President Muhammadu Buhari, in his Democracy Speech yesterday, listed the several steps his administration is taking to stimulate growth in different sectors of the Nigerian economy in an apparent defence that he has handled the economy poorly.
Buhari highlighted some of the initiatives in the transportation, agriculture and other sectors of the economy that he believes will create jobs in the next few years and attract billions of dollars in investments.
He disclosed that a new Maintenance Repair and Overhaul, (MRO), facility with capacity for aircraft C-checks and other comprehensive levels of maintenance established in Lagos would save the country an estimated $90m annually. Buhari stated that the Transportation Sector continues to undergo a series of reforms in order to sustain the international best practices and ensure safety and security.
Buhari also disclosed how the nation’s major airports have witnessed reconstruction of runways, installation of navigational equipment and new international terminals due for commissioning in Abuja, Lagos, Kano and Enugu, while Bilateral Air Services Agreements between Nigeria and the Governments of other countries will significantly open up new flight routes.
He observed that as a result of strict regulatory and compliance policies, Nigeria retained her Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Category 1 status, after a routine international audit.
“Giant strides have been recorded over the past three years to improve road transport infrastructure in all geo-political zones of the country” Buhari said.
“The railway sector has also received tremendous attention as this administration is committed to the goal of linking all State capitals in the Federation by rail network to ease the movement of goods and passengers”.
President Buhari explained that the government recently conducted Focus Labs in three key sectors of the economy namely, agriculture and transport, manufacturing and processing as well as power and gas which have yielded significant prospects for investments and Job creation to the tune of $ 22.5 billion with a potential for creating more than 500,000 jobs by 2020.
He said these investment generation initiatives are expected to increase capital inflows in the form of foreign direct investment.
The president added that there is a high prospect that the cumulative investments from this first phase of the Labs will hit $39.2 billion by 2025.
Under agriculture, President Buhari explained that Nigeria continues to pursue a strategic food security programme built around self-sufficiency and minimization of import dependency.
He maintained that as a result of this, rice importation from other countries has been cut down by 90percent which has a direct impact on foreign reserves.
He emphasised that: “The Social Investment Programmes (SIP) has been created as a means of graduating our citizens from poverty through capacity building, investment and direct support. The major strategic objective is to restore livelihood, economic opportunities and sustenance for the poor across the country. The SIP programmes and projects include: A Home Grown School Feeding Programme – About 8.2 million pupils are currently being fed from 24 States of the Federation with over 75,000 Catering Staff engaged under the programme.”
But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the Democracy Day address by President Muhammadu Buhari as uninspiring, hollow, full of self-praise and false performance claims, without addressing issues agitating the minds of Nigerians.
Describing the broadcast as the worst since President Buhari assumed office three years ago, the main opposition party said the address was garnished with a list of phantom projects and executive regurgitation designed to sway Nigerians and divert attention from the many failures of the administration.
In a statement on Tuesday signed by Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP National Publicity Secretary, the party argued that no line in the Democracy Day broadcast addressed justice for victims of abuse of human rights, reported executive high-handedness, illegal arrests and detentions, extra-judicial executions as well as victims of killings and daily bloodletting in Benue, Taraba, Zamfara, Kaduna,Plateau, Borno, Kogi, Yobe and other parts of the country by insurgents.
“The few Nigerians who bordered to listen to the address were miffed that, in the most insensitive manner, Mr. President failed to show empathy to millions of citizens groaning under the worst form of poverty, starvation and economic hardship occasioned by his misrule.”
“President Buhari’s aloofness to the plight of Nigerians is manifest in all the lines of the speech.
“Mr. President, on Democracy Day, had no words of assurance on the unrelenting violation of our constitution; assault on the National Assembly and erosion of personal freedom of citizens.
“The President said nothing on the humonguous corruption going on under his administration, where APC leaders and a cabal at the Presidency have stolen over N10 trillion, mainly from a sector under his direct supervision,” the statement reads.
The party also noted that the President gave no commitment towards the conduct of free, fair and credible 2019 general elections because he knew that Nigerians had rejected him ahead of the polls.
“Incredibly, Mr. President’s handlers chose to subject him to a fantasy trip, making false performance claims with phantom projects, muddling up economic statistics and ended up worsening his already diminished public perception.”
“This is exactly why the PDP had earlier advised President Buhari not to border to address Nigerians on Democracy Day.”
“The PDP notes that Nigerians have reached a consensus that the 2018 Democracy Day celebration is the last for the Buhari Presidency and the APC. Our citizens have endured under the misrule of the APC, keeping their hopes in the 2019 elections to get back our democracy on the platform of the repositioned PDP.
“In solidarity with Nigerians, the National Working Committee of the PDP has already held a meeting where it reviewed the circumstances and will formally address Nigerians on the issues of misrule of our nation in the last three years,” the statement added.
Ifeoma Okeke, OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
