President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday appealed to politicians to go about their campaigns peacefully and not set the county ablaze.
He made the appeal at the an event to kick off his campaign for re-election in 2019, with the launch of a “campaign manual/next level document” at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja.
Buhari told supporters of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), top party officials and government functionaries at the event that, “I am not unmindful that the National Assembly and the presidential campaign starts today, I will implore candidates to go about the campaigns peacefully and decently.
“We have no other country, let us not set it ablaze because of politics.”
Buhari said his biggest ambition is to overhaul the education sector. “Every child counts – and simply, whatever it takes to prepare our teachers, curriculum and classrooms to attain the right educational goals that grow our country, will be done. We will remodel 10,000 schools every year and retain our teachers to impart science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics using coding, animation, robotics to re-interpreter our curriculum.”
According to Buhari: “Corruption is an existential threat to Nigeria. Despite the gains we have made in closing the gates, we know that there is still much ground to cover to stop the systemic corruption. We are committed to deepening the work we started this first term such that the nation’s assets and resources continue to be organised and utilised to do good for the common man.
“The next four years will be quite significant for our country. Nigeria is faced with a choice to keep building a new Nigeria – making a break from its tainted past which favoured an opportunistic few.
“Our choices will shape us – our economic security and our future prosperity. Nigeria, more than ever before, needs a stable and people-focused government to move the agenda for our country forward”.
Buhari also stated that his administration has delivered on its three campaign promises of fighting corruption, insecurity and revamping the economy.
The President told supporters of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), top party officials and government functionaries at the event that 17 local government has been delivered from insurgency in the northeast.
According to him, while the road has been difficult in the last three and half years, his administration has laid the foundation for a prosperous society.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation Boss Mustapha, in his opening remarks described the various social investment programmes of the government, especially the trader-moni policy as the worst nightmare of the Peoples Democratic Party.
He also noted that the policy through careful implementation has impacted more lives than the immediate past administration.
The SGF equally revealed that he was first skeptical when he learnt of the emergence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the Presidential candidate of the PDP but that his fears has been doused with unfolding developments within the polity.
He said contrary to insinuations that the Buhari had performed below expectations over 200 policy programmes have been implemented impacting Nigerians directly and indirectly.
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola who made presentation on “what we are building 1” said some of the projects executed under the administration, said 365 road projects has been under construction in all parts of the federation.
He said 244 of such projects were initiated in year 2001 under the opposition but that the ruling party has been making concerted efforts to complete within the last three and half years.
Fashola also noted that power have steadily improved with at least a thousand kilowatt added to the national grid annually.
The Minister of Transportation and Director General of the Buhari Campaign Organisation, Rotimi Amaechi spoke on “what we are building 2”, said the Lagos-Ibadan rail tracks was 80percent completed while the Itakpe-Warri rail lines will soon begin operations.
According to him the Federal government spends about N40million subsidizing passenger fares for Abuja-Kaduna standard rail, which has transported over a million passengers since it started operations.
Amaechi also explained why the Buhari administration was completing projects initiated by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, saying it was economically savvy to complete existing ones than initiating fresh ones.
The Senior Special Assistant on Social Investments, Maryam Uwais spoke on the Social Investment Programme(SIP).
There were also be four mini documentaries on “infrastructure development; Investing in People, Corruption and Security and The Rice Revolution”.
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