Four years ago, we promised Nigerians real
change – in what we do and how we do it. Nigerians sent a clear message in the last election,
and our platform offered a new, ambitious plan
for a secure, prosperous and corruption-free
country. We have worked hard to fulfill our promises – and while the road may have been difficult,
over the last three and a half years, we have laid
the foundations for a strong, stable and prosperous country for the majority of
our people.
Foundational work is not often visible, neither is
it glamorous – but it is vital to achieving the kind of country we desire. Judging by the prior depth of decay, deterioration and disrepair that Nigeria had
sunken into, we are certain that these past few years have put us in good stead to trudge on
the NEXT LEVEL of building an even stronger nation for our people.
First things had to come first. We were a nation at war – but we delivered on our commitment to secure the territorial integrity of our nation in the face of a raging insurgency that devastated many parts of the North East. We liberated 17 Local Government Areas from the grip of insurgency. Brokering and sustaining peace in the Niger Delta has also been crucial to stabilizing
the polity.
Despite the difficult circumstances presented by weak oil prices and reduced oil production, we delivered on our commitment to make public investments to spur economic growth, job creation, and broad-based prosperity. Agriculture continues to expand our economic base, as do our investments in our deficient
infrastructure across the length and breadth of
this nation.
We implemented a responsible and transparent fiscal plan for the challenging economic times that saw us doing more even with lesser oil revenues. The past history of grand-scale corruption perpetuated by the highest office in the land has been nipped in the bud just as the Treasury Saving Account has made it more difficult for ministries, departments and agencies to
exercise the unrestrained liberties that helped foster a climate conducive to corruption. Now, for the first time, investments in capital projects to expand
infrastructure continue to connect people, goods and opportunities by rail, road and air.
The Federal Government supported state governments with a bailout that enabled them to pay workers on their payroll.
We took an unprecedented step towards creating a fairer and more equitable society by implementing Africa’s biggest social investment programme. Through the National Social Investments Programme, we are providing direct support to over 12 million Nigerians who need it by giving relief and assistance to unemployed youth, our children, the weak and vulnerable as well as small and medium businesses.
But even as we lay the foundation for a stable and prosperous nation, we acknowledge there is still much work to build on. The next level of effort has an immense focus on job creation
From an enlargement of the N-Power programme to investing in technology and creative jobs to Agriculture and others, there is scope for 10 million new jobs.
The march away from a mono-economy must continue with our focus on an industrialisation plan coming to fore. With specific plans underway to exploit the comparative advantage of the geo political zones and different states by developing 6 Industrial Parks and 109 Special Production and Processing Centres (SPPCs) across each senatorial district, our incremental move away from oil dependence is assured. In addition, our development of the Special Economic Zones will quickly concretise our Made in
Nigeria for Export (MINE) plan.
To sustain food production and value addition, our mechanisation policy for agriculture will make tractors and processors easily accessible and available for
farmers across Nigeria. We will continue a wide
scale skilling policy, prioritising technology to
reach the demography of young people within
the productive sector on a massive scale even
as we create jobs and growth within our economy.
We believe that our people who are still in poverty have a direct way out and up through our expanded National Social Investments Programme. We believe we can implement the painstaking and comprehensive work we have done to bring an end to the perennial conflict
between farmers and herders- a conflict which
is heightened by a struggle for land, water and
pasture and the effects of climate change and
every now and then, opportunistic and cynical
manipulation by political actors. We are implementing a blend of measures that ensures that justice, order, modernisation and new economic paradigms emerge.
Perhaps our biggest ambition yet is the overhaul
of our education sector. Every child counts – and
simply, whatever it takes to prepare our teachers, curriculum and classrooms to attain the right
educational goals that grow our country, will be
done. We will remodel 10,000 schools every
year and retrain our teachers to impart science,
technology, engineering, art and mathematics
using coding, animation, robotics to re-interpret
our curriculum.
We know that, to succeed, moral integrity and
conscience must continue to form the dominant
character of our nation and its leadership. Corruption is an existential threat to Nigeria. Despite
the gains we have made in closing the gates,
we know that there is still much ground to cover
to stop systemic corruption. We are committed
to deepening the work we started this first time
such that the nation’s assets and resources continue to be organised and utilised to do good for
the majority of our people.
The next four years will be quite significant for our
country. Nigeria is faced with a choice to keep
building a new Nigeria- making a break from its
tainted past which favoured an opportunistic
few. Our choices will shape us – our economic
security and our future prosperity. Nigeria, more
than ever before, needs a stable and people-fo-
cused government to move the agenda for our
country forward.
Join us on this journey to the NEXT LEVEL of a
prosperous, strong and stable Nigeria!
