In a not too surprising tone, the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari has said fixing Nigeria’s problem would take more than term in public office.
Contrary to the song he sang in 2015 when he promised to turn the country around in 6 months, President Muhammadu Buhari said it would require more than one election cycle to fix Nigeria and deliver the change he promised in 2015.
The President said this on Monday in Lagos while delivering the 75th anniversary business lecture of the Island Club.
He elaborated on the type of change promised by his party saying it wasn’t just an event but a process which will take quite a while to deliver to the people.
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The President sold himself to Nigerians and justified why he deserved to be Nigeria’s President for another four years saying 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.
The lecture was titled, “Nation building and institutional development, lessons for Nigeria from the Island Club at 75,” and was delivered on behalf of the President by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola.
According to the statement read by Fashola, the President reiterated that as grand patron of the club, he had been with them in trying times when they had no space to hold their meetings in.
“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 making comparisons between the leadership of a social club and the leadership of a country.
He said further that the Island Club which has been in existence for 75 years was evidence of an existing institution in the country contrary to claims from the opposition that the country lacked institutions.
Buhari said 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.
Sounding his achievements in office, President Buhari said he had put the Nigeria 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.
He reiterated that as a direct consequence of this policy, his government has produced millions of rice and wheat farmers, saying his main objective was to industrialise the nation’s food sector.
Buhari also said under his watch the manufacturing sector had made progress as evidenced through latest statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Buhari concluded saying the reforms of his government in the power sector has led to improved power supply, which has affected small-scale businesses positively.
“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.