President Mohammadu Buhari has said it makes no sense anymore complaining
\nabout the 16yr failures of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, promising to
\nutilize available resources to tackle challenges facing the country.<\/p>\n
Buhari who spoke Thursday during the National Executive Committee, NEC,
\nmeeting of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, said his Government
\nwill dwell on the Agriculture and Solid Minerals sectors to boost the
\neconomic base of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Below is the transcript of his remark during the meeting:<\/p>\n
PROTOCOLS<\/p>\n
We are members of the legacy party, plus APGA and DPP. We realized since
\n2005 that to remove the PDP from power, we must sink our differences, come
\ntogether and form a party. God willing, that eventually happened and that
\nis why we are where we are today, coming together inspite of our
\ndifferences, both personal and ideological. We must not forget that.
\nHaving identified that as members of the legacy party, we again identified
\nthree fundamental things facing us. First, security, second, economy and
\nunemployment and thirdly, corruption. We campaigned throughout the country
\non these three fundamental issues and nobody successfully challenged us
\nand these issues remained relevant.
\nOn security, we have made progress. It was a very courageous decision that
\nthe party took and executed by the Executive by removing most of the
\nmilitary hierarchy and appointing those to take over from them, acquiring
\nsome new hard and soft ware and raising the morale of the military to go
\nsecure the rest of the country which was then 14 out of 774 local
\ngovernment. I have said it often that as far as I know and the service
\nChiefs who are on ground, they are not holding any local government. But
\nthey still have some capability especially on soft targets by using
\ntechnology.
\nFor Niger Delta, the militants are sending some conflicting messages. Some
\nhave said they are ready to drop their arms and join the rest of the
\nnation to build it. But part of them are still sabotaging installations
\nwhich is making investments in that lucrative area of Nigeria difficult
\nbecause nobody will submit his riches to financial institutions, get money
\nonly to suffer huge loss. So, the environment for investment is being
\nsabotaged by our own selves, Nigerians. We are doing our best with the
\nmilitary by trying to persuade them to join the rest of the country
\nbecause in unity lies our strength.
\nOf course the leadership of INEC has been changed, but I appeal to the
\nleadership of the military, security agents and INEC that what I want
\nNigerians to remember me for, even if I have to leave the Presidency
\ntomorrow is that I respect them. I want all Nigerians to believe and hold
\ntheir PVC as personal entitlement as Nigerians and use it the way the
\nlike, and vote for whoever they like at which ever election. If they
\nvoluntarily sold it, it is part of their right and so, let them sell it
\nand remain at home and not participate in any election. But let the law
\nenforcement agencies give them the confidence that nobody will come out
\nwho has money to hire thugs, give them drugs and stop them from exercising
\ntheir fundamental right.<\/p>\n
I am afraid I did not succeed in the election in Kogi, Bayelsa, Rivers. I
\nthink that more Nigerians are killed or killed themselves in Rivers than
\nin any particular state. At this stage of our political development, to
\nremain brutal is shameful and as a government, I promise we will do
\nsomething by the next general election.<\/p>\n
On the economy, the fall of oil prices after Nigeria has made itself a
\nmono economy is a disaster. I wonder why people could not believe that in
\nNigeria, about 27 out of 36 states have difficulty in paying basic
\nsalaries of their workers. If from 1999 to at least 2003, oil is above 100
\ndollars per barrel and an export of about 2 million barrel per day, how
\ncome Nigeria failed to make some arrangement to cushion the effect of a
\nprobably volatile oil market? Again, it show failure of the last
\nadministration. But we are now to pick the pieces as an APC government and
\nso, there is no need complaining, but let us concentrate and see how much
\nwe can do with whatever remains of the economy. We realized that
\nagriculture and solid minerals are two areas that can quickly come to help
\nus to recover economically, at least in terms of employment and feeding
\nourselves and more importantly, saving the hard currency to make sure that
\nwhat is left our industries remain open, employing Nigerians and producing
\ngoods and services which is very important.
