Minister of Transport, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, on Monday, said the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) did not promise to fix Nigeria’s problems within a year.
Amaechi, who was the Director General of President Mohammadu Buhari’s campaign organisation during the 2015 general election, however, urged Nigerians to wait till the end of four years before they would expect the ruling party to fix the problems plaguing the country.
He also accused the National Assembly of holding the Federal Government back from fixing infrastructure problems and creating jobs by failing to approve its borrowing plan.
Amaechi said this just as the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed cautioned Nigerians against making statements that could cause religious disharmony warning that “no nation has ever survived religious war”.
The duo spoke in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, during a North Central town hall meeting for the people of Kogi, Niger and Kwara by the Federal Government.
Amaechi said though the Federal Government had heard the cries of Nigerians that things were difficult, they have to wait till the end of the four-year mandate given to the administration before they could judge whether the government had performed or not.
“We did not promise you that those challenges will be solved in one year. If we promised you that those challenges would be solved in one year you would have given us one year but you gave us four years mandate so wait till the end of four years,” he said.
While giving account of stewardship of his ministry, Amaechi said the failure of the National Assembly to approve the federal government’s borrowing plan from China was holding the government back, while urging the people from the three states to prevail on the National Assembly to approve the loan.
He said the loan, if accessed, would enable the federal government to embark on the privatization of rail projects which would create more jobs for Nigerians.