Chatham House event a monumental failure-Fani-Kayode

The Director of Media and Publicity of the organization of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation,  Mr Femi Fani-Kayode has described the appearance of Gen. Buhari, the APC presidential candidate at the Chatham House London, on Feb 26, as a monumental failure contrary to the APC description of its presidential candidate, at the Chatham House in London, as successful.

 “The whole sorry episode, has now fully exposed the APC as a party built on propaganda, deceit, make-believe and one which lacks respect for the people of Nigeria,” he said. According to him, Buhari’s appearance at Chatham House, was a last-minute plan to divert attention of Nigerians and the whole world from the fact that he went to London, to seek medical attention.

Fani-Kayode maintained that the Chatham House speaking engagement was hurriedly put in place and organised only two days before it took place and well after Buhari had arrived in London. “The questions that were asked were given to him two days before the event and the answers were prepared for him and given to him to rehearse. “The programme lasted for only 55 minutes and only five questions, which were all planted, were asked. The people in the Hall were sponsored,”

He further alledged  that 1,500 persons applied to attend the function but only 200 were allowed, in while the audience was carefully selected. He said the APC mobilised many students from the Republic of Ireland, who were all on scholarship courtesy of the Rivers State Government, to embark on a pro-Buhari rally outside the Chatham House. Fani-Kayode further alleged that the students were threatened that their scholarships would be withdrawn if they refused to participate in the rally. “This was the show of shame that Gen. Buhari has got himself involved in. Sadly Chatham House offered its prestigious platform to sell a bad product to the world. “The APC leaders begged for the speaking engagement and we are reliably informed that they paid for it,”.

Fani-Kayode also alleged that not less than N5 billion was budgeted for the Buhari’s Chatham House speaking engagement. The amount he said was used for numerous foreign consultants, air tickets for the huge delegation, governor’s contingent, hotel bills, the purchase and renting of vehicles and other logistics. He challenged the APC and its leaders to contradict this information. He also reiterated the PDP`s call on the APC to make Gen. Buhari available for debates in Nigeria, since it claimed that he performed well during his speaking engagement in Chatham House London. 

“As a party, we are happy over this latest development as it will no longer give Buhari any excuse not to debate when he returns to Nigeria,” he said. He however, challenged Buhari to tell Nigerians and the international community what he had done in the last 31 years to consolidate democracy in Nigeria. According to Fani-Kayode, Buhari goofed when he said at Chatham House that he would draw foreign investors to Nigeria, a task he said had been accomplished by the President Jonathan PDP-led administration. He expressed happiness that Buhari however, admitted that under President Jonathan, Nigeria was now the largest economy in Africa with a GDP now valued at $510 billion and economy rated 26th in the world. “He also admitted that inflation has been kept at single digit for a while and our economy has grown at an average for about a decade. “This is the first time Gen. Buhari has admitted that anything good is happening in Nigeria under the watch of President Jonathan,” he said.