|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Presidency wants Nigerians to count its blessings on the successes recorded by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, chiding opposition politicians for casting ” veil” on achievements recorded by the current government.
A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said ” Presidency wants Nigerians to count the blessings that the administration of President Muha Buhari has brought to the country’s economy, irrespective of the other areas where the government is still working hard to ensure that every citizen can feel the change for which they massively voted in 2015″
Presidency said while it is mindful of its challenges the current administration is relentless and determined to continue in its task of continuously improving the lot of Nigerians.
” We are only saying that we must learn to pause and count our blessings. The loud voices of critics with selfish ambitions and ulterior motives should not be a veil that keeps Nigerians blind to the many ways God has blessed us and improved our lot through the Buhari administration.”
Garba Shehu listed “World Bank ranking of Nigeria among the top 10 reforming economies in the world” which Presidency sees as ” recognition of the thorough and rigorous growth and development-oriented economic policies”of the Buhari Administration.
Government also harps on increase in the number of investors around the world doing businesses in Nigeria
” This is just one of the many reasons why Nigeria has advanced 24 steps in the global ‘Ease of Doing Business’ rankings of the World Bank”
“The government is spending more on infrastructure than previous administrations, despite earning barely half of what the country earned from oil between 2011 and 2014 when the product was selling for an average of $110 per barrel. The latest GDP figures show continued growth after the Buhari administration successfully brought the country out of recession, with virtually all sectors of the economy now on the rebound, and significant progress recorded in agriculture.”
Presidency also sees Buhari’s administration ushering in significant progress in agriculture, where output has risen in local production, and Nigeria is now importing 80-90 percent less rice than in previous years.
Others include fertilizer plants resuscitation and drop in prices of fertilizer while young people are now engaged in agriculture.
” Has anyone heard of the Graduates-in-Agriculture Scheme in several states of the federation, a self-driven, government-assisted programme by which our young men and women are stopping their endless wait for white-collar jobs and creating wealth for themselves and the nation?
” Power generation and distribution have more than doubled from 2015 when President Buhari took power to the present.
“We have seen today the empirical evidence of the successes of this programme, and all of that is evident for us to see and listen to several testimonies and stories. 200,000 jobs for undergraduates employed under the N-Power programme, 300,000 more waiting to be employed; they have been pre-selected; over 7 million children being fed daily in 22 States so far; beneficiaries of micro-credit loans going to about 300,000; and almost 300,000 households benefiting from conditional cash transfers.”
The statement noted that this administration is spending trillions of Naira to build railways, roads and ramp up power supplies.
“In 2014, when oil was at between 100 dollars and 114 dollars a barrel, the actual releases for capital for three ministries – Power, Works and Housing – then they were three separate ministries, was in total N99 billion; while Transportation got 14 billion, and Agriculture got 15 billion. I am talking about actual releases, not budgeted, what they actually got. Let us compare that with capital releases to the same ministries in 2017, when oil price was between $50 and $60 a barrel, N415 Billion for Power, Works & Housing, N80 Billion for Transportation; N65 Billion for Agriculture; totalling N560 Billion, in a time when we were earning at least 50% less than we were earning in 2014.”
Tony Ailemen, Abuja
