…2017 Worst Year of hardship for most Nigerians –
PDP
…Tasks him not to issue any new promises but fulfil earlier
ones
As the year, 2017 approached twilight, President Muhammadu
Buhari and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP were yesterday engaged
in a war of words over the achievements of the All Progressives
Congress, APC led administration.
While President Buhari beat his chest in posting successes in
food supply, security and the economy, his aides marshaled what
were described as 17 key achievements of the administration in the
outgoing year.
The president and the APC administration were, however, put on
the spot by the PDP which charged the government not to make any
new promises at the beginning of the New Year, 2018 saying that the
government had failed to keep to the promises it made in the
past.
The PDP particularly cited what it claimed as failed promises of
bringing down fuel supply, making the naira to exchange for one
dollar and what it described as the failed promises of providing
security to the nook and cranny of the country.
The PDP which responded through its National Publicity
Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondinyan said the achievements were the
figment of the imagination as they existed nowhere saying the
outgoing year is easily the worst year of hardship for most
Nigerians.
Speaking when he received a delegation from Kebbi State led by
Governor Atiku Bagudu, President Buhari while blaming the elite
class for earlier trying to distract his administration said:
“We are not doing badly in the agricultural sector and
Nigerians, and the world, are beginning to appreciate our efforts.
We will not be satisfied; we will work harder until we start
exporting food.
“We are happy that rice and beans importation into the country
have gone down by 90 per cent, and visibly everyone can see how
productive states like Kebbi have turned out to be and states like
Lagos, Ogun and Ebonyi are following the example,” he said.
He said Kaduna, Katsina and Sokoto states had already reported
remarkable turnaround in the agricultural sector, with more youths
taking interest in entrepreneurship.
Blames elites
The President said he disagreed with the astronomical food
import bill presented by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from the
inception of the administration, pointing out that it was later
discovered to be “fraudulent practices” by some of the elites to
deplete the foreign reserves.
“When I was told that the CBN had no savings after the windfall
of selling oil for more than $100 per barrel for many years, and
the production was 2.1 billion barrel per day, I did not believe
them.
“I did not believe them because majority of Nigerians cannot
afford imported food; they rely on what is locally grown. It turned
out that 50 per cent of the export bills were fraudulent. That is
what the Nigerian elites did. Unfortunately, we will not know all
that happened because the elites worked in collusion with
institutions in developed countries, like insurance firms and other
financial outfits, to perpetuate the fraud,” he added.
On security, President Buhari said the return of farmers to
their farm lands in the North East, with glaring results of high
yields, was a testimony to the relative peace that had been
achieved.
He assured that more would be done to check the mayhem of
suicide attacks.
The President said his administration would put in more effort
to reposition the educational and health sectors to compete with
other global institutions.
In his remarks, the Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu said the
APC family was pleased with the performance of the administration
in securing the country, reviving the economy and fighting
corruption.
Bagudu and members of the delegation, which include the Minister
of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami
and former PDP stalwarts in Kebbi State, also prayed for the quick
recovery of the President’s son, Yusuf.
Earlier yesterday, President Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media
and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina had posted what he claimed as the
17 key achievements of the administration.
He said:
*Nigeria exited its worst recession in decades. After five
quarters of negative growth, the economy bounced back into positive
territory. Agriculture was one of the stars of 2017, posting
consistent growth levels even throughout the recession. Also,
Inflation fell for ten consecutive months during 2017 (February to
November).
*The Naira stabilised against the dollar, after the Central Bank
introduced a new forex window for Investors and Exporters. The
stability has attracted billions of dollars in portfolio
investments since April 2017.
*On the back of a stable Naira and increased investment inflows,
Nigeria’s stock market emerged one of the best-performing in the
world, delivering returns in excess of 40 percent.
*Nigeria saw bumper food harvests, especially in rice, whose
local production continues to rise significantly (States like
Ebonyi, Kebbi, Kano leading the pack, with Ogun joining at the end
of 2017). The price of a 50kg bag of rice – a staple in the country
– has fallen by about 30 percent since the beginning of 2017, as
local production has gone up.
