directy pass on information of happenings within Government directly to
the people.
Malam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to President
Muhammadu Buhari on Media, made this known while speaking to Journalists
in Abuja on Sunday.
According to him, government decided to embark on such meetings because it
has realised the importance of information communication to the people at
the grassroots.
“I know that there is a plan that the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo
would start town hall meetings in zones.
“It would then be broken down to the states and so on.
“Government realises that there is a need to take information to the
people and there are steps that are being taken in order to ensure that is
done,” he said.
Shehu criticised the National Orientation Agency (NOA) for being
indifferent to the Federal Government’s change mantra.
“We have an agency like NOA with 773 offices nationwide.
“Each has not less than 5 to 7 staffs and well-equipped, but you know
also, sometimes democracy has its own dark side.
“The President came and he wanted to really be fair to every Chief
Executive. If he wanted to fire people on assumption (of office), he would
have done it and he would not have violated any rule.
“He decided to give everyone a chance to see whether they would imbibe the
change mantra, to see whether they were prepared to go along (with him).
“I will say with all sincerity that NOA was a source of worry for us in
government; the people and the leadership never believed in what we are
doing.
“They never believed in change. They just folded their arms and watched us
for the period of 8 to 9 months that they were there.
“I believe the new leadership would begin to formulate things for agencies
like that,” he said.
The presidential aide praised Nigerians for steadfastly supporting the
present administration especially during a period most people considered
to be difficult.
Shehu congratulated Nigerians on the achievements the President had
recorded fighting insurgency and explained that the military have tagged
their success against Boko Haram a “technical victory” because no city is
presently under curfew.
The SSA said that with the passage of the budget by the National Assembly,
the next phase for the President would be to rebuild damaged facilities
and infrastructure.
He said that with the Central Bank of Nigeria realising more than N3
trillion through the introduction of the Treasury Single Account and the
passage of the budget, a lot of activities would pick up.
On the quest by Nigerians to know the amount of money the Federal
Government had so far recovered from treasury looters, Shehu said the
litigation hurdles associated with the looted funds would have to be
scaled before Nigerians were availed of the figures