President Muhammadu Buhari on
Saturday said his administration would not allow “few evil forces” in the
country whose agenda is to “attain political power by inciting hate and
intolerance among the citizens”.
He equally said his
administration met an economy in shambles as a result of widespread “corruption
and mismanagement” of the nation’s common-wealth, compounded by a sharp drop in
the prices of oil, when he took over in 2015.
Buhari disclosed this while speaking
at the graduation ceremony of participants of Senior Executive Course (SEC) 40,
2018 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), KURU,
in Jos South LGA of Plateau State.
The President who was represented
by the Minister of Defence, Mansur Muhammad Dan Ali, said, “Let me assure you
that we shall not allow few evil forces in our midst whose only agenda to
attain political power is by inciting hate and intolerance among the citizens.
“They exploit and manipulate the
fault lines in the society to destroy our collective peace, mutual coexistence
and social harmony, thinking that they will change the narrative; and the
people would not ask them to account for what they looted from the common
wealth.
“Permit me to use this opportunity
to share with the Nigerian policy elite, our government’s policy thrust on good
governance. Good governance involves transparency and prudence in public
finance, social justice, investing in the poor and creating employment for the
youth.
“When we assumed leadership in
2015, what we met was an economy in shambles as a result of widespread
corruption and mismanagement of the national common-wealth, compounded by a
sharp drop in the prices of oil.
“Indeed, we inherited an empty
treasury, depleted foreign reserves, poor and dilapidated infrastructure, huge
capital and current liabilities, food import dependency, long-standing
insurgency, myriads of internal security challenges, and a situation whereby
many state governments owed their workers’ salaries. To make matters worse, the
economy also went into a recession”, he lamented.
According to him, “These
inherited circumstances put us under extreme difficulty, particularly when
measured against the expectations of Nigerians who voted for us expecting a better
governance. We had to develop and implement some policies that would quickly
get us out of this unsavoury situation.
“To address the problems
fundamentally, we put in place several policy frameworks, the major one being
the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), which laid out the strategy for
achieving the government’s vision of sustained and inclusive growth.
“The ERGP provided the framework
for short term recovery and structural reforms aimed at diversifying the
economy to set it on a path of sustainable growth over the medium and long
term.
“We took further measures
including the Executive Order on Ease of Doing Business to address identified
bottlenecks”, he explained.
“I am sure you will agree that
these policy choices we have made are yielding results.
“For instance, the economy came
out of recession and has been experiencing growth. We have reduced rice
importation by 90% and revived our capacity to produce fertilizer locally.
“Moreover, we have tremendously
improved on our ranking in the ease of doing business by the World Bank. Our
foreign reserve is now USD 44 billion, the highest in the last five years. The
implication of these is that Nigeria remains the strongest economy on the
African continent due to the policies put in place by this government.
“On infrastructure, we have made
substantial progress despite earning so much less than previous governments.
“In 2015, the power generation
capacity was less than 4,600 MW, and in three years, it has now reached 8,000
MW.
“However, we are assiduously
working to address the legal and institutional challenges in the transmission
and distribution chain so that the system can uptake all the power generated”,
he maintained.
Buhari said his administration
has put in place several policies to ensure “prudence and transparency in the
management of public resources.
“However, as the country prepares
for the forthcoming elections in 2019, the President enjoined Nigerians to
exercise their civic obligation as stakeholders in the nation’s development
project.
“We as a government also wish to
reiterate our commitment to ensuring that the elections are free, fair and
credible as part of measures to deepen our democracy”, he assured.
Meantime, the 66 participants in
the SEC 40 course during their stay in NIPSS were exposed to Understanding
Internal Security Framework and Community Policing in Nigeria, Historical and
Policy Context of Nigeria’s Internal Security Framework.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
Buhari u don't even have plans... For the past 3 & half years u'v been saying 1 thing over & over... I pity 4 for u come 2019 because ATIKU will rubbish u
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete