A national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Thursday, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to do more to alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians.
He said although the administration had achieved a lot in the two years of its existence, too many Nigerians were still too poor to be ignored.
Tinubu made the call in his keynote address at the public presentation of a book, “Making Steady, Sustainable Progress for Nigeria’s Peace and Prosperity†at the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The 360-page book is a mid-term scorecard of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration authored by the Presidential Media Team.
The former Lagos State governor said though the present administration worked hard to fix the country, it must recognize the situation of millions of people who had been denied for a long time and were still suffering.
He said, “True, much good has been done by this government to ignore. However, too many of our people remain too poor and put-out to ignore as well. Daylight comes but not yet to all and not in equal measure.
“Due to the neglect of prior governments, our economy was not allowed to blossom in a way that offered jobs to the poor and empowered the common man.
Tinubu added the country was racing against unrelenting time and that a time would come when the nation’s oil would lose its value and would become “merely liquid beneath our feet.â€
He said the government must train its policies to avert the impending problem, adding that the history of a depressed economy must not be allowed to repeat itself.
The APC chief noted that some people might distort his observations to make them appear as pieces of evidence of “space†between him and Buhari.
While describing the economy as the battlefront upon which the nation’s fate would be decided, Tinubu observed that the 2018 Budget that was recently presented to the National Assembly would move the nation farther in the right direction.
He added, “It is a bolder, more creative one than this government’s earlier editions.
“It shows this government has embraced its progressive identity despite the chorus of opposition. Also, that it more clearly realizes the depths of the economic and financial challenges before us.
He called the government’s attention to three key ideas – the establishment of a robust industrial capacity, the need for a national infrastructural plan and the need to help common farmers by improving rural output and incomes.
Meanwhile, President Buhari has said his administration has succeeded in reversing the affront of members of the Boko Haram sect who were overrunning troops and encroaching on the nation’s territorial integrity as of the time he took over from former President Goodluck Jonathan on May 29, 2015.
He, however, admitted that the task of revamping the nation’s economy which exited recession recently remained work-in-progress.
Buhari stated this in the foreword he wrote for a book, “Making Steady, Sustainable Progress for Nigeria’s Peace and Prosperity†put together by his media team.
Credit: punchng.com
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