Abuja – The Presidency on Wednesday,
indirectly accused Nigerians of being ignorant of the many impacts of
the President Muhammadu Buhari administration since 2015.
In
educating Nigerians about the Buhari-led government, Senior Special
Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said
Nigerians should rather be counting their blessings that the
administration has brought about economic emancipation for the country.
Shehu,
in reeling out some of the gains of the government, noted that last
year, the World Bank ranked Nigeria among the top 10 reforming economies
in the world.
This, he explained, was clearly in recognition of
the thorough and rigorous growth and development-oriented economic
policies of the Buhari Administration.
He said currently,
investors and businessmen and women from around the world can arrive in
Nigeria and get their visas right at the airport without any hassle.
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.
He
said 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.
He said 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.
“This
administration has also ushered 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.
“Fertilizer
plants have been resuscitated, prices have dropped. More and more young
people are going into agriculture, being able, for the first time, to
see farming as a viable endeavour.
“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, “Shehu said in a statement made available to
State House correspondents.
In a further comment, Shehu said in
the address of the Vice President at the 10th Bola Tinubu Colloquium, he
reported that the Buhari administration has put in place “an audacious
Social Investment Programme to the tune of N500 billion, the largest
pro-poor programme in Nigeria’s history.
He described it as the
largest social safety net, at least in Sub-Saharan Africa. This was
despite the fact that by 2015, oil prices fell by over 50 percent and
our production also fell from over 2 million barrels a day to less than
700,000 barrels a day, sometimes even 500,000 barrels in 2016.
“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.”
“In line with campaign promises,
this administration is spending trillions of Naira to build railways,
roads and ramp up power supplies. On this spending on infrastructure the
Vice President’s words were:
“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 percent less than we were earning in 2014.”
“We wish,
however, to caution that these comments should not be misconstrued as
denying that there is more that needs to be done, as 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,” Shehu said in a
lengthy statement.
