Major key highlights from President Muhammadu Buhari’s speech, Legit reports.
These are the 10 key points below:
1. I am ready to lay down my life for Nigeria
President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday vowed to defend the corporate existence of Nigeria as a single entity and also to bequeath a free and fair election in 2023.
He said: “The day I joined the Nigerian Army I was prepared to lay down my life for Nigeria. As your president, I remain ever committed to upholding and defending Nigeria’s Corporate existence.”
2. Nigeria’s democracy will soon become strong
President Buhari said that Nigeria’s democracy would always be going through improvement processes in the desire to reach the goal of a mature democracy, a strong, evolved and integrated nation-state to be reckoned with globally.
3. We have overcome some challenges in 2 years
He said that in the last two years, Nigeria has witnessed and overcome a good number of testy challenges that would have destroyed other nations especially relating to our collective security.
4. My government will soon end insecurity in Nigeria
The president noted that every incident, however minor gives him great worry and concern, adding that he immediately orders security agencies to swiftly but safely rescue victims and bring perpetrators to justice.
5. Some criminals are taking advantage of the difficult situation in Nigeria
Buhari said that unfortunately, like in most conflict situations, some Nigerian criminals are taking undue advantage of a difficult situation and profiteering therefrom with the misguided belief that adherence to the democratic norms handicaps his administration from frontally and decisively tackling them.
6. We will soon fish out criminals perpetrating evils in Nigeria
He said that his government is already addressing the obstacles and that it will soon bring some of these culprits to justice.
7. I will invest more in Agriculture
The president also said that the interventions led by the government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) driving economic growth over the past 6 years are targeted mostly to the agricultural, services, infrastructure, power and health care sectors of the economy.
8. Effects of COVID-19 on Nigeria’s economy
Buhari stated that the Economic Sustainability Plan – a rebound plan for the COVID-19 pandemic developed in 2020 is currently being executed. He added that the plan is primarily focused on the non-oil sector, which has recorded phenomenal growth contributing over 90% to the GDP growth in Q1 2021.
9. I will pull out 100 million poor Nigerians out of poverty
Buhari also noted that his vision to pull poor Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years has been put into action, adding that it can be seen in the National Social Investment Programme.
10. We have achieved greatly on infrastructure development
The president also stated that his government’s infrastructure revolution continues with key projects attaining critical milestones under the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund; The Second Niger Bridge, The Lagos- Ibadan Expressway and the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano expressway.