Democracy Day: President Muhammadu Buhari’s full speech, lists achievements
NIGERIA IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 2018 DEMOCRACY DAY CELEBRATION,
TUESDAY, 29TH MAY, 2018
My Dear Nigerians!
Today marks the 19th year of our nascent democracy and the 3rd Anniversary of this
administration. I am thankful to Almighty God for bringing us thus far. This
administration came at a time that Nigerians needed Change, the Change we
promised and the Change we continue to deliver. We have faced a lot of challenges
on this journey and Nigerians have stood by us in achieving the three cardinal points
of this administration namely; Security, Corruption and the Economy.
2. The commemoration of this year’s Democracy Day is a celebration of freedom, a
salute to the resilience and determination of Nigerians and a recommitment by
Government to keep its promise to lead Nigeria into a new era of justice and
prosperity.
3. Public safety and security remains the primary duty of this Government. Before
this Administration came into being 3 years ago, Boko Haram held large areas of
land spanning several Local Governments in the North East.
4. Today, the capacity of the insurgents has been degraded leading to the re-
establishment of authority of government and the release of captives including,
happily, 106 Chibok and 104 Dapchi girls, and over 16,000 other persons held by the
Boko Haram.
5. In order to minimize the impact of the insurgency on Internally Displaced Persons,
Government has established secure IDP Camps and has improved the mechanism
for the distribution of basic aid, foods and essential commodities using various
strategies in collaboration with local and international Organizations.
6. Efforts are in process for resettlement of IDPs in their home communities by
providing schools, hospitals, clinics, water and sanitation to facilitate a quick return
to economic activities. Government is similarly implementing de-radicalization and
rehabilitation programmes to facilitate sustainable peace and development.
7. The unfortunate incidences of kidnappings, herdsmen and farmers clashes in
several communities which have led to high number of fatalities and loss of
properties across the country is being addressed and the identified culprits and their
sponsors shall be made to face the full wrath of the law. All the three tiers of
Government are presently engaged with communities and religious organizations to
restore peaceful co-existence among Nigerians.
8. I want to commend members of the Multinational Joint Task Force drawn from
Niger, Benin, Chad, Cameroon and our own country in collaboration with the
International Community who are assisting in the fight against insurgency in the
North East. I also commend the gallantry of members of our Armed Forces and other
security agencies that have continued to provide security for lives and properties
across the country. State and Local traditional authorities are helping with much
needed intelligence in this fight against insurgency.
9. This administration is pained over the grievous loss of lives and properties
occasioned by the carnage of insurgency and other forms of criminality in the
country. I wish to assure Nigerians that we will not rest until all criminal elements
and their sponsors are brought to justice. Government is boosting the capacity of our
security agencies through recruitment of more personnel, training and procurement
of modern equipment, enhancement of intelligence gathering as well as boosting
their morale in the face of daunting challenges.
10. The Niger Delta Region has enjoyed relative peace through social inclusiveness
and cooperation of the Elders and the good people of the region. Government is
committed to implementing the comprehensive peace, security and development plan
for the region. The environmental clean-up of the region which commenced with the
launch in Bodo, Ogoni in June, 2016 is progressing satisfactorily. Furthermore
farming assets are being revived and investors in cocoa and palm oil plantations are
showing serious interest.
11. The second primary object of this Administration is to fight corruption headlong.
Like I have always said, if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will destroy the country.
Three years into this Administration, Nigerians and the international community have
begun to applaud our policies and determination to fight corruption. We are more
than ever before determined to win this war, however hard the road is. I therefore
appeal to all well-meaning Nigerians to continue to support us in this fight.
