Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has
slammed the country’s political opposition for downplaying the
unprecedented achievements of the Buhari Administration, saying they
are being deliberately and perpetually blind to the achievements.
The minister made the assertion while inaugurating the 22-member
newly-elected Governing Council of the Nigerian Institute of Public
Relations (NIPR), under the chairmanship of Mallam Mukhtar Sirajo, in
Abuja on Thursday.
He described the opposition as unserious, very disdainful of the
truth, lacks ideas and believes that being in opposition means crying
wolf where there is none and spewing out fake information at the speed
of light!
”Where is the seriousness in an opposition party throwing out a
spurious figure of N10 trillion as the amount of money
that has been looted under the present administration? What is
Nigeria’s annual national budget? How do you react to an opposition
that is deliberately and perpetually blind to the monumental
achievements of this Administration?” Mohammed queried.
He said while naysayers might pretend not to have seen all these
achievements, ”Nigerians who are benefitting directly from them have
testified to the reality of the successes.”
Listing some of the achievements of the Administration, the Minister
said it had taken power generation from 2,690MW to 7,000MW, moved
Nigeria closer to self-sufficiency in rice than any Administration
before it, increased the number of rice farmers from 5 million to an
all-time high over 11 million and cut Nigeria’s rice import bill of
$1.65 billion annually by 90%.
”We are feeding 8.2 million pupils in 45,394 schools in 24 states,
employing 87,261 cooks in the process; we are paying conditional cash
transfer of N5,000 monthly to 297,973 poorest and most vulnerable
households, never before done in Nigeria; we are building roads, rail
and power, spending an unprecedented 2.7 trillion Naira on
infrastructure alone in just two years; we have raised capital
expenditure in the yearly national budget to an unprecedented 30% on
the average, our Social Investment Programmes have benefitted 9
million people.
”The school children who are being fed, the unemployed graduate who
has now been employed under N-Power; the small business owner who has
benefitted from the GEEP loans and the thousands of people who have
been rescued from the clutches of Boko Haram know that these
achievements are real,” he said.
Mohammed said the economy is also back on the path of growth,
after the recession of 2016-17, ”and we have the figures to support
this assertion”.
He said the economy grew 1.95 percent in Q1 2018; Inflation has fallen
for 15 consecutive months, from 18.7 percent to 12.5 per cent as of April 2018; External Reserves of $48 billion are the highest in 5 years; Total exports in 2017 were 59.47% higher than
for 2016; Agriculture exports grew 180.7% above the value in 2016; Raw
material exports grew 154.2% above the value in 2016; Solid minerals
exports grew 154.2% above the value in 2016; Exports of manufactured
goods grew 26.8% above the value in 2016, And the first quarter of
2018 saw the fourth consecutive quarterly increase in capital
importation since Q2 2017.
The minister said Nigeria moved up 24 places on the World Bank’s Ease
of Doing Business rankings in 2017, and was listed among the 10 Most
Improved Economies.
He said the Administration is fighting corruption like never before,
”with our Whistleblowing Policy yielding N13.8bn from tax evaders, as
well as N7.8bn, $378million, £27,800 in recoveries from public
officials”, adding: ”Naysayers say they have not seen all these
achievements, Nigerians who are benefitting directly from them have
testified to the
reality of the successes.”
Mohammed advised Public Relations practitioners never to be
tired or discouraged from projecting the image of their
establishments, even when some people decide to play the blind or the
spoiler.
