President
Muhammadu Buhari has said it will require more than one election cycle to fix
Nigeria and deliver the promised change.
He argued
that the change promised by his government was not an event but a process and
it would, therefore, require time to deliver.
While
urging Nigerians to re-elect him for another term of four years, the President
gave the assurance that the fruits of the efforts he had made in fixing the
country in the last three and a half years would soon begin to manifest.
Buhari
also countered the argument that Nigeria lacked institutions, describing the
claim as one of the “hyperbolic expressions that fly around these days.”
The
President said this on Monday in Lagos while delivering the 75th anniversary
business lecture of the Island Club.
The
lecture titled, “Nation building and institutional development, lessons for
Nigeria from the Island Club at 75,” was delivered on behalf of Buhari by the
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola.
Buhari,
who is the grand patron of the club, recalled that unlike now, there was a time
when the club held its major events in the open air because it had no hall and
could not afford one then.
“It took
more than one term and one election cycle of the Chairman of Island Club to
build this hall just as it will require more than one election cycle to build
the nation and deliver change,” the President said.
He argued
that the fact that the Island Club had existed for 75 years had put a lie to
the claim that there were no institutions in the country.
This, he
said, was another lesson that the nation had to learn from the club’s 75th
anniversary, stressing that the fact that people expected more from the
existing institutions did not mean that the institutions did not exist.
“The
process of change and reform did not happen because Island Club did anything;
it happened because people, members of the club, and I believe, non-members,
who were men of goodwill, chose to act,” he added.
Buhari
said he had put the country on the path of food security by banning the
importation of rice despite opposition by vested interests, who frustrated
earlier government food security policies such as Operation Feed the Nation and
the Green Revolution.
As a
result, he said, his administration had produced millions of rice and wheat
farmers, adding that his vision was to industrialise the nation’s food sector.
Buhari
said under his watch the manufacturing sector had made progress, citing recent
statistics by the National Bureau of Statistics.
Buhari
said his reforms in the power sector had led to improved power supply, which
had rubbed off on small-scale businesses.
“It is
because of these small business owners, hard-working Nigerians that I am
offering myself to serve for one more time,” the President said.
Meanwhile,
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday said he and President Buhari would never
be found deceiving Nigerians.
He said
the two of them could be accused of anything, but not about deceiving
Nigerians.
A
statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Laolu
Akande, quoted the Vice-President as saying this while featuring on a
programme, Brekete Family, on Human Rights Radio, Abuja.
Osinbajo
said the administration was concerned about the plight of ordinary Nigerians
and would continue to carry out programmes that would improve their lives.
He said,
“The focus of our government is on how things can be better for the common man.
“We are
not in the business of trying to deceive Nigerians.
“You can
accuse me and the President of anything, but you will never find us deceiving
Nigerians.”
While
making references to the present administration’s National Social Investment
Programme, Osinbajo noted that the administration was able to do more with less
resources.
He added,
“The President has ensured that nobody steals money from the treasury.
“The major
problem Nigeria had before now was the fact that people stole from the nation’s
coffers.
“Once the
country is able to stop corruption, it would be better.”
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