*The Federal Government launched a 701 billion Naira
Intervention Fund (‘Payment Assurance Programme’) aimed at
supporting power generation companies to meet their payment
obligations to gas and equipment suppliers, banks and other
partners. The impact is being felt, the amount of power being
distributed is now currently steady at around 4,000MW – higher than
previously recorded.
*The Federal Government began paying pensions to police officers
who were granted Presidential pardon in 2000 after serving in the
former Biafran Police during the Nigerian Civil War. These
officers, and their next of kin, have waited for their pensions for
17 years since the Presidential pardon.
*Nigeria rose 24 places on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing
Business rankings, and earned a place on the List of Top 10
Reformers in the world.
*Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves grew by $12 billion,
reaching the highest level since 2014. Nigeria also added, this
year, an additional $250m to its Sovereign Wealth Fund. Also,
Nigeria’s trade balance crossed over into surplus territory, from a
deficit in 2016.
*Nigeria successfully issued two Eurobonds (US$4.5bn), a Sukuk
Bond (100 billion Naira), a Diaspora Bond (US$300m), and the first
Sovereign Climate Bond in Africa, raising billions of dollars for
infrastructure spending.
*The Federal Government launched a Tax Amnesty scheme expected
to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenues
when it closes in March 2018.
*The Federal Government successfully commenced implementation of
a Whistleblowing Programme that has so far seen recoveries of tens
of millions of dollars.
*The Social Investment Programme – Nigeria’s most ambitious
social welfare programme ever – rolled out across dozens of states.
(Currently, 5.2 million primary school children in 28,249 schools
in 19 states are being fed daily; 200,000 unemployed graduated
enlisted into the Npower Job Scheme, and a quarter of a million
loans already distributed to artisans, traders, and farmers).
*The number of Nigerians facing food insecurity in the northeast
dropped by half, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO).
*The Nigeria Customs Service recorded its highest-ever revenue
collection, crossing the One Trillion Naira (N1,000,000,000) mark.
[The target for 2017 was 770 billion Naira (N770,573,730,490); 2016
Collection was just under 900 billion (N898,673,857,431.07)]
*The Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB), under the
new management appointed by President Buhari in 2016, remitted 7.8
billion Naira to the coffers of the Federal Government. The total
amount remitted by JAMB between 2010 and 2016 was 51 million
Naira.
*2017 was also the Year of Nigeria’s Agriculture Revolution,
embodied by the successes of the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative
(PFI) and the Anchor Borrowers Programme. More than a dozen
moribund fertilizer blending plants were revived under the PFI this
year.
*Finally, 2017 will be the Year that laid the foundation for a
2018 that will be Nigeria’s Year of Infrastructure. A number of
important infrastructure projects, in power, rail and road, are
scheduled to come on-stream or inch close to completion next
year.
PDP reacts
Reacting to the 17 achievements, Ologbondiyan said:
“These supposed achievements are figments of their imagination
as they exist nowhere. 2017 will be remembered as the worst year of
hardship in the lives of several Nigerians.
“The APC-controlled Federal Government is too far from reality
to understand the economic pains of Nigerians.”
Earlier, the PDP had advised the APC Federal Government not to
issue any new promises charging the government to fulfil those it
issued in the past which it claimed were largely unfulfilled.
The party said Nigerians had been left dispirited by the litany
of woes visited on them in the past two years by the APC
government, stressing that it would be the height of
irresponsibility on the part of government to spew another round of
propaganda and false hope in the name of New Year messages.
In a statement issued by the National Publicity
Secretary,Ologbondiyan, the party queried: “What else would they
tell Nigerians apart from inventing new lies and propaganda as they
had always done, particularly at the turn of each New Year?
“Every New Year, since 2016, the APC and its federal government
have been reeling out heaps of promises which they had no
intentions to fulfil. Now they are warming up to reel out fresh
ones in January 2018.
“What is the need of a New Year message from APC government when
it would be replete with propaganda? What is the need of their
yearly assurances when the only thing we see is an arrogant and
incompetent government plunging the nation into economic recession
and visiting the citizens with the worst forms of untold
hardship?
