President Muhammadu Buhari told Nigerians living in America that from 1999 to 2015 when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was on power, no road was built in Nigeria, yet the elite remained quiet.

He said if he is re-elected, he will make a difference in the country.

Meeting with the Nigerian community in the United States of America Thursday on the margins of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York, the President observed that the elite allowed Nigeria to be mismanaged for 16 years of PDP rule, without as much as raising a voice in consternation.

He said: “They didn’t say a word,” President Buhari declared. “Under the PTF (Petroleum Trust Fund, of which he was Chairman), we did roads from Lagos to Abuja, to Onitsha, to Port Harcourt. Since then, the roads were not done, between 1999 and 2015, yet the elite did not say a word.

“I was called Baba Go Slow. Those who were going fast, where did they get to?

“In 1983, military officers gathered and made me Head of State. I packed the politicians into jail, told them they were guilty until they could prove their innocence. We seized what they had looted, but after I myself was put in detention, the politicians were given back what they had looted. How many elites complained about that?

“Three times I contested elections; three times I went to court after the elections were rigged against me. No justice, but I said ‘God dey.’

“It was mainly the ordinary people that stood by me. That is why I am always conscious of them. They are my constituency. Even pregnant women on the queue would fall into labour, go to have their babies, and still come back to vote for me. I will keep doing my best for the country.”

He, therefore, assured that after four more years, “I will leave some difference in that office.”

A statement issued by Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the president on Media and Publicity, in New York, noted that the diaspora Nigerians are top-flight professionals, drawn from fields like medicine, engineering, sports, the arts, investment, academia, politics, agriculture, transport, education, publishing, and many others.

They came from different parts of the United States and Canada, as representatives of USA chapters of Nigerians in the Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) and also presented awards to President Buhari in appreciation of his performance, urging him to do more.

•Excerpted from a Tribune report