“Sisi has completed more projects than he has gone to the toilet,” tweeted @mooslme on Wednesday.
He was mocking Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s claim to have completed 11,000 projects over the last four years, “an average of three projects a day.”
The boast was tweeted to Sisi’s official Twitter account as part of “Story of a Nation” event, an exercise in self-congratulation prior to the announcement Friday that he would run for a second term.
For many, however, this was seen as an example of what one commenter branded Egypt's “lying dictator.”
#حكاية_وطن والكـــــــذاب
— ® حسن (@elna9arofficial) January 18, 2018
al #sisi said on his real Twitter account That #Egypt finished 11K projects in 4 years at rate 3 projects per days
That’s our lier dictator who rules Egyptians now by military force pic.twitter.com/knsrkKJqy9
With multiple opponents already having withdrawn, whether following arrest or alleged coercion, few expect the March vote to be little more than a coronation for Sisi.
At the basis of contempt for Sisi’s claim was the fact that it appeared to include blatantly flawed math. Social media was flooded by corrections to the calculation, with @R22N2 suggesting that “whoever passed [Sisi] through primary school should be hanged.”
11000÷1461(Days of 4 years)=7.5 Pro/Day
— Sameh Alawany (@SamehAlawany) January 20, 2018
11000÷1277.5(Days of 3.5 years)=8.6 Pro/Day
Math 0#حكاية_وطن pic.twitter.com/ZvdeU2Wmmh
But the insistence that Sisi has implemented 11,000 projects since his 2014 election victory was itself deemed so exaggerated as to be laughable.
“Either the man is exaggerating beyond any imagination,” @ammaralihassan. “Or his perception of "project" needs to be understood.”
“He might be honest, provided that he is counting the minor things, such as opening a workshop or financing a 'bean cart' or buying a broom for a street cleaner.”
@Fastokiii added that: “If [he was] playing [Facebook game] Happy Farm, [he] would not have achieved that result.”
In a Facebook post Mohammed Wanas jokingly compared the projects to an unpleasant medication.
“That means a project before breakfast on an empty stomach, and a project before bed, and a project when necessary - and nearly all of them were ‘suppositories.’”
“Is this the ‘story of the nation’ or the ‘story of Congestal [flu medication]’?”
“A question,” tweeted @Inmigrante334. “I challenge all the Sisi supporters with all their media and committees to come up with 100 projects. And where they are located.”
Egypt has faced by economic woes in recent times, including soaring prices and inflation.
Hazem Hosny, Professor in Cairo University’s Faculty of Economics and Political Science, tweeted the following in response to Sisi’s assertion.
“At that rate, the growth rate in Egypt should be at least 100 percent, not four or five. Unless he calculated every concrete slab as a stand-alone project!!”
Politician Amr Abdel Hady added: “Sisi is on drugs. 11,000 projects in four years means 7 projects per day, and the dollar has reached [a value of] 18 pounds.
According to this, in the day of President Morsi, when the dollar was [worth] 6 pounds, 11,000 projects must have been established every day!”
Egypt floated its currency in Nov. 2016 as one measure among a number of tax hikes and subsidy cuts required to guarantee a $12 billion IMF loan. It subsequently lost half of its value, sending inflation skyrocketing, while food subsidies upon which many depend for survival were also removed as part of the agreement.
However, international commentators have since called Egypt’s economy “one of Africa’s revival stories,” praising increased growth and investment.
Among Sisi’s ambitious projects are a space agency, announced Aug. 2016, and a new administrative capital that is expected to cost $45 billion.
Still, with an almost 30 percent of Egyptians living in poverty according to UNICEF, such flashy initiatives are felt by many to be an unnecessary expense which would be better used to help the poor.
