The Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu, has said that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration employed 200,000 youths in one fell swoop.
Shittu said this in Abuja on Tuesday while asking Nigerians to support the president for a second term in office.
This is coming on the heels of the president’s Monday declaration that he would be seeking reelection in the 2019 general election.
He said that Buhari’s achievements in various sectors of the nation’s socioeconomic life in the last three years have surpassed what the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) achieved in 16 years.
“For instance in the area of job creation for youths, no government has ever in one day employed 200, 000 graduates. It has never happened but under Buhari N-Power it happened.
“Through this, he has provided jobs for 200, 000 families spread across the length and breadth of Nigeria.
“Government is still processing the employment of 300, 000 more graduates to make it 500, 000, this has never happened. In the areas of transport, works and housing, the last budget of the PDP government was less than N20 billion and most of these monies were stolen; diverted to private pockets.
“In 2017 alone, the Buhari government spent N255 billion on those subject matters; transport, works and housing. So how do you compare? Today, government is also building new roads across the south-east states with 100 million dollars SUKUK loan; non-interest loan from Islamic Development Bank.
“For the first time, government is building new railway from Lagos to Kano, from Kano to Maiduguri, from Maiduguri to Calabar and from Calabar to Lagos. So the records are there.”
The minister also dismissed opposition to Buhari’s reelection from former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida.
Shittu, who is the coordinator of the Buhari/Osinbajo Dynamic Support Group, asked members to start mobilising for the success of the candidates.
“Who is OBJ? OBJ is not God. IBB is not God. Obasanjo was president here, he wanted a third term and he didn’t get it,” he said.
“What Mr President did yesterday (Monday), we had done that much back on his behalf; that is the Muhammadu Buhari/Osinbajo Dynamic Support Group. So what he did yesterday was just a follow-up to what we had done about three months ago. And I want to assure you is that by the grace of God, Muhammadu Buhari will become president the second time.”