Insecurity will not define President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, the Federal Government said on Tuesday.
Rather, the administration will be defined by massive achievements, the government declared.
It insisted that Buhari’s legacy is assured, despite the negative comments of those it described as naysayers.
Information, Culture and Tourism Minister Alhaji Lai Mohammed made the claims at a media briefing on the mid-term report of the President Buhari administration.
Also yesterday, at different fora, governors, the Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III and other leaders suggested ways on how to halt insecurity.
He said while more attention has been given, especially in recent times, to the security challenges, those obstacles are fleeting.
The minister said: “Let me repeat what I have said many times in the past: Never in the history of our country has any administration done so much with so little.
“It’s easy to forget now, but when this administration came into office in 2015, the price of crude oil, which provides 80 per cent of Nigeria’s budgetary revenues and 95 per cent of foreign exchange earnings, dropped drastically and, along with it, the fund available to the government.
“It is therefore monumental that this administration has achieved so much despite the paucity of fund.
“I want to state emphatically that while more attention has been given, especially in recent times, to the security challenges facing our country, those challenges are fleeting and will not define the legacy of President Buhari.
“Let me say that the President’s legacy is assured, and will be defined by his massive achievements in office. The roads, rails, bridges, mass housing, port development, improvement in power supply and other massive infrastructural development that will last for generations to come and propel economic growth and national development.”
He described as unfortunate that despite government best efforts, “the naysayers have continued to say they have not seen what this administration has achieved.”
His added: “They have continued to deny the obvious by pretending that these achievements are not real. Even when they have travelled on the new standard gauge rail from Abuja to Kaduna, Lagos to Ibadan, and Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri, they still deny that any progress has been made in modernising the country’s rail infrastructure.
“They travel through the ultra-modern airport terminals in Abuja and Enugu, yet they deny any progress has been made in modernising our airports.”
To mark the sixth anniversary, Mohammed said the government decided to, once again, “change our strategy.
“Since 2016, we have heralded every anniversary, as well as every end of year, by giving massive publicity to the achievements of the administration.
“We have leveraged our town hall meetings, 18 of which we have held up to date, to showcase the achievements.
“We have also undertaken media tours of Federal Government projects covering many sectors across the country.”
The minister said that in the run-up to the 2019 general elections, they introduced a novel idea when “we launched our ‘Testimony Series’, under which we showcased the administration’s achievements from the perspective and prism of Nigerians who have benefitted from the various government projects and programmes, ranging from infrastructure to school feeding system.”
The ‘Testimony Series,’ according to him, was so successful that it rattled the opposition into issuing a statement calling for a probe of the funds spent on it.
The minister noted that this year, which marks the half-way point of the second and final term of the Buhari administration, they have decided to once again change style for effectiveness.
Their new strategy, he explained, is to suffuse the airwaves and the social media with unmistakable video evidence of the various achievements, to such an extent that even the blind can ‘see’ and the deaf can ‘hear’.
He said ahead of the anniversary, government inaugurated an all-encompassing documentary on the projects and programmes of the administration.
Listing the projects, he noted that while many have been completed, work has reached advanced stages on others.
Some of the projects are the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway; Apapa-Oworonsoki Expressway; Enugu-Port Harcourt dualisation; Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja dualisation; Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria Expressway; Kano-Maiduguri Expressway dualisation; Suleja-Minna Highway; Milliken Hill Ngwo and Bonny-Bodo-Road as well as the Second Niger Bridge.
Loko-Oweto Bridge; Zungeru Hydroelectric Dam; Goronyo Dam; Airport upgrades in Abuja, Lagos and Enugu; and Agriculture (rice and chicken farming, among others) were also listed.
The minister also named the Apapa Standard Gauge Line; Ebute Metta-Ibadan Standard Gauge Line; Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Aladja Standard Gauge Line; Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano Natural Gas Pipeline; Onitsha and Lekki Deep Water Ports; the fight against Covid-19; Digital Switch Over in Broadcasting; the 1,000-Village Star Times Project; FHA Housing Projects in Ajoda New Town (Oyo State)/FHA Kwali Mass Housing Project; the NSIA-Umuahia Diagnostic Centre; NSIA-Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital and NSIA-LUTH Cancer Centre as well as the acquisition and upgrade of military platforms as some of the projects.
