Press Release: Dapchi Update: FG Sets up Committee to Probe Abduction of Dapchi Girls

The Federal Government has set up a 12-member committee to unravel the circumstances surrounding the abduction of 110 students of the Government Girls Science and Technical College (GGSTC) in Dapchi, Yobe State, following the attack on the school by insurgents on 19 Feb. 2018.

The committee was convened by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd), according to a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

The Committee, which will be chaired by a military officer of the rank of Major General, comprises one senior Provost each from the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Air Force; representatives of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA); Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA); Nigeria Police Force (NPF); Department of State Services (DSS); Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC); two representatives of the Yobe State Government and a representative of the Office of the National Security Adviser.

The terms of reference of the Committee include ascertaining the circumstances surrounding the abduction of the girls, confirming the presence, composition, scale and disposition of security emplaced in Dapchi as well as in GGSTC before the incident and suggesting measures that can lead to the location and rescue of the girls.

The panel, which is expected to submit its report by 15 March 2018, is also saddled with recommending measures to prevent future occurrence.

The Committee will be inaugurated on Wednesday (28Feb2018).

Segun Adeyemi
SA To Hon Minister of Information and Culture
Abuja
27 Feb. 2018

Press Release: President Buhari Re-appoints Segun Awolowo NEPC Chief Executive Officer

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the re-appointment of Mr Olusegun Awolowo as Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).

According to a letter signed by Mr Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the appointment lasts for four years.

Mr Awolowo, a lawyer and scion of the Obafemi Awolowo family, was first appointed to the NEPC position in 2013.

Femi Adesina
Special Adviser to the President (Media and Publicity)
February 28, 2018

Press Release: President Buhari Greets Femi Okunnu on 85th Birthday

President Muhammadu Buhari congratulates elder statesman and Nigeria’s former Federal Commissioner for Works and Housing, Alhaji Femi Okunnu, on his 85th birthday.

President Buhari felicitates with all the family, friends and professional colleagues of the elder statesman for the grace of living a long and fulfilled life, looking back at his foundational contributions to the infrastructural growth of the nation, and its developmental strides.

President Buhari affirms that Alhaji Okunnu was among the first administrators to set Nigeria on the path of physical growth by patriotically ensuring a plan and implementation of network of roads for the country in the 60’s, that have become the landmark routes after more than half of a century.

The President extols Okunnu for his nationalistic position and views at critical moments in the nation’s existence, especially the legendary role he played during the mediatory meetings after the Nigerian civil war and his contributions to structuring the nation’s legal architecture as the country continues to develop.

President Buhari prays that the almighty God will grant the elder statesman longer life, more strength and wisdom to continue serving the nation he loves so much.

Femi Adesina
Special Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity)
February 21, 2018

Speech: President Buhari’s Address at the First Adamawa State Anti-Corruption Summit

I am delighted to be here today, and to be part of this memorable event.

It is very encouraging that a State Government on its own ventures into the subject matter of fighting Corruption deliberately, as well as transparently subjects its methods to the whole nation for detailed discussion.

You may recall that on 29th May 2015, when I stated that we are faced with enormous challenges in this Country, with insecurity and institutionalized pervasive corruption being key and that my confidence remained high that together we will tackle them head on. As I had predicted, today I am proud to note that we have not relented in our determination to fight corruption. We are fixing our problems together.

Even though under our system the Federal Government cannot directly interfere in the details of the operations of States, but to see that the gross corruption at the local level is being checked and transparently reported is a thing of satisfaction and joy for me.

We will try to ensure that, there is more responsible and accountable governance at all levels of government in the country.

I note with satisfaction the logical steps taken by Adamawa State Government in the last two and a half years to demonstrate that transparency, fiscal responsibility, accountability and timely delivery of strategic goods and services to develop the state and enhance the confidence of its people is a viable template to fighting corruption.

Team work, the cordial relationship between the Executive and the Legislature, the respect and compliance with fiscal and procurement laws, the institutional reforms to improved efficiency, the drive to achieve value for money, as demonstrated by this administration, are worthy of note.

I recommend to other states this model along with all other winning approaches to enhance the progress and development of our Nation.

The projects and progress I have seen in Yola along with the reports and presentations made here have given me encouragement on the future of the State. I hope this momentum will be sustained.

To the Government of Adamawa State, I say “well done and keep it up”. To the people of Adamawa State, I congratulate you all on supporting the Government and encourage you to continue to give your maximum support to the State Government in its drive for a much better future.

Thank you and may God bless our country.

Press Release: President Buhari Felicitates With FRSC at 30; Lauds Reduction in Road Crashes

President Muhammadu Buhari felicitates with the management and staff of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) as the organisation celebrates 30 years of its establishment.

The President commends the vision of its founding fathers in February 1988 in response to the unacceptable level of road crashes in the country.

