BY JIDE AYOBOLU
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo, has called
for more commitment from workers of the ministry to achieve the
diversification agenda of the Federal Government. He said the ministry
was central to the economic diversification agenda of the government,
adding that without the support of the employees, it would be difficult
to implement policies of government that would drive growth and reduce
the level of unemployment in the country Adebayo disclosed this during a
meeting with leaders of the four workers’ unions of the ministry who
had resolved their differences and came together as a team to achieve
the mandate of the ministry.
A statement from the ministry said the minister reminded the workers
that President Muhammadu Buhari gave them a marching order to drive
growth, diversify the economy, create jobs and boost export. He said the
ultimate aim of these objectives was to lift 100 million people out of
poverty in the next 10 years. He added that the ministry was working
assiduously towards the direction in achieving that mandate. “Nothing
can be achieved if the unions refused to resolve their differences and
come together as a team to move the ministry forward,” the statement
quoted him to have said. Adebayo, according to the statement, also
assured the leaders of the unions of his support and urged them to
continue to work together with the new permanent secretary particularly
in the area of staff welfare.
He further assured them that the ministry would look into their
suggestion on the need to have a resident labour desk officer from the
Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment to assist the management on
labour matters. The Minister of State at the ministry, Ambassador Mariam
Katagum, challenged them to come up with a strategic vision to achieve
the goals of the ministry. She said, “Now that you have a brand new
permanent secretary, you should be able to extract whatever you need to
help him get motivated to make you happy so that you can contribute your
quarter to national development.”
Earlier, Sani-Gwarzo, the Permanent Secretary pledged to put in his best
to support the ministers to achieve their agenda for the ministry. He
said, “I was told that one of the issues that we are going to face is
the union but when I came here, I realised that all of them have one
thing in common; they have a sincere mindset to move the ministry
forward. “The greatest gift I have received here is your support and
the second is the fact that the unions have resolved to work together to
support the ministry.”
President Muhammadu Buhari says his administration’s investment in
infrastructure like rails, roads, bridges and waterways have started
yielding positive results with tangible evidence for all to see.
According to the president, the special attention given to
infrastructure by his administration will be intensified, since the
investments had been justified with more people benefiting.
“Infrastructure is vital to economic development. As you are aware,
this administration has given special attention to infrastructural
transformation of our country. “This is in consonance with the change
philosophy of the administration. Such projects and programmes form part
of our contribution to national development, which are tangible for all
to see,” he said. They will also help in no small measure in the
diversification agenda and process of the present administration.
Recalled that, President Muhammadu Buhari has said that his
administration saves the nation about N25 billion monthly. President
Buhari stated this, in Jos, at the graduation ceremony of Senior
Executive Course 39 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic
Studies (NIPSS) Kuru, Plateau state. Represented by Vice President Yemi
Osinbajo, Buhari said his government was able to achieve this through
the stoppage of unnecessary allowances for government officials and
blockage of other financial leakages in all its agencies. The president
also scored his government high saying the administration has
effectively tackled corruption, adding that said the government will not
relent in its fight against graft. The vice president said the ongoing
elementary school feeding programme has targeted 5.5 million children to
be captured in 19 states before the end of the administration’s
tenure. He also said the challenges being faced concerning power supply
in Nigeria will soon be history. He urged authorizes of NIPSS to improve
on recommendations made by its participants while discussing national
economic development. He assured that the federal government would make
“good use of recommendations of the course participants on
agriculture.”
Also, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said
President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration recorded laudable
achievements, in spite of terrible economic downturn and an empty purse
foisted on it. The minister said this at the inauguration of a book
chronicling the administration’s achievements in Abuja. The minister
said through a commitment to discipline, determination and transparency,
the administration recorded landmark achievements that we’re putting our
country on the path of sustainable growth.
This government is committed to prudently managing and stopping waste
and leakages in the system, there will be no room for duplication of
offices and responsibility; the Buhari led government has shown that it
is its desire that everybody benefits from the goodies that the change
mantra will bring to the country and not just a few people.
The Buhari led government has been working round the clock to ensure
that the suffering of Nigerians are assuaged and ameliorated, by laying
a solid foundation for a greater and better tomorrow. The campaign of
calumny against the government of President Buhari has been largely
predicated on ethnicity and tribal particularism as well as politics of
vendetta, especially by the opposition party that roundly defeated at
the polls after many years of misrule, bad governance and monumental
fraud. The other point which cannot be waved aside is the fact that one
of the cardinal policies of this administration is the war against
corruption, and since this government came on board, never like before,
it has consistently waged relentless war against graft in the country;
and the high and mighty are not spared; now in a surreptitious manner,
corruption is fighting back in a very dirty and desperate manner.
