ADDRESS BY MUHAMMADU BUHARI, PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF
NIGERIA IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 2018 DEMOCRACY DAY CELEBRATION, TUESDAY, MAY 29
My Dear Nigerians!
Today marks the 19th year of our nascent democracy and the 3rd
Anniversary of this administration. I am thankful to Almighty God for
bringing us thus far. This administration came at a time that Nigerians
needed Change, the Change we promised and the Change we continue to
deliver. We have faced a lot of challenges on this journey and Nigerians
have stood by us in achieving the three cardinal points of this
administration namely; Security, Corruption and the Economy.
2. The commemoration of this year’s Democracy Day is a celebration of
freedom, a salute to the resilience and determination of Nigerians and a
recommitment by Government to keep its promise to lead Nigeria into a
new era of justice and prosperity.
3. Public safety and security remains the primary duty of this
Government. Before this Administration came into being 3 years ago, Boko
Haram held large areas of land spanning several Local Governments in
the North East.
4. Today, the capacity of the insurgents has been degraded leading to
the re-establishment of authority of government and the release of
captives including, happily, 106 Chibok and 104 Dapchi girls, and over
16,000 other persons held by the Boko Haram.
5. In order to minimize the impact of the insurgency on Internally
Displaced Persons, Government has established secure IDP Camps and has
improved the mechanism for the distribution of basic aid, foods and
essential commodities using various strategies in collaboration with
local and international Organizations.
6. Efforts are in process for resettlement of IDPs in their home
communities by providing schools, hospitals, clinics, water, and
sanitation to facilitate a quick return to economic activities.
Government is similarly implementing de-radicalization and
rehabilitation programmes to facilitate sustainable peace and
development.
7. The unfortunate incidences of kidnappings, herdsmen and farmers
clashes in several communities which have led to high number of
fatalities and loss of properties across the country is being addressed
and the identified culprits and their sponsors shall be made to face the
full wrath of the law. All the three tiers of Government are presently
engaged with communities and religious organizations to restore peaceful
co-existence among Nigerians.
8. I want to commend members of the Multinational Joint Task Force
drawn from Niger, Benin, Chad, Cameroon and our own country in
collaboration with the International Community who are assisting in the
fight against insurgency in the North East. I also commend the gallantry
of members of our Armed Forces and other security agencies that have
continued to provide security for lives and properties across the
country. State and Local traditional authorities are helping with much
needed intelligence in this fight against insurgency.
9. This administration is pained over the grievous loss of lives and
properties occasioned by the carnage of insurgency and other forms of
criminality in the country. I wish to assure Nigerians that we will not
rest until all criminal elements and their sponsors are brought to
justice. Government is boosting the capacity of our security agencies
through recruitment of more personnel, training and procurement of
modern equipment, enhancement of intelligence gathering as well as
boosting their morale in the face of daunting challenges.
10. The Niger Delta Region has enjoyed relative peace through social
inclusiveness and cooperation of the Elders and the good people of the
region. Government is committed to implementing the comprehensive peace,
security and development plan for the region. The environmental
clean-up of the region which commenced with the launch in Bodo, Ogoni in
June, 2016 is progressing satisfactorily. Furthermore farming assets
are being revived and investors in cocoa and palm oil plantations are
showing serious interest.
11. The second primary object of this Administration is to fight
corruption headlong. Like I have always said, if we don’t kill
corruption, corruption will destroy the country. Three years into this
Administration, Nigerians and the international community have begun to
applaud our policies and determination to fight corruption. We are more
than ever before determined to win this war, however hard the road is. I
therefore appeal to all well-meaning Nigerians to continue to support
us in this fight.
12. Various policy measures already put in place to stem the tide of
corrupt practices are yielding remarkable results. Some of these key
reform policies include:
a. The Treasury Single Account (TSA) has realized Billions of Naira
being saved from maintenance fee payable to banks. N200 Billion has also
been saved from elimination of ghost workers in public service.
b. The Whistle-Blowing Policy has helped to recover over N500 Billion;
c. The Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit set up with a
mandate to validate controls, assess risks, prune personnel costs,
ensure compliance with Public Financial Management reforms has helped to
identify and remove over 52,000 ghost workers from the Federal
Government MDAs Payroll;
d. The Voluntary Asset and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) aimed at
expanding tax education and awareness has offered the opportunity for
tax defaulters to regularise their status in order to enjoy the amnesty
of forgiveness on overdue interest, penalties and the assurance of
non-prosecution or subject to tax investigations.
e. The Sovereign Wealth Fund project portfolio has been expanded with
an injection of US$650 million so as to strengthen its investment in
local infrastructure, power, health, re-construction of Abuja-Kano road,
Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, East West Road (Section V) and the Mambilla
Hydro-electric Power project as well as the construction of the 2nd
Niger Bridge.
13. The fight against corruption through the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other
Related Offences Commission has resulted in recoveries of Billions of
Naira, as well as forfeiture of various forms of assets. This alongside
other efforts has improved Nigeria’s international image and regional
cooperation.
14. We have retained the services of one of the world’s leading
assets tracing firms to investigate and trace assets globally. This is
in addition to the exploitation of provisions of existing Treaties,
Conventions as well as Bilateral Agreements with Multilateral bodies and
Nations. Nigeria has also signed Mutual Legal Assistance Agreements to
ensure that there is no hiding place for fugitives.
15. This Administration has therefore focused on revamping the ailing
economy it inherited in 2015. In 2016, Government executed an
expansionary budget and developed the Strategic Implementation Plan. For
the first time, 30% of the budget was earmarked for capital expenditure
which represents an upward review when compared with the 2015 budget.
The SIP was followed by the development of a comprehensive medium term
plan – the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan 2017 – 2020.
