Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu
Malam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, on Sunday assured Nigerian youths that their support and confidence in the Federal Government would yield the desired results.
Shehu gave the assurance in Abuja at an interactive session organised by the Citizens Support for Good Governance in Nigeria for youths.
The group is a coalition of non-governmental organisations and Civil Society Organisations in the country.
The programme was organised for youths to air their views on the present administration and the way forward.
Shehu said that Buhari’s desire was to ensure a secured and stable future for the upcoming generations.
Shehu said: “All we require of you is to be patient; President Buhari is a long distance runner, he is not looking for short-term gains that people will just clap for him.
“He wants to build a future of prosperity that will be everlasting, something that will stay for generations, and I assure you that this is a beginning of the good things to come.”
According to him, the Federal Government has, under the leadership of President Buhari, done a lot in ensuring the security of the nation as well as fighting corruption.
Shehu also said that the government’s whistle blowing policy had to a large extent helped in recovery of looted public funds.
He said: “The policy gives opportunity to every Nigerian to raise alarm when they notice that an individual may have stolen public funds.
“You will not only be honoured for pointing it out for discovery, but you can earn a commission.”
Shehu said that government was working hard to restructure the country’s economy, “though its efforts is being misunderstood by most Nigerians”.
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He said: “The President Buhari-led administration met a ravaged economy and people were used to lifestyles that can no longer be sustained.”
Shehu said that no country would develop when it imports everything, including toothpick and tissue papers.
He said that things were beginning to take shape, as Nigeria had become the second largest rice producing country in the world.
He also said: “The rice revolution just started a year ago; a newspaper did an investigation in Kebbi and found out that there were 48,000 new millionaires in Kebbi alone for growing rice.”
Shehu said the nation’s over-reliance on oil in the past was not healthy for the country’s development, adding that such attitude should not be allowed to continue.
He said that the Federal Government was looking on how to create more jobs for the unemployed youths across the country and to scale up power generation.
He said: “You can see that exploration and exportation of oil is growing, gas is coming back and power is getting better.”
Shehu said that President Buhari had delivered on his promise of putting the economy on a sound footing and fighting corruption.
He said the results were already showing, adding that the government required a little more patient from Nigerians.
According to him, the government’s war against corruption is acknowledged all over the world, while its effort to restructure the economy is becoming manifest.
He expressed confidence that the country would come out of the recession soon, following the boom in agriculture, especially in rice and sugar production.
The session was attended by students of the University of Abuja, Nasarawa State University, Keffi and Federal Polytechnic, and was used to identify achievements recorded by the President Buhari-led administration.