FORMER WORLD BANK VICE PRESIDENT OBY EZEKWESILI ADVISES PRESIDENT BUHARI TO RETRAIN HIS MEDIA TEAM

Oby Ezekwesili, leader of the Bring Back Our Girls Campaign and former Vice President of World Bank, has weighed in on the controversial statement ascribed to President Muhammadu Buhari about prioritizing the North-Eastern part of the country over other regions.

The former Vice President of World Bank said president Buhari’s statement was taken out of context as it is one of the policies of World Bank to give more attention to post-conflict zones like the north-east. But, she blamed Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the president on media and publicity, on how his team attempted to handle the misunderstanding.

The World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim, had said in a press conference in Washington DC that President Buhari requested concentration of the bank’s intervention effort in the northern part of Nigeria. Critics lashed out on the Nigerian president, accusing him of being a regional leader.

In an attempt to correct the perceived misunderstanding of Kim’s statement and calm the uproar it has generated against the person of President Buhari, Mr. Adesina released a statement wherein he labeled the president’s critics as “ignorant and mischievous”.

In a series of tweets addressing the issue, Ezekwesili said; “the terrible indecorous press release by Femi Adesina worsens a fractious debate. This FG cannot be leaders of toxicity in public debate. Healthy debates are important for managing our diversity. The government of President Buhari should reign in his media team and retrain them to be effective.