12. Various policy measures already put in place to stem the tide of corrupt
practices are yielding remarkable results. Some of these key reform policies include:
a. The Treasury Single Account (TSA) has realized Billions of Naira being saved from
maintenance fee payable to banks. N200 Billion has also been saved from
elimination of ghost workers in public service.
b. The Whistle-Blowing Policy has helped to recover over N500 Billion;
c. The Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit set up with a mandate to validate
controls, assess risks, prune personnel costs, ensure compliance with Public
Financial Management reforms has helped to identify and remove over 52,000 ghost
workers from the Federal Government MDAs Payroll;
d. The Voluntary Asset and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) aimed at expanding
tax education and awareness has offered the opportunity for tax defaulters to
regularise their status in order to enjoy the amnesty of forgiveness on overdue
interest, penalties and the assurance of non-prosecution or subject to tax
investigations.
e. The Sovereign Wealth Fund project portfolio has been expanded with an injection
of US$650 million so as to strengthen its investment in local infrastructure, power,
health, re-construction of Abuja-Kano road, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, East West
Road (Section V) and the Mambilla Hydro-electric Power project as well as the
construction of the 2nd Niger Bridge.
13. The fight against corruption through the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences
Commission has resulted in recoveries of Billions of Naira, as well as forfeiture of
various forms of assets. This alongside other efforts has improved Nigeria’s
international image and regional cooperation.
14. We have retained the services of one of the world’s leading assets tracing firms
to investigate and trace assets globally. This is in addition to the exploitation of
provisions of existing Treaties, Conventions as well as Bilateral Agreements with
Multilateral bodies and Nations. Nigeria has also signed Mutual Legal Assistance
Agreements to ensure that there is no hiding place for fugitives.
15. This Administration has therefore focused on revamping the ailing economy it
inherited in 2015. In 2016, Government executed an expansionary budget and
developed the Strategic Implementation Plan. For the first time, 30% of the budget
was earmarked for capital expenditure which represents an upward review when
compared with the 2015 budget. The SIP was followed by the development of a
comprehensive medium term plan – the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan 2017
– 2020.
16. The broad strategic objectives of the ERGP were to; Restore and sustain
economic growth; Build a globally competitive economy; and Invest in our people.
The implementation of the ERGP has started yielding results. The National Bureau of
Statistics reports that the economy grew by 1.95% in 1st quarter 2018, which is a
good performance when viewed against -0.91 in 1st quarter 2017 and -0.67% in 1st
quarter 2016 respectively.
17. Our foreign reserve has improved significantly to 47.5 billion USD as of May,
2018 as against 29.6 billion USD in 2015. The inflationary rate has consistently
declined every month since January, 2017.
18. Recently, Government conducted Focus Labs in three key sectors of the Economy
namely, Agriculture & Transport, Manufacturing and Processing as well as Power
and Gas. These have yielded significant prospects for investments and Job creation
to the tune of US$ 22.5 billion with a potential for creating more than 500,000 jobs
by 2020. These investment generation initiatives are expected to increase capital
inflows in the form of foreign direct investment. There is a high prospect that the
cumulative investments from this first phase of the Labs will hit US$39.2 billion by
2025.
19. Under agriculture, Nigeria continues to pursue a strategic food security
programme built around self-sufficiency and minimization of import dependency. As
a result, rice importation from other countries has been cut down by 90% which has
a direct impact on foreign reserves.
20. The Social Investment Programmes (SIP) has been created as a means to
graduating our citizens from poverty through capacity building, investment and direct
support. The major strategic objective is to restore livelihood, economic
opportunities and sustenance for the poor across the country. The SIP programmes
and projects include:
a. Home Grown School Feeding Programme – About 8.2 million pupils are currently
being fed from 24 States of the Federation with over 75,000 Catering Staff engaged
under the programme.
b. The Conditional Cash Transfer has so far recorded over 297,000 caregivers and
being trained by 2,495 Community Facilitators in 21 states. Less privileged Nigerians
are now being paid N5,000 monthly stipend in 9 pilot States of Bauchi, Borno, Cross
River, Ekiti, Kwara, Kogi, Niger, Osun and Oyo. Eventually the scheme will cover all
the 36 states of the federation including the FCT.
c. Under the Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme – About 264,269
loans had been disbursed to 4,822 societies in the 36 States and FCT, while another
370,635 are awaiting release of funds.
d. N-Power Job creation Scheme – is targeted at providing jobs for unemployed
young graduates and has so far recruited 200,000 youths while the next batch of
300,000 have been selected, verified and would soon be deployed across the 36
States and the FCT. Furthermore, 20,000 non-graduate volunteers have also been
selected to kick off the N-Build programme in collaboration with the National
Automotive Design and Development Council and the Council of Registered Builders
of Nigeria.
