ports for over a year and the civil works done on the sites.

“Chief Obasanjo challenges, and in fact encourages, anybody to set up another enquiry if in doubt and unsatisfied with the EFCC report and that of the Hon. Aminu Tambuwal-led ad hoc committee.”

OBJ’s govt didn’t spend $16bn on power projects – CNM

In his response,  however,  the spokesman for the Obasanjo-led Coalition for Nigeria Movement, Mr. Akin Osuntokun, described the allegation as a rumour.

Osuntokun alleged the rumour was concocted by those in the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s government and then spread by a former lawmaker.

He said several investigations and reports had shown that only $6bn was spent on the power sector during Obasanjo’s eight-year tenure.

He said Buhari was playing cheap politics with statistics.

The CNM spokesman said the late Senior Special Assistant to Obasanjo on Power Sector Reform and Coordinator, Seke Somolu, had provided all evidence as regards the matter.

He said that as far as Somolu was concerned, only $6.3bn was spent on the power projects during Obasanjo’s regime.

Osuntokun stated, “Seke sought to educate us saying $16bn was voted but warrant was issued for no more than $6.3bn spent largely on orders for turbines which could only be manufactured to specifications since they could not be picked from departmental stores’ shelves. Part of the disbursements also went into drawings, building of bridges on which the turbines would be ferried and compensation for communities from whom pieces of land was acquired. And much more.

“This once again demonstrates what I have cited as the pathological incompetence of this President. Is it not beneath the dignity of the exalted office he holds to join the chorus of beer parlour gossips? How can a president who has all the information at his beck and call degenerate to this level?

“Is it on account of a famed short attention span which precludes him from grappling with any serious reading beyond his self-confessed affinity for newspaper cartoons? Is it with this kind of levity that he attends to federal executive council memos?

“We are now beginning to see the reason why Nigeria is fast disappearing into the abyss of primitive Stone Age leadership. It is not too late for him to heed the well-considered advice of his doctor to go home, eat more and sleep more.”