President Buhari notes with delight that after three decades of operations, the Corps reduced road crashes from an alarming 40,881 in 1976 to 5,993 in 2016 and 4,418 in 2017.

He further lauds the significant reduction in the emergency response time of the Corps from 50 to 15 minutes to accident scenes on the nation’s highways.

The President commends the FRSC’s deployment of international best practices and use of technology in its uniform licensing scheme, tracking, vehicle plate numbering and other services.

According to President Buhari, “the recent United Nation’s commendation of Nigeria’s road safety action plan, affirms the Federal Road Safety Corps’ leading role not only in West Africa but the entire African continent.”

He pledges the Federal Government’s continued support to the FRSC to enable the organisation achieve the goal of United Nations Decade of Action on Road Safety of 50 per cent fatality reduction by 2020, thereby placing Nigerian roads among the league of 20 global safest roads by the target year.

Declaring that road safety is a shared responsibility, the President enjoins the FRSC to intensify its public education role, while urging other government and private organisations and the entire public to support the FRSC to further make road travels safer and more pleasurable.

Femi Adesina
Special Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity)
February 17, 2018

Press Release: President Buhari Condemns Zamfara Killings; Directs Arrest of Perpetrators

President Muhammadu Buhari strongly condemns Thursday’s massacre of innocent persons in Birane village, Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara State.

The President commiserates with families of victims of the heinous and inhuman attacks on defenceless citizens which left many injured.

President Buhari directs the Minister of Defence, Brigadier-General Mansur Dan Ali (Rtd) to proceed immediately to the state to undertake an on-the-spot assessment of the situation and report back.

In addition, he directs security agencies to immediately mobilise and deploy their members to the vulnerable areas of the state, and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to face the full wrath of the law.

The President assures the Zamfara State government, victims of the mayhem and residents in the state, that the Federal Government will continue do all it takes to support security agencies to secure lives and property, not only in the affected state but all parts of the country.

President Buhari restates his administration’s determination to put an end to the spate of senseless spilling of innocent blood in parts of the country, and calls for restraint to allow the nation’s security apparatus to stem the undesirable trend.

The President prays that almighty God will receive the souls of the departed, and comfort their families.

Garba Shehu
Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity)
February 16, 2018.

Speech: VP Osinbajo’s Remarks at the Inaugural Flagship Lecture of the Kukah Centre

It is a special privilege to welcome the President of the Republic of Ghana, President Nana Akufo-Addo, perhaps the one African President who Nigerians see as truly one of their own. The sheer number of invitations that President Akufo-Addo gets to speak here in Nigeria, I’m sure will only compare with the number of times he has to speak in Ghana.

But asides that, in barely a year in office, President Akufo-Addo’s strong and articulate voice on behalf of Africa has helped to present the African development story with insight, depth and above all, the hope that seems to have been missing in previous and even contemporary narratives.

But Your Excellency, it was a part of your honest and heartfelt presentation of Ghana’s democratic and development journey at the Cambridge Union on Democracy and Development that I found personally most instructive, especially your profound observation about the fundamental role of strong institutions, justice and the rule of law. This perhaps for me, is the most crucial issue in “How To Make Democracy Work for Africa.”

There is no question, that democracy and democratization are challenged everywhere, even in the oldest democracies, democracy is still a work-in-progress. That is one of the biggest lessons of recent years, as elections and referendums throw up new and unprecedented scenarios across the world.

The narrowness of the Brexit vote, and the way it has subsequently divided the United Kingdom, and the electoral rise of populist right wing and even extremist tendencies, are all examples of the grave threats to democracy.

Indeed, recently the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which publishes an annual democracy Index, the 2017 Index “records the worst decline in global democracy in years. Not a single region recorded an improvement in its average score since 2016, as countless countries grapple with increasingly divided electorates.” It is clear that democracy is in somewhat, a turbulent trajectory.

But for Africa, challenges to democracy pose a graver threat because of a historical failure to invest sufficiently in nation building and state building. Many of the ethnic and other parochial tensions that have tended to create insecurity and outright conflict time and time again, are on account of failure to deliberately undertake nation – building efforts.

The elite, it appears prefer the status quo which sets the lowest possible bar for political advancement that is identity politics; where do you come from? Or to which religion do you belong? And it is through that paradigm that most issues are analyzed. So the real issues that concern our people are often diminished – good governance, jobs for a growing population of young people, poverty alleviation, peace and security, etc. Those are never properly analyzed, or even allowed to take their prominence in public debates especially in debates leading to elections.

So the forging of a national identity and purpose, built around agreed values and principles, is crucial for engendering commitment to national goals and sustaining peace and security.

Concerning state building, the capacity to which government is able to deliver on the rule of law, law and order, good governance and social goods, it is clear that extreme inequality, weak systems of justice, absence of the rule of law, lack of state capacity to maintain law and order, put nations constantly under a real threat of coming undone.

