President Muhammadu Buhari had wondered if many of the ministers in his current cabinet would have visited to console him if he had lost the Saturday, February 23 Presidential election.
Receiving the ministers, who were led to congratulate him today, Friday, over his electoral victory, by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, the President said: “I am pleased that members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) are collectively meeting here today where we play our weekly role to congratulate me. I think if I have lost the election, I don’t know how many of them will be here.”
He recalled that during the campaigns, he visited the 36 states and Abuja, “firstly, to prove to the other side that I’m fit. I tried to cover two states per day and secondly, not to make anybody feel that any state had been left out.”
He thanked God for giving him the strength and health to see through his plan.
President Buhari said that his last lap of four years would be tough because people are being forgetful.
“That was why wherever I went, I reminded them of the campaign promise of our party, particularly security. As I kept on saying, you have to secure the country well and institutions. If you don’t secure the country, you can’t achieve anything no matter how many programmes you put in place.
“Secondly, on the economy, unemployment is a problem of this country as a whole. More than 60 per cent of the youths (are unemployed); they need to be kept busy. I realized that God heard our prayers.
“It had been two good rainy seasons and we had the foresight to get the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Central Bank to try and give soft loans to farmers so that everybody that is educated and looking for white collar jobs and cannot get it, can go back to the land. We are lucky the rainy season had been good.
“I think we are also lucky that through the governors in some states like Lagos, Ogun, Kebbi, Jigawa, Ebonyi, in particular, we don’t import rice but we have savings from rice in terms of foreign exchange which we put in the budget and use for infrastructure.
“That is a very good thing because the oil sector is becoming very difficult to predict. It is becoming unpredictable and depending on it makes us materially insecure but thank goodness, agriculture has come to save it and people are appreciating it.”
