Lai Mohammed: We are faithful to our electoral promises

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is true and faithful to the electoral promises made to Nigerians.
The minister said this when the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF), Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita led a team of Permanent Secretaries on a courtesy visit to him.
Mohammed said the administration had delivered on its three planks electoral promises of reviving the economy, fighting corruption and tackling insurgency.
He said it was unfortunate that those championing criticism of the government were the elite whose sources to easy money had been blocked by the anti- corruption policies and programmes of the government.
The minister noted that the beneficiaries of the various social investment programmes of the government were conscious of and attesting to how the administration was touching lives.
“In less than three years, we are proud of our records, it does not matter what the naysayers are saying.
“One thing they have not been able to do is to challenge the figures that we put forward on the successes we have recorded,’’ he said.
The minister noted that Buhari’s administration was “God sent’’ because of the level the previous administration mismanaged the economy.
He said there would not have been a better time for the administration to take power considering the security situation, decay in infrastructure and level of unemployment.
The minister said that the government had been working to pull back the country from the brink.
Specifically, the minister said that despite the occasional cowardly suicide attacks by the Boko Haram, the government had done a lot to reverse the trend as it met it.
Specifically, he said unlike before, no part of the country was under the occupation of the insurgents and there were no attacks in major cities like Abuja.
The minister said that the herder/farmer clashes in the country were neither ethnic,, tribal nor religious but as a result of climate change.
He said government was on top of the situation and would leave no stone unturned to put the challenge of farmers/herdmen clashes under control.
The minister said the administration had recorded success in agriculture particularly in staples like rice, and called for more subsidies for the sector from states.
On the economy, the minister said that when the Buhari led administration came to power in 2015, the foreign reserve was 24 billion dollars even when oil was selling at about 120 dollars per barrel.
He said despite the loss of almost 60 per cent in the price of crude, the government had raised the nation’s foreign reserve to 46 billion dollars.
He said the administration had successfully diversified the economy and significantly improved on Ease of Doing Business.
Mohammed urged civil servants to key into the policies and programmes of the administration.
He commended the HOSF for initiating the peer review system among the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government.
Earlier, Oyo-Ita said the peer review system was initiated to enable permanent secretaries share ideas on service delivery in their respective organisation.
She called for improved funding for the Ministry of Information and Culture to enable it carry out its mandate of propagating government programmes and achievements.