May 29 marked Nigeria's democracy day and the president addressed the nation, to tell Nigerians about the situation of the country and the journey thus far.
The democracy day is a day set aside for the commemoration of restoration of democracy in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it's an annual public holiday. This year's celebration didn't go without the President's speech, to analyse to Nigerians the situation of the country.
President Buhari started his speech by indicating the challenges the administration has faced and how it was hard to bring the promised change but the change has come and it did at the right time. The president highlighted different issues in Nigeria and also pointed out the administration's achievement. In his speech, he pointed out that public safety and security is the primary aim of the government and these has been properly addressed through the degradation of the menace of the terrorist group Boko Haram and the release of the captured Chibok and Dapchi school girls. He further spoke on the herdsmen attack and how the government are currently speaking with those involved to sue for peace.
On corruption, which is the second primary assignment of the government, the president in his words urged Nigerians to keep supporting the fight, he said "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". He also pointed out the different ways which corruption has been tackled, which includes the whistle blowing policy, The Treasury Single Account ( TSA) and others. On agriculture, he spoke on how the foreign importation of rice has been cut down by 90% and how the economy has also increased since moving out of recession. He pointed out that "The National Bureau of Statistics reports that the economy grew by 1.95 % in 1 st quarter 2018, which is a good performance when viewed against - 0.91 in 1st quarter 2017 and -0 .67 % in 1 st quarter 2016 respectively." He further spoke on foreign reserve which 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 .
On education and employment, he spoke on the improvement in education, especially the tertiary education, the expansion of higher education and how the 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. The president further spoke on how the government has been paying the less privileged Nigerians N 5 ,000 monthly stipend in 9 pilot States of Bauchi, Borno , Cross River , Ekiti , Kwara , Kogi , Niger, Osun and Oyo and how the scheme will cover all the 36 states of the federation including the FCT. He also spoke on how N-power has provided 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. The president didn't forget to touch transportation and power, he lastly spoke on how he'll be signing into law the “Not Too Young to Run ” Bill.
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