The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday took stock of the two years of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and declared that positives results are clear for all to see.
Osinbajo said this in a national broadcast to commemorate the nation’s Democracy Day and second anniversary of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
He recalled that the administration outlined three areas including security, corruption and the economy for immediate intervention on assumption of office.
Although he admitted that the economy had remained the biggest challenge of all, he said the Federal Government had introduced several measures to revamp.
While he also admitted that the fight against corruption appeared slow because of the slow nature of the nation’s justice system, all hands are on the deck to ensure that all stolen funds are recovered and culprits brought to justice.
On security, he said the government’s achievements in the North East where the Boko Haram sect openly challenged the nation’s sovereignty were clear enough for all to see.
Osinbajo said under the present administration, the nation’s military immediately began to put Boko Haram on the back foot, adding that the nation restored broken-down relations with its neighbours, Chad, Cameroon and Niger – allies without whom the war against terror would have been extremely difficult to win.
He added that the government has reorganised and equipped its Armed Forces, and inspired them to heroic feats; and also revitalised the regional Multinational Joint Task Force, by providing the required funding and leadership.
He said, “The positive results are clear for all to see. In the last two years close to one million displaced persons have returned home. 106 of our daughters from Chibok have regained their freedom, after more than two years in captivity, in addition to the thousands of other captives who have since tasted freedom.
“Schools, hospitals and businesses are springing back to life across the Northeast, especially in Borno State, the epicentre of the crisis. Farmers are returning to the farms from which they fled in the wake of Boko Haram. Finally, our people are getting a chance to begin the urgent task of rebuilding their lives.
“Across the country, in the Niger Delta, and in parts of the North Central region, we are engaging with local communities, to understand their grievances, and to create solutions that respond to these grievances adequately and enduringly.
“President Buhari’s New Vision for the Niger Delta is a comprehensive peace, security and development plan that will ensure that the people benefit fully from the wealth of the region, and we have seen to it that it is the product of deep and extensive consultations and that it has now moved from idea to execution. Included in that New Vision is the long-overdue environmental clean-up of the Niger Delta beginning with Ogoni-land, which we launched last year.
“More recent threats to security such as the herdsmen clashes with farmers in many parts of the country sometimes leading to fatalities and loss of livelihoods and property have also preoccupied our security structures.
“We are working with state governments, and tasking our security agencies with designing effective strategies and interventions that will bring this menace to an end. We are determined to ensure that anyone who uses violence, or carries arms without legal authority is apprehended and sanctioned.”
On the fight against corruption, Osinbajo said the government has focused on bringing persons accused of corruption to justice.
He said it was the administration’s belief that the looting of public resources that took place in the past few years has to be accounted for.
“Funds appropriated to build roads, railway lines, and power plants, and to equip the military, that had been stolen or diverted into private pockets, must be retrieved and the culprits brought to justice.
“Many have said that the process is slow, and that is true, corruption has fought back with tremendous resources and our system of administration of justice has been quite slow.
“But the good news for justice is that our law does not recognise a time bar for the prosecution of corruption and other crimes, and we will not relent in our efforts to apprehend and bring corruption suspects to justice.
“We are also re-equipping our prosecution teams, and part of the expected judicial reforms is to dedicate some specific courts to the trial of corruption cases,” he said.
Osinbajo added that the government is institutionalising safeguards and deterrents and has expanded the coverage of the Treasury Single Account.
He said the government had introduced more efficient accounting and budgeting systems across the Federal Government and had also launched a successful Whistleblower Policy.
He noted that the Efficiency Unit of the Ministry of Finance has succeeded in plugging leakages amounting to billions of naira, over the last two years while the government has ended expensive and much-abused fertiliser and petrol subsidy regimes.
While saying the government has taken seriously its promise to save and invest for the future despite revenue challenges, he said the present administration in the last two years added $500m to the Sovereign Wealth Fund and $87m to the Excess Crude Account.
This, according to him, is the opposite of the situation before now, when rising oil prices failed to translate to rising levels of savings and investment.
On the economy, Osinbajo regretted that some companies shut down their operations through no fault of theirs while civil servants worked for months without salaries in some states.
“Admittedly, the economy has proven to be the biggest challenge of all. Let me first express just how concerned we have been, since this administration took office, about the impact of the economic difficulties on our citizens.
