The Federal Government, has returned to chest-beating mode, as it claims to have bettered the lives of Nigerians in the past seven-plus years far than what it met them in 2015, when it displaced the government of President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, who made the assertion on Monday as a guest of Good Morning Nigeria, a breakfast programme on Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) live programme, said the Buhari’ government had met the expectations of Nigerians and true to its mandate giving the time-frame and circumstances.
Stressing that attempts to de-market the government and in the process the country were the handwork of die-hard naysayers and very vocal minority, the Minister said in 2015, for instance, the entire North East region was inaccessible and 20 of the 27 Local Government Areas in Borno were under the occupation and control of Boko Haram insurgents, contrary to the situation today, where no portion or part of Nigeria territory was under the occupation and control of insurgents.
He also recalled that in 2015, Nigeria was number one importer of rice from Thailand but with the administration’s policies and programmes on agriculture, the country is self-sufficient in the staple and food in general, adding that millions of farmers had been empowered with the Anchor Borrowers Programme while the number of rice mills in the country had been increased from two in 2015 to 60 presently.
He also cited Buhari’s social intervention programmes, saying that 10 million pupils were being fed daily while two million households were benefitting from Conditional Cash Transfer among others adding that the administration had constructed 17,000kilometres of new roads and rehabilitated 8,000 kilometres of roads across the country.
“We completed the Lagos-Ibadan expressway as well as the second Niger bridge, which was a mirage for more than three decades. Also for more than three decades, Nigerians did not know what it means to travel by train until the Buhari’ government came to power.
“In spite all the sabotage, today we have working, the Lagos-Ibadan railway, Abuja-Kaduna railway and Ajaokuta- Warri railway which were not in existence before we came,’’ he said, adding that Buhari’ government would continue to build a progressive and prosperous nation and would not be cowed or intimidated by the naysayers.
