- A national leader of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to intensify his efforts to build a better Nigeria
- He said though Buhari had done well in the last two years, the president needs to do more
- He also noted that the anti-graft war embarked upon by the President Buhari-led administration is not yet won
A national leader of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) and a former Governor of Lagos state, Bola Tinubu, on Thursday, November 16, advised President Muhammadu Buhari to use the remaining part of his tenure to build a better country and help “suffering” Nigerians.
Premium Times reports that Tinubu took advantage of his position as a keynote speaker at the presentation of a book, “Making steady, Sustainable Progress for Nigeria’s Peace and Prosperity: A Mid-term scorecard on the Muhammadu Buhari Administration”, which held at the State House conference centre, Abuja, to tell President Buhari that although he has done well in his first two years, he still has a lot more to do.
NAIJ.com gathered that Tinubu said Nigeria relies on crude oil which is expendable as he advised the government to train its policies to ensure that when oil is finally no more, the country will not suffer.
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The APC leader warned that his decision to offer the advice publicly should not be mistaken as evidence of “space” that exists between him and the president.
He said such representation will be “false” and the news about it “will be fake.”
“What I proffer today is done in the spirit of utmost respect and affinity by one who wants the best for this government and for Nigeria. I say these things to encourage the government to achieve the greatness the times demand and of which this government is capable,” he said.
He said for Buhari to succeed, he must face and work on the economy.
He said the 2018 budget estimates submitted by the president last week has the potential to move the nation in the right direction.
He said the most important aspect of the budget is the capital expenditure badly needed for infrastructure.
“This investment means that the government fully recognises our economy must grow but that it cannot expand beyond the parameters of the infrastructural grid that serves it,” he said.
He also noted that: “It is time to lead our people to a place where poverty and hunger become infrequent and where prosperity and hope are the daily fare of the common man”.
Tinubu said as one of the most populous nations of the world, Nigeria cannot attain prosperity without first establishing a robust industrial capacity.
He also said developed countries such as England, Japan and China implemented key policies “to protect industries, promote employment and encourage exports. These nations represent the past, present and immediate future of national economic achievement”.
He said if Nigeria is to be a leader in the next phase of global economic history, it must learn from the successes of these countries.
He also said henceforth, Nigeria’s national industrial revolution “must be more than mere words”.
He said the government must invest in research and work closely with the private sector.
“Government policy must push and incentivize the private sector into the production of goods that will be demanded in the immediate future and for some time to come,” he said.
Tinubu said whatever the nation chooses to produce, such products must be “things that the rest of the world wants to buy and not necessarily the things that we think are easier to do”.
Tinubu, however said that the Goodluck Jonathan administration won a gold medal in corruption.
According to Tinubu, money “ran away” faster than Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.
The former Lagos governor said Boko Haram would have taken more territory and more lives would have been lost to insurgency if Jonathan had remained in power.
“The prior government used the public treasury as a private hedge fund or a charity that limited its giving only to themselves,” he said.
“So much money grew feet and ran away faster than Usain Bolt ever could. That which could have been spent on national development was squandered in ways that would cause the devil to blush.
“One minister and her rogues’ gallery picked the pocket of this nation for billions of dollars. While poor at governance, these people could give a master thief lessons in the sleight of hand. In governance, they earned a red card but in corruption l, they won the gold medal.
“It was not that our institutions had become infected by corruption. Corruption has become institutionalized.”
Tinubu said the war on corruption has been won as President Buhari has set an axe to “the root of this dangerous tree”.
“We have much to do to combat this disease. Not only must we track down the takers. In the long term, we must review the salaries of public servants and create universal credits for our people to reduce temptation,” he added.
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He affirmed that Buhari, unlike his predecessor, had demonstrated the will to walk this path.
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that the federal government disclosed that a total of 176,160 graduate beneficiaries have been deployed under its Social Investment Programme, N-Power.
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Source: Naija.ng
ROSY CREST
Thursday, 16 November 2017