“Through no fault of theirs, some companies shut down their operations, others downsized; people lost jobs, had to endure rising food prices.
“In some States, civil servants worked months on end without the guarantee of a salary, even as rents and school fees and other expenses continued to show up like clockwork.
“We have been extremely mindful of the many sacrifices that you have had to make over the last few years. And for this reason, this administration’s work on the economic front has been targeted at a combination of short-term interventions to cushion the pain, as well as medium to long-term efforts aimed at rebuilding an economy that is no longer helplessly dependent on the price of crude oil,” he said.
The short-term interventions, according to him, include putting together a series of bailout packages for our State Governments, to enable them to bridge their salary shortfalls – an issue the President has consistently expressed his concerns about.
He said the government had also begun the hard work of laying out a framework for Social Intervention Programme which he described as the most ambitious in the history of the country.
On the whole, Osinbajo said just as the President promised in the Budget Speech, the early months of 2017 have seen the flowering of the early fruit of all the hard work of the administration’s first 18 months.
He urged Nigerians to live in peace and harmony with one another as well as seek peaceful and constitutional means of expressing the wishes and desires.
He said they must resist all who might seek to sow confusion and hatred for their own selfish interests.
He sought continued prayers for the restoration to full health and strength and the safe return of the President.
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JONATHAN SPEAKS OUT...
ReplyDeleteI Didn't Hand Over A Collapsed Nation To
Buhari - Dr. Goodluck Jonathan!!!
Former President, Goodluck Jonathan has
replied his critics who accused him of handing
over a nation at the verge of collapse to his successor, President Muhammadu Buhari.
Jonathan recounted the achievements of his
government to include, handing over a
country that produced the richest man in
Africa.
Jonathan said, “I took over a Nigeria that was the second largest economy in Africa
with a GDP of $270.5 billion in 2009, I handed
over a Nigeria that had grown to become the
largest economy in Africa and the 24th
largest economy in the World with a GDP of $
574 billion. “I inherited a Nigeria in which the trains
were not working, and handed over a
Nigeria in which citizens can safely travel by
trains again. I also inherited a country where
illiteracy rate particularly in the Northern
part was alarming. I handed over a country where every state in the North and indeed
all the states had a Federal University. I
inherited a country where there was total
infrastructural decay in all the unity schools
and colleges of education. But I handed over a
country with massive infrastructural improvement in almost higher institutions. I
inherited a country where agricultural inputs
and production were almost zero. But I
handed over a country where a bag of rice
was sold for N6,500 to N7000. My regime
since the establishment of ecological fund office did more irrigation dams in the North
and other parts of the country than other
subsequent administrations put together. I
inherited epileptic fuel supplies resulting to
endless queues at the filling stations. I
maintained despite enormous challenges of fuel subsidies and handed over a relatively
stable fuel regime.
I inherited a Nigeria that was a net importer
of cement, and handed over a Nigeria that is
a net exporter of cement.
In 2009 the richest Nigerian was the 5th richest man in Africa, but I handed over a
Nigeria that produced the richest man in
Africa.
The former President further stated " I
inherited a country where people were
almost losing hope on the credibility of its electoral process but I noticed that
democracy will continue to grow in the
African continent if leaders value the process
of elections more than the product of the
process. I handed over electoral process that
engendered fairness in its conduct and conclusiveness ".
He said, “Even in the 2015 general elections
in my country, Nigeria, there was potential
for major crisis if I was not a President duly
elected by the will of the people.
“The campaigns leading to the elections almost polarized the country into Christian vs
Muslims and North vs South divide.
Most World leaders were worried that our
elections will result into major crisis.
Some pundits even from here in the United
States said that those elections would spell the end of Nigeria and that we would cease
to exist as a nation because of the polls.
That is where the leadership question comes
into play.
As a leader that was duly elected by the
people, I considered the people’s interest first.
How do I manage my people to avoid killings
and destruction of properties?
With the interest of the people propelling all
the decisions I took, we were able to sail
through. Indeed, we sailed through because I refused
to interfere with the independence of the
Independent National Electoral Commission,
INEC, having appointed a man I had never
met in my life to run it. We sailed through
because I maintained and still believe that my personal ambition, interest is not worth
the blood of any single Nigerian.
My philosophy was simple. For elections to
be credible, I as a leader, must value the
process more than the product of the process.
And the citizens must have confidence in the electoral body.