“What seriousness should any Nigerian attach to a government
that takes governance for granted, puts off its federal executive
meeting at the slightest whims and blame imaginary invasion of its
offices by rats for the inability to meet required statutory
functions?
“What else should Nigerians expect from a government that
promised massive employments only to render 7.74 million Nigerians
jobless between 2016 and September 2017; with combined unemployment
and underemployment rate hitting 40.0% as declared by the National
Bureau of Statistics (NBS)?”
The party further mocked government monetary policy, adding that
it failed to keep faith with pledges made to the Nigerian
people.
“This is the same APC that promised to deliver naira exchange at
N1 to 1USD but ended up wrecking the currency from N160-N170 to a
scandalous N350-N400; the same party and its government promised to
reduce the price of fuel only for it to rise from where the PDP
left it at N86.50 to N300-N400 per litre.
“What do we expect from a government that so devastated the
economy in 2017 that Nigerians were forced to turn to Ponzi schemes
like the Mavrodi Mundial Movement (MMM) for survival only for an
estimated three million of them to lose about N18 billion in the
process.
“The APC misrule literarily turned 2017 into a harvest of woes;
hunger, disease, violence, and deaths while the nation is now being
pummelled by ethnic and religious agitations and attendant violence
in all parts of the country,” it noted.
The statement stressed that “Measured against all key
performance indicators, the APC controlled federal government has
fallen below the expectations of Nigerians. “Painfully, instead of
channelling the nation’s resources for the good of the citizens,
the “zero corruption” federal government is busy providing cover
for APC interests who are diverting public funds through padded
budgets, multi-billion dollars secret oil subsidy regimes, illegal
lifting of crude using unregistered APC fronts, pillaging of
Nigeria’s foreign reserves, diverting of funds meant for fight
against insurgency and rehabilitation of Internally Displaced
Persons (IDPs) in the northeast; and attempts to steal $1bn from
the Excess Crude Account (ECA).”
…2017 Worst Year of hardship for most Nigerians –
PDP
…Tasks him not to issue any new promises but fulfil earlier
ones
As the year, 2017 approached twilight, President Muhammadu
Buhari and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP were yesterday engaged
in a war of words over the achievements of the All Progressives
Congress, APC led administration.
While President Buhari beat his chest in posting successes in
food supply, security and the economy, his aides marshaled what
were described as 17 key achievements of the administration in the
outgoing year.
The president and the APC administration were, however, put on
the spot by the PDP which charged the government not to make any
new promises at the beginning of the New Year, 2018 saying that the
government had failed to keep to the promises it made in the
past.
The PDP particularly cited what it claimed as failed promises of
bringing down fuel supply, making the naira to exchange for one
dollar and what it described as the failed promises of providing
security to the nook and cranny of the country.
The PDP which responded through its National Publicity
Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondinyan said the achievements were the
figment of the imagination as they existed nowhere saying the
outgoing year is easily the worst year of hardship for most
Nigerians.
Speaking when he received a delegation from Kebbi State led by
Governor Atiku Bagudu, President Buhari while blaming the elite
class for earlier trying to distract his administration said:
“We are not doing badly in the agricultural sector and
Nigerians, and the world, are beginning to appreciate our efforts.
We will not be satisfied; we will work harder until we start
exporting food.
“We are happy that rice and beans importation into the country
have gone down by 90 per cent, and visibly everyone can see how
productive states like Kebbi have turned out to be and states like
Lagos, Ogun and Ebonyi are following the example,” he said.
He said Kaduna, Katsina and Sokoto states had already reported
remarkable turnaround in the agricultural sector, with more youths
taking interest in entrepreneurship.
Blames elites
The President said he disagreed with the astronomical food
import bill presented by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from the
inception of the administration, pointing out that it was later
discovered to be “fraudulent practices” by some of the elites to
deplete the foreign reserves.
“When I was told that the CBN had no savings after the windfall
of selling oil for more than $100 per barrel for many years, and
the production was 2.1 billion barrel per day, I did not believe
them.
