Nigeria’s Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed says the survival of two economic recessions and the COVID-19 pandemic in the country are the major milestones of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration
The Minister made the remark on Monday in Abuja at the second edition of the President’s scorecard from 2015 to 2023 series.
He said the administration performed creditably in the area of transportation and many other sectors
Mohammed explained that if the main opposition, the People Democratic Party had experienced recessions and a pandemic during its reins, the nation’s economy would have gone totally down without an end in sight.
The Minister said the completion of three standard gauge rail lines, housing across 35 states, and social intervention programs benefitting millions of citizens are milestones visible to everyone.
Mohammed added that the present administration has done so much with so little resources as occasioned by the global economic realities.
Transportation Sector
According to the Minister, the integrated National Security Waterways Protection Infrastructure also known as the Deepblue asset which is aimed at managing, controlling and protecting Nigerian water ways is a massive achievement.
“I want to address what i will call an absurdity that is being bandied about by the opposition,that the Buhari Administration has nothing to campaign within the run-up to the 2023 general elections. It’s a cruel irony that the party that presided over the affairs of this great country in a time of plenty, but could not complete a single modern rail line, is the one accusing an Administration that has completed at least three standard gauge rail lines of lacking in achievements.”
The Minister said the Buhari Administration is spoilt for choice in celebrating its achievements, reeling out the completed the Abuja-Kaduna, Lagos-Ibadan and Itakpe-Warri Standard Gauge Rail-lines, the commissioned brand new airport terminals in Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt, completed housing projects in 35 states and the constructed road projects in every state as huge achievements.
“We have the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme that has almost weaned us from dependence on imported rice and other crops, we met 15 standard rice mills and now we have over 50, we have our unprecedented National Social Investment Programme under which 9.8 million school children are fed one meal daily, under which 1 million youth have been empowered and another 500,000 who are undergoing training under the N-Power and the 1,632,480 households that have been enrolled in the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme.
“We are also proud of the Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure (also known as Deep Blue Asset), aimed at managing, controlling and protecting Nigerian waterways towards the advancement of coastal prosperity. I can go on and on but that means we won’t have the opportunity to hear from the Honourable Minister of Transportation.
“They are quick to point to some economic indices like the Naira exchange rate and inflation, but the truth is that if they were the ones confronted with having to fight a once-in-a-century pandemic, two economic recessions and low oil prices, Nigeria would have had no economy to even talk about!”
The Minister also said that the administration has a lot of achievements to highlight and campaign with ahead of the 2023 general election in Nigeria regardless of the opposition’s opinions.
PIAK