\nThe policy we are trying to implement is TSA. When we insist that we have
\nto know what comes in and what goes out for us to make a comprehensive
\namendment to the economy. If you go and see the Central Bank Governor, he
\nwill tell you that in the TSA, we have more than N3 trillion. Where would
\nthis money have been if TSA was not in vogue? I was made to understand
\nthat vouchers would have quickly been raised towards the end of the
\nfinancial year and checks made. Whether they are going into projects or
\nprivate pockets, nobody can prove it to you. But that money is there, it
\nis identified, if is quantified and when the budget comes back eventually,
\nthe Ministry of finance will see how to allocate it to the rest of the
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
We have tried to make sure that NNPC is reorganized, so that we know how
\nmuch of our crude is taken, how much it is sold and to which account the
\nmoney is going. But I tell you that up to the time we came, if anybody
\ntold you that he knows how much of crude exchanges hands either on the
\nhigh sea or reaching their destination and the accounts the money goes
\ninto, that person is not telling you the truth. We are getting the
\ncooperation of countries that has received this crude. But we have to be
\nsure of the facts in our hands before we start prosecution so that
\nNigerians will believe what we have been telling them.
\nAgain, I have to repeat myself here for you to appreciate what I am going
\nthrough because you are closer to the people than myself. I was telling a
\nBritish team that came to supervise the training team they sent, that when
\nI was in uniform, you took the perceived corrupt ones and put them in safe
\ncustody and quietly told them they were guilty until they can prove
\nthemselves innocent. But now under multi-party democratic system, I see
\nsome of them ride Rolls Royce, some of them have built estates here, but
\nthey are innocent until we can prove them guilty. This situation is true
\nand you don’t need to stress your imagination to find out. If you can find
\nout, you discover that a level eight officer has five houses, while you,
\nas a Permanent Secretary or Commissioner is still living in a rented
\nhouse. We have to get credible evidence to carry out successful
\nprosecution and get judgement from the Judiciary. But effort is being made
\nto give a list of recoveries in whatever currencies so far so that
\nNigerians will know that it is not all about long stories.
\nFor the party, I will like you to continue to make sacrifice. I know you
\nare being harassed since the election that they haven’t seen anything on
\nthe ground. Well, if you have any explanation that could be accepted, is
\nthat you have three more years to go. When we came in after 16 years of
\nPDP, each government had 42 ministries. We reduced them to 24, removed 21
\nPermanent Secretaries. We sat down and reflected seriously. We were all in
\nthe process of taking over at a time of national budget. So, imagine the
\nvolume of work and with what happened in the National Assembly, the
\npadding, it would appear that below the Permanent Secretaries, there are
\nstill a lot of bureaucracies that are still with them. So, you have to
\nappreciate the position we are in. Having cut 42 to 24, correspondingly,
\nthe parastatals will be cut down to some size and realigned and the boards
\nreconstituted. We gave a blanket order which we had to rescind when we
\nsaid all boards are suspended or dissolved. We had to go back and lick our
\nvomit in terms of university boards because we found out that according to
\ntheir laws, they cannot choose Vice Chancellors unless the Boards seat
\ndown, interview prospective candidates who wants to be VCs. So, there is
\nnothing wrong in saying sorry and going back on your decision. So, we said
\nsorry and allow all the universities to continue with their boards. But
\nfor the rest, eventually, we will make it. So, please, try to bear with us
\nas we reflect on where we found ourselves.
\nFor globetrotting, sometimes, you need to present your case on personal
\nbasis to your economic colleagues and neighbors. Nothing is better than
\npersonal touch and I believe that we are learning a lot and eventually,
\nthe nation will realize so, I don’t envy you on the harassment you are
\ngoing through from your constituencies. Take it with a lot of
\ndetermination and we will be all right, God willing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Mohammadu Buhari has said it makes no sense anymore complaining about the 16yr failures of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, promising to utilize available resources to tackle challenges facing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n