It is germane to observe and rightly so that, since the present
administration came on board under the leadership and watch of President
Muhammadu Buhari, the president and his team has worked relentlessly to
bail out the economy from the recession in which it is presently
enmeshed, an economic situation which is self-inflicted as a result of
bad governance, mismanagement, corruption and apparent lack of
accountability of past leaders in the country. They dissipated the
scarce financial resources of the country on conspicuous consumption as
well as hedonistic and epicurean lifestyles; and refused to save for the
raining day. It is this multifaceted errors of the past that the present
government is trying to put right, unfortunately, the present government
has been severally criticized by those who created the economic
challenges in the first place, particularly members of the past
administration, who mercilessly plunder and pillage the resources of the
country on selfish individual desires, thereby neglecting vast majority
of the people. With the body language and mannerism of some members of
the present administration, it is obvious that they are not on the same
page with the president in truly salvaging the country from economic
ruination and quagmire. For instance, members of the national assembly,
with all their economic preachments and sanctimonious claims, they have
rapaciously refused to cut down on their illegal and immoral fat
salaries and allowances, yet, they want Nigerians to make sacrifices,
while they feed fat on the sweat and toil of Nigerians. As the
government is working hard to resolve the fundamental economic
contradictions with the economy, people who have illegitimately enriched
themselves by pilfering the national treasury and are presently
undergoing trials, are clandestinely sponsoring violence against the
Nigerian state and painting the country black in both local and
international media.
This is contrary to some spurious and erroneous claims in some quarters
that this government is idle and doing nothing about the socio-economic
miasma in which the country is presently enmeshed, unfortunately, this
unfounded and baseless claim is gaining currency because of the hardship
Nigerians are presently going through. Those who created these problems
are now behaving like the much-needed messiah to rescue the country from
this crisis, but what did they do for the country and the people in the
last 16 years? The gang-up and conspiracy against the Buhari led
government is because of the anti-corruption crusade of the present
administration, hence, their inability to make cheap money and fleece
the country of funds needed for development. Undoubtedly, this
government is working hard and even world leaders know this fact, hence
the need for all Nigerians to rally round the government and move the
country forward; and stop the issue of violence, blackmail, vendetta,
corruption and anything that can inhibit growth and development in the
polity.
It is imperative to underscore the fact that, the immediate past
President Barrack Obama of the US said, his government has confidence in
the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, the US leader said
this during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 71st edition of
the UN General Assembly. Obama described Buhari as a man of “integrity
and honesty,” and said his administration would assist Nigeria within
the short period it has left. The 44th president of the US will be
bowing out of office in January after serving two terms. “We have
confidence in your leadership. There are some difficulties you face, but
this administration is willing to assist in the short time we have
left,” “You have made real progress in defeating the brutal
organization called Boko Haram, and that was achieved because of your
leadership.” Obama also offered a hand of fellowship to Nigeria “in
the final and comprehensive defeat of Boko Haram, resolution of the
Niger Delta crisis, which would help ramp up oil production and increase
revenue, resolving the humanitarian crisis in the North East, recovering
stolen money, and revamping the economy”. He described Nigeria as a
big and important country in sub-Saharan Africa and said his country
looked forward to a framework for sustained partnership between the two
nations. Earlier, Buhari assured Obama of the progress of his
administration, and the efforts being taken towards resolving the
economic crisis. And, President Donald Trump has said that much too.
In the same vein, Mr. Ban Ki Moon, former United Nations
Secretary-General not too long ago congratulated President Muhammadu
Buhari on the anti-corruption war. Ki-Moon declared: “You are highly
respected by world leaders, including myself. Your persona has given
your country a positive image.” The United Nations’ scribe stated that
the global body recognized President Buhari’s government’s achievements
against the Boko Haram insurgents. He, however, urged that human rights
be upheld always in order to prevent a repeat of the scenario being
witnessed in Syria. Ki-moon also thanked the Nigerian leader for his
commitment to issues on climate change, adding that the government
should “own the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” for the good of
its citizens.
Therefore, the present administration in the country should be commended
and not vilified by the people, all that the government needs at the
this time is the cooperation, support, solidarity, patience and
understanding on the part of the people and anybody or group of people
that wants to constitute themselves into a cog in the wheel of progress
should be viewed as economic saboteur and should be dealt with, in
accordance with the provisions of the law, after all, Nigeria is greater
than anybody or group of people, and we should all join hands together
and make it great.
The diversification of the economy through huge investment in
agriculture throughout the length and breadth of the country; massive
infrastructural development and renewal to bridge the array of
infrastructural deficit in the country; multilayered fight against all
forms of corruption in the polity; prudent management of the economy,
growth and development of non-oil sector, huge investments in aviation,
tourism, solid minerals, trade, commerce and investment just to mention
but a few are avenues and methodologies through which the present
administration are restructuring the economic base and dynamics of the
country, away from the prevailing and suffocating mono-cultural economic
dependency.