I Know Nigerians Are Suffering --- Buhari

Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that he was very much home with the suffering of ordinary Nigerians. The president assured that government was taking deliberate steps to improve the lives of citizens. Buhari stated on Thursday when he received the Council of Abuja Imams at the presidential villa, Abuja.

According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the president told the Imams that his government is acutely aware of challenges of life facing the average citizen.

He appealed to Muslim religious leaders to carry the message of hope to the people that things will improve. Buhari also requested religious leaders throughout the country to keep calming the people. “The leadership, at various levels, is trying to solve problems of poverty, unemployment and insecurity bedevilling the country,” the president said. He said the government chose to give priority to agriculture so as to create jobs for unemployed citizens and give the country food security.

Buhari noted that although efforts had begun, there was a bigger plan for the provision of fertilizers, insecticides and land preparations starting next year. He further requested state governments and community leaders across the country to organise the population into cooperative societies, stressing that “extension services, not money will be provided.”

The president also addressed the religious leaders on the efforts to improve power supply in the country with on-going efforts to bring foreign investment from China and some friendly countries that indicated willingness in developing the proposed Mambila and other hydroelectric power projects in the country.

He assured that the steps the government was carefully taking on the crisis situation in the Niger Delta would lead to long-term peace and stabilise the oil-rich region. On the war against corruption and the Boko Haram terrorism, the president said his government would remain resolute and relentless. “We have no plan to humiliate or embarrass anyone through these actions. We are merely interested in instituting justice and fairness for all,” the president assured.

He reiterated that whoever was caught, as having stolen from the public, will be forced to return the loot to the treasury. “The nation needs the money,” he stated. Earlier, the Chairman of Abuja Council of Imams, Dr. Tajudeen Mohammed Bello Adigun, on behalf of the delegation, commended the efforts of the Buhari administration in the war against corruption and terrorism.

NewTelegraph