Nigeria not country of Mr. President, ruling or opposition party but a country for all, Buhari says in Independence Anniversary national broadcast

*Wants government-citizenship cooperation

*Speaks on selling fuel same price with nation with operational refineries

By KEMI KASUMU

President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, has challenged the generality of the Nigerian people to get involved with him in moving the nation forward.

He said this in a 51-paragraph national broadcast address he gave on on Thursday celebrating the diamond anniversary of Nigeria at 60.

He touched on many aspects of development acknowledging also the challenges which are both of local and global causes and called on the country people to realise that overcoming those challenges was not a job of him alone but of a collective effort.

“Nigeria is not a country for Mr. President, any ruling or opposition party but a country for all of us and we must play our part, irrespective of challenges we face, to make this country what we desire.

“To achieve this, we must focus our minds, TOGETHER as a people, on ways of resolving the identified critical challenges that underlie our present state.

“These include: a. Evolving and sustaining a democratic culture that leaves power in the hands of the people;

“b. Supporting the enthronement of the rule of law, demanding accountability of elected representatives and contributing to good governance;

“c. Increasing our commitment to peaceful co-existence in a peaceful, secure and united Nigeria;

“d. Harnessing and Optimizing our tremendous human and natural resources to attain our goal of being in the top twenty economies of the world and in the process;

“e. Lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years;

“f. Strengthening institutions to make them stronger in protecting National Interests; and

“g. Imbibing tolerance in diversity.”

Reiterating his assurance on democratic principles, the President gave the outcome of recently concluded Edo State election to remove any doubt that anyone may have concerning his commitment to deepening the ongoing democracy in the country.

“I am a firm believer in transparent, free, fair and credible elections as has been demonstrated during my period as a democratically elected President.

“The recent build-up and eventual outcome of the Edo State elections should encourage Nigerians that it is my commitment to bequeath to this country processes and procedures that would guarantee that the people’s votes count.

“The problems with our electoral process are mainly human induced as desperate desire for power leads to desperate attempts to gain power and office.

“Democracy, the world over and as I am pursuing in Nigeria, recognizes the power of the people. However, if some constituencies choose to bargain off their power, they should be prepared for denial of their rights.

“This call is made more urgent if we realise that even after a transparent, free, fair and credible election, desperation leads to compromising the judiciary to upturn legitimate decisions of the people.”

But to avoid such unfortunate situation, the President said, “It is necessary to, therefore support the enthronement of the rule of law by avoiding actions which compromise the judiciary.”

Government-Citizen cooperation

“Fellow Nigerians, our history has shown that we are a people that have the capacity to live peacefully with one another.

“As a government, we remain committed to our constitutional oath of securing the lives and properties of the citizenry. I, however, call on the citizenry to also support government by providing the necessary community level intelligence in addressing these challenges.

“In moving forward together, it is important to strengthen our economy to provide sustainable means of livelihood for as many Nigerians as possible so as to eradicate absolute poverty from our midst.

“I want to re-emphasize my dedication and commitment, a dedication and commitment that propelled my public service career and informed my quest to continually seek for an opportunity to improve the lives of Nigerians, set the country on the path of prosperity and lead the country to a better future.

“This administration has been focused on rebuilding and laying the foundations for a sustainable Nigeria. Of course, we have met and are still meeting the challenges inherent in any rebuilding initiative – more so that of a nation like Nigeria that has undergone avoidable levels of deprivation – but can be surmounted if we all work together.

“I wish to re-iterate that our people and our spirit of excellence remains our most important asset.

“In this wise, the need to return to our age-old ethical and high moral values would be necessary and this informed my launching of the National Ethics and Integrity Policy on Monday 28th September, 2020.

“The policy would not implement itself and the first contact of the visibility of its implementation is the Public Service whose on-going reforms would be expected to be sustainable and give a radical re-direction in providing services to all Nigerians,” he said.

President Buhari, having stated some of the things his government had done in the last three years to ameliorate the sufferings of the people through social welfare programme namely TaderMoni and the rest, was confident that he has done great things with little earning far more than has ever done by any government in the past.

He however was not surprised that, despite that those who ruled before him were so low in performance in their 16 years of governance compared to what he has done in last five years, but would not give a thought that they should be on the lead to now criticise government.

“No government in the past did what we are doing with such scarce resources. We have managed to keep things going in spite of the disproportionate spending on security. Those in the previous Governments from 1999 – 2015 who presided over the near destruction of the country have now the impudence to attempt to criticize our efforts.”

On price of oil

He said “In the circumstances, a responsible government must face realities and take tough decisions.

“Petroleum prices in Nigeria are to be adjusted. We sell now at N161 per litre. A comparison with our neighbours will illustrate the point; a. Chad which is an oil producing country charges N362 per litre. b. Niger, also an oil producing country sells 1 litre at N346. c. In Ghana, another oil producing country, petroleum pump price is N326 per litre.

“Further afield, Egypt charges N211 per litre. Saudi Arabia charges N168 per litre. It makes no sense for oil to be cheaper in Nigeria than in Saudi Arabia,” the President lamented some of the challenges before the government which he wanted the people to see.

Interpretativey, the President tried to make citizens see the reality of imported petroleum product into the country where there no local refinery operational being sold cheaper than the charges in country like Saudi Arabia which refines.

Nigerians, to achieve the great country we desire, we need to solidify our strength, increase our commitment and encourage ourselves to do that which is right and proper even when no one is watching.

“FellowFellow Nigerians, let us collectively resolve to continue our journey beyond the sixty years on the clear understanding that as a nation we are greater together than being smaller units of nationalities. By the special grace of God we shall come through any transient challenges.

“It is my sincere hope that by the end of this anniversary on September 30th 2021, we will all be proud of taking this individual and collective self-assessment for the progress of our great Nation,” he said.