(Magnus Eze, ABUJA)
But for the prudent management of the finances, the plugging of leakages and transparency in government, Nigeria will not have any economy to talk about today, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has said.
The minister made the assertion at a town hall meeting christened ‘Buharimeter’ organized in Abuja yesterday by a non-governmental organization, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) to assess the one year in office of the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration headed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He thanked the organisers for their contribution in strengthening democracy, adding that it will also help in bridging the communication gap between the government and the people.
Mohammed at the accountability forum said the administration had delivered on its three-pronged campaign promises of tackling insecurity, fighting corruption and diversifying the economy.
He assured Nigerians that while there is still much work to be done, the ddministration neither lacks the political will nor the discipline and the determination to fulfill its electoral promises and take Nigeria to greater heights.
According to him, “The Change we promised is real, and with the takeoff of our massive, 500 billion social intervention programmes in a few days, Nigerians will begin to feel the impact of the new order. As a matter of fact, the first rollout of the intervention scheme will start this Saturday, June 11th, when the internet portal named npower.gov.ng will start taking applications for the 500,000 direct teacher jobs scheme.”
He named other schemes in the administration’s social investment programmes which would be rolled out in the coming weeks to include the Conditional Cash Transfer that pays N5,000 monthly to one million Nigerians, the Micro-Credit Scheme for more than 1.5 million Nigerians, the Home Grown School Feeding programme that will serve 5.5 million Nigerian pupils in primary school a free hot meal per day this year and the Education support grant programme for 100,000 tertiary students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, STEM and education.