Buhari Has Fulfilled Campaign Promises – Lai Mohammed Insists

Minister of information, Lai Mohammed has insisted that President Muhammadu Buhari has fulfilled all his campaign promises with ‘unprecedented accomplishments’ within three years of his administration.

Speaking yesterday, in Lagos, where he outlined the achievements of the administration, he said contrary to critics, who claim the government had nothing to show for its three years of existence, the Buhari administration had ‘performed beyond expectations’.

He said: “This administration has kept its social contract with the Nigerian people by delivering on its campaign promises. We are putting our nation on the path of sustainable growth and development, diversifying our economy like never before, tackling corruption at its very core and devising creative measures to secure lives and property.

“After just three years, Nigeria is rising again like a phoenix from the ashes of years of massive looting of the national treasury, mis-governance and fallen oil prices. In just three years, the Buhari administration has taken power generation to an all-time high of 7,000 mega watts, from the 2,690 which we inherited. It has moved Nigeriacloser to self-sufficiency in rice more than any administration before it; it is just two years away from meeting its target production of six million metric tonnes of milled rice to meet Nigeria’s consumption.

“This administration is feeding 8.2 million pupils in 45,394 schools in 24 states, employing 87,261 cooks in the process. It has been paying conditional cash transfer of N5,000 monthly to 297,973 poorest and most vulnerable households. It is turning around the nation’s infrastructure fortunes, including power, roads and rail, thanks to the unprecedented N2.7 trillion that has been spent on infrastructure. All four components of the N-POWER programme are now up and running, benefiting nine million people directly.

“On May 29, 2015, Boko Haram was squarely in charge of a territory the size of Lebanon, occupying 24 local governments, collecting taxes, deposing and installing emirs and hoisting its flag; corruption levels in our society was at an all-time high and the economy was in the doldrums, but, this administration has retaken every inch of Nigeria’s territory from insurgents, flushed them out of their safe havens and put them on the run.

“The economy is back on the path of growth, after the recession of 2016/17. Inflation has fallen for 15 consecutive months, from 18.7 percent to 12.5 percent as of April 2018. External reserves of $48 billion are the highest in five years, and more than double the $23 billion we met in 2015. The total value of capital imported in the quarter stood at $6,303.63 billion, which is a year-on-year increase of 594.03 percent, and a 17.11 percent growth over the figure reported in the previous quarter.

“Tax revenue increased to N1.17 trillion in the first quarter of 2018, a 51 percent increase on the first quarter of 2017 figure and 14 moribund fertiliser blending plants have been revitalised, so far, under the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative (PFI); with a total capacity of 2.3 million metric tonnes of fertiliser. The contribution of solid minerals to the Federation Account rose five-fold from N700 million in 2015 to N3.5 billion in 2017.

“The administration launched the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), a medium-term economic plan, in April 2017, to chart a course for the economy over the next four years (2017–2020).”