Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, yesterday, said All Progressives Congress, APC, government did not promise to fix Nigeria’s problem within a year and cautioned those lamenting the economic hardship to wait till 2019 for the desired change.
Also, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, cautioned Nigerians against making statements that could cause religious disharmony, warning that “no nation has ever survived religious war.”
The ministers spoke in Ilorin, Kwara State, during a North Central town hall meeting for the people of Kogi, Niger and Kwara states by the Federal Government. Amaechi, who was the Director General of the Campaign Organisation of President Muhammadu Buhari during the 2015 elections, said though the Federal Government knows that things are difficult, Nigerians should wait till the end of the four-year mandate given to the administration before they can judge whether the government had performed or not.
According to him, “we did not promise you that those challenges will be solved in one year or you would have given us a one-year mandate. But you gave us four years mandate, so wait till the end of four years before you can conclude that we have not done well.” While giving stewardship of his ministry, the minister lamented that the refusal of the National Assembly to approve the government’s borrowing plan from China was drawing the government back, urging the people from the three states to prevail on the National Assembly to approve the loan.
According to him, if accessed, the loan would enable the government embark on the rivatalisation of rail projects, which would create more jobs.
He said: “Go and talk to your people in the National Assembly. They are the ones holding the Federal Government back from improving on the infrastructure that would provide mass employment for the people by stopping the President’s borrowing plan from China. They are the ones frustrating our efforts.” On his stewardship, the Minister of Health, Professor Issac Adewole, said the Federal Government had secured a loan of $500 million to fund the revival of basic health institutions across the country.
He explained that N420 million was disbursed to each state in 2015 to fund the project in their respective states. Under the scheme, which would provide 1,000 basic health centres as already captured in the budget, the minister said a model health centre is being cited in each of the three senatorial districts of the three states. Other ministers who gave accounts of their stewardship were those of Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; Water, Sulyman Adamu; Mining and Steel (State), Abubakar Bwauari, and Trade and Investment, Ayishat Abubakar.
