President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday said nobody could disabuse the
minds of Nigerians on his clear intentions for the country and its
citizens concerning his electoral promises ahead of the 2015 presidential
election which he won.
According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and
Publicity, Garba Shehu, the President spoke while paying homage to the
Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, at the start of his two-day state visit
to Kano.
“The three things we said in our campaign on security, economy and
fighting corruption, nobody will be able to successfully disabuse the
minds of Nigerians on our clear intentions for our country and our
people,” the President was quoted as saying.
Buhari assured all Nigerians that the fight against the degraded Boko
Haram will be sustained, in addition to the positive trends in the economy
and the fight against corruption.
He recounted his fond memories of Kano as a symbol of peace, trade,
commerce and industry in Nigeria.
“If there is a problem here, the whole country has a problem. I remember
the industry and employment people get in Kano.
“Before the problem in the North East, I remember the number of
articulated vehicles that left this city to Maiduguri and the Cameroons,
and the number of vehicles that came in from Chad and Niger, providing
millions of jobs to Nigerians.
“A lot of people in Nigeria didn’t realise how much the instability in the
North East has cost the people and the industry here,” the President said.
Meanwhile, Buhari has reaffirmed that his administration will pursue
prison reforms and decongestion with greater vigour.
He spoke at a ceremony in Kurmawa Central Prison Kano, during which 500
inmates were either pardoned or set free upon the payment of fines by the
state governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje.
The President lamented that some of the freed inmates were young and
charged prison authorities to make every effort to make better citizens of
prisoners.
He promised that prisons reforms and decongestion would continue to
receive prompt attention from his administration.
The President stressed the need for prisoners to receive proper care,
support and rehabilitation to make them better citizens after serving
their prisons terms.
“I am pleased with this visit and I have learnt a bit more about the
conditions of the prisons and inmates.
“This building in front of us was built since 1910. Rehabilitation of
prisoners and training of inmates is very important to us and we would
continue to invest more on this.
“I asked one of the inmates (released) how old he was and he told me he is
only 19 years old.
“If we have people of 18 and 19 years in the prison, and there is no
continuous training, then their lives will be completely destroyed. We
will invest more in education and vocational training,” he said.
The 500 inmates granted pardon, including men and women, were drawn from
various prisons in Kano State, including Kurmawa prisons, which has 1,398
inmates as opposed to 750, the established capacity.