Federal Government of Nigeria on Monday said it is a cruel irony that the opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accuses President Muhammadu Buhari of non-performance when the main opposition could not complete a single railway project in its time in office.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, stated this during the second edition of the media briefing to highlight Buhari’s scorecard, commenting that if it was the opposition that was in government with the Covid-19 pandemic and two recessions, there would have been no economy to talk about.
The briefing featured the Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Jambo.
“Before I invite the Honorable Minister of Transportation to make his presentation, I want to address what I will call an absurdity that is being bandied about by the opposition, that the Buhari Administration has nothing to campaign within the run-up to 2023
general elections.
“It’s a cruel irony that the party that presided over the affairs of this great country in a time of plenty but could not complete a single modern rail line, is the one accusing an Administration that has completed at least three standard gauge rail lines of lacking in achievements.
“Indeed, the Buhari Administration is spoilt for choice in celebrating its achievements.
“As I said, we have completed the Abuja-Kaduna, Lagos-Ibadan and Itakpe-Warri Standard Gauge Rail-lines, we have commissioned brand new airport terminals in Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt, we have completed housing projects in 35 states, we have constructed or are constructing road projects in every state, we have the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme that has almost weaned us from dependence on imported rice and other crops, we met 15 standard rice mills and now we have over 50, we have our unprecedented National Social Investment Programme under which 9.8 million school children are fed one meal daily, under which 1 million youth have been empowered and another 500,000 who are undergoing trainings under the N-Power and the 1,632,480 households that have been enrolled in the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, and we are proud of the Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure (also known as Deep Blue Asset), aimed at managing, controlling and protecting Nigerian waterways towards the advancement of coastal prosperity.
“I can go on and on but that means we won’t have the opportunity to hear from the Honourable Minister of Transportation.
“They are quick to point to some economic indices like the Naira exchange rate and inflation, but the truth is that if they were the ones confronted with having to fight a once-in-a-century pandemic, two economic recessions, and low oil prices, Nigeria would have had no economy to even talk about!
“Gentlemen, we have a lot of achievements to highlight and campaign with. Again we are spoilt for choice because of the sheer number of achievements.”