“I did not believe them because majority of Nigerians cannot
afford imported food; they rely on what is locally grown. It turned
out that 50 per cent of the export bills were fraudulent. That is
what the Nigerian elites did. Unfortunately, we will not know all
that happened because the elites worked in collusion with
institutions in developed countries, like insurance firms and other
financial outfits, to perpetuate the fraud,” he added.
On security, President Buhari said the return of farmers to
their farm lands in the North East, with glaring results of high
yields, was a testimony to the relative peace that had been
achieved.
He assured that more would be done to check the mayhem of
suicide attacks.
The President said his administration would put in more effort
to reposition the educational and health sectors to compete with
other global institutions.
In his remarks, the Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu said the
APC family was pleased with the performance of the administration
in securing the country, reviving the economy and fighting
corruption.
Bagudu and members of the delegation, which include the Minister
of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami
and former PDP stalwarts in Kebbi State, also prayed for the quick
recovery of the President’s son, Yusuf.
Earlier yesterday, President Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media
and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina had posted what he claimed as the
17 key achievements of the administration.
He said:
*Nigeria exited its worst recession in decades. After five
quarters of negative growth, the economy bounced back into positive
territory. Agriculture was one of the stars of 2017, posting
consistent growth levels even throughout the recession. Also,
Inflation fell for ten consecutive months during 2017 (February to
November).
*The Naira stabilised against the dollar, after the Central Bank
introduced a new forex window for Investors and Exporters. The
stability has attracted billions of dollars in portfolio
investments since April 2017.
*On the back of a stable Naira and increased investment inflows,
Nigeria’s stock market emerged one of the best-performing in the
world, delivering returns in excess of 40 percent.
*Nigeria saw bumper food harvests, especially in rice, whose
local production continues to rise significantly (States like
Ebonyi, Kebbi, Kano leading the pack, with Ogun joining at the end
of 2017). The price of a 50kg bag of rice – a staple in the country
– has fallen by about 30 percent since the beginning of 2017, as
local production has gone up.
*The Federal Government launched a 701 billion Naira
Intervention Fund (‘Payment Assurance Programme’) aimed at
supporting power generation companies to meet their payment
obligations to gas and equipment suppliers, banks and other
partners. The impact is being felt, the amount of power being
distributed is now currently steady at around 4,000MW – higher than
previously recorded.
*The Federal Government began paying pensions to police officers
who were granted Presidential pardon in 2000 after serving in the
former Biafran Police during the Nigerian Civil War. These
officers, and their next of kin, have waited for their pensions for
17 years since the Presidential pardon.
*Nigeria rose 24 places on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing
Business rankings, and earned a place on the List of Top 10
Reformers in the world.
*Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves grew by $12 billion,
reaching the highest level since 2014. Nigeria also added, this
year, an additional $250m to its Sovereign Wealth Fund. Also,
Nigeria’s trade balance crossed over into surplus territory, from a
deficit in 2016.
*Nigeria successfully issued two Eurobonds (US$4.5bn), a Sukuk
Bond (100 billion Naira), a Diaspora Bond (US$300m), and the first
Sovereign Climate Bond in Africa, raising billions of dollars for
infrastructure spending.
*The Federal Government launched a Tax Amnesty scheme expected
to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenues
when it closes in March 2018.
*The Federal Government successfully commenced implementation of
a Whistleblowing Programme that has so far seen recoveries of tens
of millions of dollars.
*The Social Investment Programme – Nigeria’s most ambitious
social welfare programme ever – rolled out across dozens of states.
(Currently, 5.2 million primary school children in 28,249 schools
in 19 states are being fed daily; 200,000 unemployed graduated
enlisted into the Npower Job Scheme, and a quarter of a million
loans already distributed to artisans, traders, and farmers).
*The number of Nigerians facing food insecurity in the northeast
dropped by half, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO).
*The Nigeria Customs Service recorded its highest-ever revenue
collection, crossing the One Trillion Naira (N1,000,000,000) mark.