16. The broad strategic objectives of the ERGP were to; Restore and
sustain economic growth; Build a globally competitive economy; and
Invest in our people. The implementation of the ERGP has started
yielding results. The National Bureau of Statistics reports that the
economy grew by 1.95% in 1st quarter 2018, which is a good performance
when viewed against -0.91 in 1st quarter 2017 and -0.67% in 1st quarter
2016 respectively.
17. Our foreign reserve has improved significantly to 47.5 billion
USD as of May, 2018 as against 29.6 billion USD in 2015. The
inflationary rate has consistently declined every month since January,
2017.
18. Recently, Government conducted Focus Labs in three key sectors of
the Economy namely, Agriculture & Transport, Manufacturing and
Processing as well as Power and Gas. These have yielded significant
prospects for investments and Job creation to the tune of US$ 22.5
billion with a potential for creating more than 500,000 jobs by 2020.
These investment generation initiatives are expected to increase capital
inflows in the form of foreign direct investment. There is a high
prospect that the cumulative investments from this first phase of the
Labs will hit US$39.2 billion by 2025.
19. Under agriculture, Nigeria continues to pursue a strategic food
security programme built around self-sufficiency and minimization of
import dependency. As a result, rice importation from other countries
has been cut down by 90% which has a direct impact on foreign reserves.
20. The Social Investment Programmes (SIP) has been created as a
means to 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.
b. The Conditional Cash Transfer has so far recorded over 297,000
caregivers and being trained by 2,495 Community Facilitators in 21
states. Less privileged Nigerians are now being paid N5,000 monthly
stipend in 9 pilot States of Bauchi, Borno, Cross River, Ekiti, Kwara,
Kogi, Niger, Osun and Oyo. Eventually the scheme will cover all the 36
states of the federation including the FCT.
c. Under the Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme – About
264,269 loans had been disbursed to 4,822 societies in the 36 States and
FCT, while another 370,635 are awaiting release of funds.
d. N-Power Job creation Scheme – is targeted at providing jobs for
unemployed young graduates and has so far recruited 200,000 youths while
the next batch of 300,000 have been selected, verified and would soon
be deployed across the 36 States and the FCT. Furthermore, 20,000
non-graduate volunteers have also been selected to kick off the N-Build
programme in collaboration with the National Automotive Design and
Development Council and the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria.
21. In the area of power generation, Nigerians from all parts of the
country continue to report better power supply and less use of
generators. This underscores the effectiveness of the methodical plan to
deliver incremental and uninterrupted power supply to our homes,
markets, offices and factories.
22. The country achieved 5, 222.3 MW representing the highest peak of
power generated onto the national grid and delivered to customers in
December, 2017. With new facilities, repairs and rehabilitations by
Government and private investors, generation capability now exceeds
7,500 MW.
23. This Administration is committed to lawful interventions to
ensure the operators of the distribution business live up to
expectations especially in the areas of distribution capacity, service
delivery, collection efficiency, and metering to eliminate contentious
estimated billing.
24. The Transportation Sector continues to undergo a series of
reforms in order to sustain the international best practices and ensure
safety and security. 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. Bilateral Air Services Agreements between Nigeria and the
Governments of other countries will significantly open up new flight
routes.
25. As a result of strict regulatory and compliance policies, Nigeria
retained her Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Category 1 status,
after a routine international audit. Recently, a new Maintenance Repair
and Overhaul facility with capacity for aircraft C-checks and other
comprehensive levels of maintenance was established in Lagos. This would
save the country an estimated $90m annually.
26. Giant strides have been recorded over the past three years to
improve road transport infrastructure in all geopolitical zones of the
country.
27. 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.
28. The Education Sector especially at tertiary level has continued
to witness expansion in order to improve access to higher education by
millions of youths in Nigeria. Over the last three years, Government has
approved the establishment of 1 new Federal Polytechnic, granted
licenses for the establishment of 4 State and 14 private-owned
Universities as well as 12 private Polytechnics.
29. Government has also continued to support the implementation of
various initiatives aimed at improving the quality of Basic Education
delivery. Thus, it has ensured proper funding at the Basic Education
level with the disbursement of N42.2 billion UBE Matching Grant to 26
States and the FCT, N851.5 million Special Education Grant disbursed to
23 States and private providers of Special Education and N2.2 billion
Teachers Professional Development Fund to 33 States and the FCT.
30. The Federal Government has continued to support fiscal
sustainability at the sub-national governments through the
implementation of the Budget Support Facility which was accompanied by
the 22- point Fiscal Sustainability Plan. Thus, bailouts funds were made
available to States to ease their fiscal challenges and other
obligations including payment of salaries.
31. In addition, a total of 73 Ecological Fund projects for the
control of gully erosion in different communities across all
geopolitical zones have been completed in the last three years and are
undergoing commissioning while 53 other projects are ongoing. The
execution of these projects has generated 357 skilled jobs and 1,350
unskilled jobs during this period.
32. It is pertinent to also make mention of the immeasurable
contributions of the Nigerian woman to national development and
advancement of democracy, over the last three years. The government and
people appreciate you all as mothers of our great country.
33. My dear country men and women, as we all celebrate our democratic
experience, let us resolve to avoid hatred and intolerance; we can only
achieve our objectives in an atmosphere of harmony and peaceful
co-existence.
34. Finally, the up-coming months will usher us into another season
of general elections. Let me use this opportunity to urge us all to
conduct ourselves, our wards and our constituencies with the utmost
sense of fairness, justice and peaceful co-existence such that we will
have not only hitch free elections but also a credible and violence free
process.
35. In few days to come, I will be joined by many promising young Nigerians to sign into law the “Not Too Young to Run” Bill
36. I thank you for your attention.
37. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
