President Buhari addresses Economic Forum retreat, keeps mum on Rivers election
– President Buhari speaks on power, agriculture, housing and manufacturing
– Explains reasons for leaving out education, science and technology
– Ignores issues relating to Rivers rerun election crisis
President Buhari addressing the national Economic Forum retreat in Abuja on Monday, March 21, 2016.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, March 21, addressed the National Economic Forum retreat in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital where he discussed issues affecting the economy.
The retreat which is presided over by the vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, had state governors, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele and other stakeholders in attendance, as well as ministers of the federal republic.
President Buhari, in his address, spoke about the prevailing economic situations in the country with a view to finding a lasting solution within the next three years of his administration.
In his speech, President Buhari stated emphatically that the issue of power in the country which used to be a subject of national jokes, is no longer a laughing matter as the federal government remains committed to improving on the power situation in the country.
“From information at my disposal, if we aggregate public opinions about the ills of our economy, naturally, there are divergent views about solutions,” he said.
He also stated that he was going to throw random policy options on four selected sectors of the Nigerian economy; agriculture, power manufacturing and housing.
While explaining his reasons for not including education, science and technology. President Buhari said this is because: “these related subjects require a whole retreat by themselves.”
Speaking on the issue associated to the power sector, the President reiterated his administration’s readiness to make power more available to the average man, noting that power is “no longer a laughing matter in Nigeria. We must and we will put things right. In the three years left of this administration, we have given ourselves the target of 10,000 megawatt distributable power.
“In 2016 alone, we added 2,000 megawatts to the national grid.”
While Nigerians would have expected the president to talk about the crisis-ridden Rivers legislative rerun election over the weekend, Buhari instead chose to speak on the economic status of the country as rumours continued to fly that there may be a declaration of State of Emergency in the troubled state.
The retreat is expected to end on Tuesday and will be attended by all the 36 governors in Nigeria, as well as Senator Udo Udoma, the Budget and National Planning minister, among other top government functionaries at the event.
Meanwhile, President Buhari has been hit hard by organized labour in Nigeria as they are worried about the state of the country’s economy.
The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress said the economy has stopped functioning and urged Buhari to use the opportunity of the economic conference to come up with policies that could be implemented to get the country out of its current economic woes.
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