[The target for 2017 was 770 billion Naira (N770,573,730,490); 2016
Collection was just under 900 billion (N898,673,857,431.07)]
*The Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB), under the
new management appointed by President Buhari in 2016, remitted 7.8
billion Naira to the coffers of the Federal Government. The total
amount remitted by JAMB between 2010 and 2016 was 51 million
Naira.
*2017 was also the Year of Nigeria’s Agriculture Revolution,
embodied by the successes of the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative
(PFI) and the Anchor Borrowers Programme. More than a dozen
moribund fertilizer blending plants were revived under the PFI this
year.
*Finally, 2017 will be the Year that laid the foundation for a
2018 that will be Nigeria’s Year of Infrastructure. A number of
important infrastructure projects, in power, rail and road, are
scheduled to come on-stream or inch close to completion next
year.
PDP reacts
Reacting to the 17 achievements, Ologbondiyan said:
“These supposed achievements are figments of their imagination
as they exist nowhere. 2017 will be remembered as the worst year of
hardship in the lives of several Nigerians.
“The APC-controlled Federal Government is too far from reality
to understand the economic pains of Nigerians.”
Earlier, the PDP had advised the APC Federal Government not to
issue any new promises charging the government to fulfil those it
issued in the past which it claimed were largely unfulfilled.
The party said Nigerians had been left dispirited by the litany
of woes visited on them in the past two years by the APC
government, stressing that it would be the height of
irresponsibility on the part of government to spew another round of
propaganda and false hope in the name of New Year messages.
In a statement issued by the National Publicity
Secretary,Ologbondiyan, the party queried: “What else would they
tell Nigerians apart from inventing new lies and propaganda as they
had always done, particularly at the turn of each New Year?
“Every New Year, since 2016, the APC and its federal government
have been reeling out heaps of promises which they had no
intentions to fulfil. Now they are warming up to reel out fresh
ones in January 2018.
“What is the need of a New Year message from APC government when
it would be replete with propaganda? What is the need of their
yearly assurances when the only thing we see is an arrogant and
incompetent government plunging the nation into economic recession
and visiting the citizens with the worst forms of untold
hardship?
“What seriousness should any Nigerian attach to a government
that takes governance for granted, puts off its federal executive
meeting at the slightest whims and blame imaginary invasion of its
offices by rats for the inability to meet required statutory
functions?
“What else should Nigerians expect from a government that
promised massive employments only to render 7.74 million Nigerians
jobless between 2016 and September 2017; with combined unemployment
and underemployment rate hitting 40.0% as declared by the National
Bureau of Statistics (NBS)?”
The party further mocked government monetary policy, adding that
it failed to keep faith with pledges made to the Nigerian
people.
“This is the same APC that promised to deliver naira exchange at
N1 to 1USD but ended up wrecking the currency from N160-N170 to a
scandalous N350-N400; the same party and its government promised to
reduce the price of fuel only for it to rise from where the PDP
left it at N86.50 to N300-N400 per litre.
“What do we expect from a government that so devastated the
economy in 2017 that Nigerians were forced to turn to Ponzi schemes
like the Mavrodi Mundial Movement (MMM) for survival only for an
estimated three million of them to lose about N18 billion in the
process.
“The APC misrule literarily turned 2017 into a harvest of woes;
hunger, disease, violence, and deaths while the nation is now being
pummelled by ethnic and religious agitations and attendant violence
in all parts of the country,” it noted.
The statement stressed that “Measured against all key
performance indicators, the APC controlled federal government has
fallen below the expectations of Nigerians. “Painfully, instead of
channelling the nation’s resources for the good of the citizens,
the “zero corruption” federal government is busy providing cover
for APC interests who are diverting public funds through padded
budgets, multi-billion dollars secret oil subsidy regimes, illegal
lifting of crude using unregistered APC fronts, pillaging of
Nigeria’s foreign reserves, diverting of funds meant for fight
against insurgency and rehabilitation of Internally Displaced
Persons (IDPs) in the northeast; and attempts to steal $1bn from
the Excess Crude Account (ECA).”
Read more https://www.nairalaw.com/presidency-lists-buharis-17-achievements-in-2017/