21. In the area of power generation, Nigerians from all parts of the country continue
to report better power supply and less use of generators. This underscores the
effectiveness of the methodical plan to deliver incremental and uninterrupted power
supply to our homes, markets, offices and factories.
22. The country achieved 5, 222.3 MW representing the highest peak of power
generated onto the national grid and delivered to customers in December, 2017. With
new facilities, repairs and rehabilitations by Government and private investors,
generation capability now exceeds 7,500 MW.
23. This Administration is committed to lawful interventions to ensure the operators
of the distribution business live up to expectations especially in the areas of
distribution capacity, service delivery, collection efficiency, and metering to eliminate
contentious estimated billing.
24. The Transportation Sector continues to undergo a series of reforms in order to
sustain the international best practices and ensure safety and security. The nation’s
major airports have witnessed reconstruction of runways, installation of navigational
equipment and new international terminals due for commissioning in Abuja, Lagos,
Kano and Enugu. Bilateral Air Services Agreements between Nigeria and the
Governments of other countries will significantly open up new flight routes.
25. As a result of strict regulatory and compliance policies, Nigeria retained her
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Category 1 status, after a routine international
audit. Recently, a new Maintenance Repair and Overhaul facility with capacity for
aircraft C-checks and other comprehensive levels of maintenance was established in
Lagos. This would save the country an estimated $90m annually.
26. Giant strides have been recorded over the past three years to improve road
transport infrastructure in all geopolitical zones of the country.
27. The Railway Sector has also received tremendous attention as this
Administration is committed to the goal of linking all State capitals in the Federation
by rail network to ease the movement of goods and passengers.
28. The Education Sector especially at tertiary level has continued to witness
expansion in order to improve access to higher education by millions of youths in
Nigeria. Over the last three years, Government has approved the establishment of 1
new Federal Polytechnic, granted licenses for the establishment of 4 State and 14
private-owned Universities as well as 12 private Polytechnics.
29. Government has also continued to support the implementation of various
initiatives aimed at improving the quality of Basic Education delivery. Thus, it has
ensured proper funding at the Basic Education level with the disbursement of N42.2
billion UBE Matching Grant to 26 States and the FCT, N851.5 million Special
Education Grant disbursed to 23 States and private providers of Special Education
and N2.2 billion Teachers Professional Development Fund to 33 States and the FCT.
30. The Federal Government has continued to support fiscal sustainability at the sub-
national governments through the implementation of the Budget Support Facility
which was accompanied by the 22- point Fiscal Sustainability Plan. Thus, bailouts
funds were made available to States to ease their fiscal challenges and other
obligations including payment of salaries.
31. In addition, a total of 73 Ecological Fund projects for the control of gully erosion
in different communities across all geopolitical zones have been completed in the
last three years and are undergoing commissioning while 53 other projects are
ongoing. The execution of these projects has generated 357 skilled jobs and 1,350
unskilled jobs during this period.
32. It is pertinent to also make mention of the immeasurable contributions of the
Nigerian woman to national development and advancement of democracy, over the
last three years. The government and people appreciate you all as mothers of our
great country.
33. My dear country men and women, as we all celebrate our democratic experience,
let us resolve to avoid hatred and intolerance; we can only achieve our objectives in
an atmosphere of harmony and peaceful co-existence.
34. Finally, the up-coming months will usher us into another season of general
elections. Let me use this opportunity to urge us all to conduct ourselves, our wards
and our constituencies with the utmost sense of fairness, justice and peaceful co-
existence such that we will have not only hitch free elections but also a credible and
violence free process.
35. In few days to come, I will be joined by many promising young Nigerians to sign
into law the “Not Too Young to Run” Bill
36. I thank you for your attention.
37. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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