Rebuilding Nigeria requires all hands on deck -----Buhari
(Nigeria) President Muhammadu Buhari has said that his
administration was building a new Nigeria and that the effort requires the
support and participation of its citizens both at home and abroad.
The President said this on Tuesday at the Diaspora Day 2015
celebration with the theme ``Diaspora and Nigeria Change Agenda``, held at the
Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Buhari, who was represented by the Vice President, Prof.
Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, said that Nigerians in the Diaspora had a lot of
contributions to make in rebuilding the country.
``Permit me to take this opportunity to interrogate the
place and role of Nigerians abroad in the Change Agenda of the Buhari
administration. This is because we have embarked on the building of a bold new
Nigeria and we need all hands on deck.
``The time has come for talents from home and abroad to mix
it up in patriotic zeal to fashion the Nigeria of our dreams. First let me
quickly lay out our medium to long term strategy as a government. It is namely
to build an economy led by a strong and responsible private sector.``
Buhari said that government would intervene by providing
physical and economic infrastructure as well as social policies that would
provide opportunities and succour for the 110 million extremely poor Nigerians.
He said that the administration was aiming to consistently
generate 5,000 MW of power daily by early 2016.
According to him, this is a modest target from what is
already available.
He said efforts were being intensified to complete a variety
of outstanding power-related projects to remove existing pitfalls and lay the
foundation for the generation of 10,000MW and 15,000MW in the short and long
terms.
Buhari said that government was pursuing a long overdue
reform in the hydrocarbon industry and was reorganising the NNPC and holding
the officials accountable for past revenue losses.
He said government would improve the capacity of the
country’s oil refineries to reduce the over 37 per cent of foreign exchange
applied to the importation of refined petroleum products.
The President said that in a bid to ensure self-sustenance,
government was making concerted efforts to boost the production of rice, wheat,
and cotton.
According to him, the production of the rice, wheat, and
cotton will help reduce the foreign exchange requirement for the importation of
the same items as rice importation alone gulps about $4 billion annually.
He added that seven rice-producing states were working in
concert with the Federal Government to map out the pathway to self-sustenance
in rice production within 30 months.
Buhari said that the agricultural and agro-allied value
chain remained a priority of government in job creation plans as it would
support local agriculture.
He said that plans were on to create a friendly and
efficient environment for investments by removing bureaucracies and red tapes
in approval processes adding that the incentive regime in the country would
also be reviewed.
He said government intended to return all garment and
textile factories to full production within the shortest time possible.
The President said that to address youth unemployment
government would invest in infrastructure, technology, agriculture and mining
while the one-meal-a-day programme for primary schools would also create many
jobs and business opportunities.
He said government would implement social intervention
schemes to make no fewer than 110 million extremely poor Nigerians to
participate in the new Nigeria.
He said that the experience and exposure of Nigerians abroad
would be tapped to build a thriving economy as obtained in other nations,
adding that India, Japan, China and Korea attained global status following the
contributions of their nationals abroad.
``Besides, the financial remittances from Nigerians abroad
have well reached an estimate of over $20 billion in 2014. With the potential
of such huge populations abroad and attendant financial muscle, no government
can actually totally ignore such persons,`` he said.
He added that the place to start was to develop a reliable
data of Nigerian citizens abroad using the Embassies and missions.
The President said that if signed into law, the proposed
Diaspora Commission would open a new vista for engaging Nigerians abroad and
allowing their expertise to permeate the entire country.
He said that government was aware of the importance of the
voting rights of Nigerians broad, noting that Nigeria would consider absentee
voting in the future.
He, however, said that legislation, funding, and confidence
in the electoral system were required to make it work.
According to him, the last general elections have instilled
confidence in the electoral process.
``Our electoral process is evolving and as greater
confidence is built in the institutions and processes associated with it we may
then create voting opportunities for our citizens abroad in the not too distant
future,`` he added.
He affirmed that government would ensure that the rights of
Nigerian citizens abroad were protected while urging them to be good
ambassadors of the country.
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