Why Nigerians should be patient with President Muhammadu Buhari - Femi Adesina

Why Nigerians should be patient with President Muhammadu Buhari - Femi Adesina

Editor's Note: Femi Adesina needs no introduction in the Nigerian media space. He is a longstanding journalist and special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity. A veteran with almost 3 decades of practice, Adesina has carved a niche for himself in the industry where many of his close associates chose to call him the ‘’kulikuli’’ of Nigeria journalism for his incise column in the Daily Sun. In this exclusive interview with Legit.ng team at the State House Abuja, Adesina bares his mind on the programmes of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Herdsmen menace

Nigerian should first and foremost know that the herdsmen menace is an old problem that has spanned several administrations. The president in the past battled Maitasine uprising to a standstill. He also recorded a huge success with the Boko Haram insurgents since he came to power.

He therefore cannot be silent or unconcerned about the herdsmen issue. The president took several drastic measures since the recent killings. He rather wants an enduring solution. He condemns the killings in all ramification and also moved the security agencies including the inspector general of police to Benue state.

The interior minister and Benue governor closely followed by Benue elders also met the president on the issue and finally, the national economic council has set up a committee headed by the vice president and 9 other governors. An enduring solution is therefore in sight and very soon. The president does not believe in quick-fix solution.

Why Nigerians should be patient with President Muhammadu Buhari - Femi Adesina
Legit.ng team at the presidential villa Abuja with Femi Adesina special adviser on media and publicity to President Buhari

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Nigerian youths

The president believes in Nigerian youths, their role and their importance in the Nigerian project. The president in recognition of the importance of the Nigerian youths created an office of the minister of youths and sports and also has a senior special assistant on youth matters. The president does not joke with Nigerian Youths.

The N-Power programme and Nigerian youths

N-power is part of the broad programme called the social investment programme. Other programme here include the N-Power, the school feeding program, conditional cash transfers to the poorest of the poor, loan empowerment to women to start business, etc. The budget here was N500B last year and this year.

The intention is to impact on the people directly and is supervised by the vice president’s office. The N-Power took in 200,000 graduates and paid a stipends of N30,000 monthly in the first phase. The next phase is targeting 300,000 youths. This is a radical approach at fighting poverty and unemployment. Several beneficiaries there will testify to this.

Agriculture as an alternative to oil

This area is too important to the present administration. The regime has encouraged agriculture especially rice production. The rice importation met by this administration was 650,000 metric tones of rice. As at 2017, this dropped to 20,000 tones because local production rendered importation irrelevant.

As a matter of fact, Adesina said, some of the rice mills in Thailand that are now idle are planning to come to Nigeria to set up rice mills. The huge savings from the lowered imports made more monies available for development. The target is to completely wipe out rice importation this year with local production exceeding consumption with possible export potentials. CBN is also coming to empower farmers in the area of tomatoes, Cocoa etc.

Once the success made in rice production is replicated in other areas, Nigeria is there and there will be less emphasis on oil revenue. Adesina cited America as example where despite the large population, food is very cheap.

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This is the first time a government took the issue of diversification serious unlike the lip service other regimes gave the issue. Agriculture and oil played a major role in exiting Nigeria from the recession after just one year in addition to mining and steel. With what the Buhari government has put in place, even if oil drops to $10/barrel, Nigeria will move on.

On the importation of refined petroleum products

There is a road map to turn Nigeria from fuel importer to fuel exporters very soon just like it was when the president was a military head-of-state between 1983 to 1985. Nigeria was exporting about 100,000 litres of petrol per day. The then oil minister, Prof Tam David West always talked about this.

The refineries are not there now but before the end of 2018, Dangote’s refinery will be operational and things will improve. The timeline as given by the minister of state for petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu is 2019. By then, Nigeria will be self sufficient with locally refined petroleum products with zero importation.

On the issue of minimum wage and Nigerian workers

A tripartite committee has been inaugurated comprising labour, government and employers of Labour. The committee is meeting and when they make recommendation to government and such recommendations are implemented, Nigerian workers should expect a ‘’sustainable Living Wage’’ very soon. It will be a ‘’living wage that is sustainable’’. This regime met N165billion as monthly wage bill. N20 billion was saved after eliminating ghost workers. Despite the hard times, salaries never failed because the president said no one should lose his or her job.

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The last administration was already borrowing to pay salaries according to the then finance minister and coordinator of the economy, Dr Okonjo Iweala. The natural thing to do was to cut the labour force by half but the president said no. With these in mind, the committee will come up with what is sustainable after negotiations and considering several key factors.

The role of media in the present dispensation

The overwhelming role of the media especially the social media by reference to the Arab spring which started from Tunisia, spread to Algeria, Bahrain and even consumed Qaddafi of Libya after 42 years in power cannot be wished away. Social media can be used for effective mobilization. Social media also played a key role in the recent American election. President Trump himself is always tweeting.

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As a media manager for the president, I used the social media a lot as any urgent news that is twitted often goes viral. Though social media is effective, it is also a double edged sword as it has capacity to be used negatively. Some mischievous elements have also been using social media for selfish and sinister reasons to disseminate false news or distort facts. An example is the false article that have been circulating against the president purportedly from the Economists which the media house has denied

Hope for Nigeria's future

I believe in the administration of the president who I have come to admire as an undergraduate then while he was military Head of State. I strongly hold the opinion that if that regime had been allowed to lay a solid foundation, things would have been better in Nigeria by now.

Nigerians must be patient with Mr. President who is laying a solid foundation for the future.One thing Nigerians must remember is that the destruction of over 50 years cannot be undone in just two years.In the long run, Nigerians will be better for it when they are patient with Mr. President and the dividends of ‘’Mai Gaskia’’ start paying off. The president is not unmindful of the present hardship but he will rather lay an enduring foundation for prosperity than a knee jack measures that cannot stand the test of time.

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Source: Legit.ng

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