That is the African story, democracy yes, elections yes, but the question of state building and the capacity of the state to deliver on its most important role which is security and ensuring justice and the rule of law, is often threatened because we simply have not invested enough in the institutions that make this possible.

So in ensuring security, problems of weak policing are some of the issues we experience. Also, the perception of the people on the efficiency and fairness of the justice system is affected by the slow pace of trials and the manipulation of the systems by those who can afford superior legal representation.

So you find that we have an anti- corruption war but questions remain as to how many people have been convicted? But the system can easily be manipulated because you put people on trial, but the trials can go on forever; we have a system that enables people to employ dilatory tactics. We need to strengthen the systems that people can rely and trust.

The solution is the modern State: to wit a merit-driven bureaucracy, a strong law and order architecture, the rule of law, and an adjudicatory system that is well resourced and immune to manipulation.

Let me end my remarks with one of President Akufo-Addo’s tweets which I found particularly instructive to the development especially of our thinking about where Africa should be headed in the next few years. I quote: “It is time for Africa to come of age and hold its rightful place on the world stage. This Africa will be neither victim nor a pawn. This Africa will be honest to itself and to the World.”

I must say that I agree entirely with that – the African leadership elite have run out of excuses, we can no longer go on with the African exceptionalism which we have seen and heard time and time again, that it is a different rule for Africa or different rules apply to Africa, no that is not true! The truth is just as President Akufo- Addo said, we can no longer hide under the excuses of being victims or pawns in the world order. The people of our nations expect us to deliver on the important promises that politicians make which is delivering social goods, ensuring our ever growing youth population get jobs, ensuring there is rule of law and security.

These are issues that remain prominent in Africa, so Your Excellency, it is my very special pleasure and privilege to welcome you to Nigeria once again.

Thank you all.

Released by:
Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity
Office of the Vice President
February 15, 2018

Press Release: Buhari Approves Committee To Rebuild Communities Affected by Herdsmen-Farmers Conflicts

In line with the administration’s commitment towards finding permanent solutions to the herdsmen-farmers clashes in some parts of the country, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the formation of a new Committee to look into the rebuilding of communities affected by the violence in the affected states.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, announced the approval today at the monthly meeting of the National Economic Council, of which he is chairman.

The Committee, which would be headed by the Vice President, will also find ways of providing welfare and other needed facilities in these communities.

“The President has asked me to head the committee,” Prof. Osinbajo announced to the State governors, who constitute membership of NEC, alongside the CBN Governor.

Similarly, the Council was briefed on the activities of the NEC Working Group.

The Working Group was set up at the last NEC meeting in accordance with the President’s commitment to bring all perpetrators of violence to book.

Since then, the Group has met twice and formed a technical Sub-Committee, headed by Ebonyi State Governor, which has been given the assignment of consultations with some of the affected communities.

The Vice President noted that the Federal Government will not impose on State Governments, but would share templates on best practices for the conduct of livestock production and business.

Some of the recommendations of the Working Group include the need for joint Military-Police Operation to manage violent outbreak where required while also calling for more efficient intelligence gathering.

Similarly, the Working Group called for the use of the Military force to flush out bandits whose activities have been linked to the clashes, and also for active engagement with traditional leaders to foster peace in their communities.

It further recommended the training of an Agro Rangers Corps to provide security around ranches, livestock production centres and grazing routes.

Press Release: Boko Haram Membership Thinning Out-President Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday in Abuja said the era of Boko Haram terrorism is gradually drawing to end, with the narrowing of the recruitment base of the insurgents, and renewed onslaught by the Nigerian Army.

Receiving the Letter of Credence of Apostolic Nuncio of the Holy See to Nigeria, Most Rev. Archbishop Antonio Guido Filipazzi, at the State House, President Buhari said the terrorist group had lost appeal in its initial strongholds, necessitating a steady retreat that will eventually culminate in ending the insurgency.

“You can’t indoctrinate people who are below the age of 14 years and blow up churches, mosques, markets and you keep shouting God is great.

“It is either you don’t know what you are saying, or you simply don’t care or believe what you are saying. It is part of our success story that Boko Haram is finding it more difficult to recruit people.

“The Nigerian Army is also not making it easy for them to grow, with more intelligence, orientation and regular, measured onslaught on their camps,’’ he said.

The President said the ongoing effort to dismember the terrorist group, and render it completely powerless will be intensified.

President Buhari, who described the Catholic Church as a strong partner in the development of Nigeria, noted that the church had made very significant contributions to the development of the educational and health system of the country.

On corruption, the President said the fight against the culture of pilfering public funds would be prolonged, and would require a new orientation by repositioning the entire educational system.

“I am pleased that the African Union has spoken out boldly against corruption and appreciated the work that we are doing here,’’ President Buhari told the Archbishop.

In his remarks, the Archbishop Filipazzi said the Holy Father, Pope Francis, had taken a keen interest on the fight against terrorism, corruption and reviving of the Nigerian economy.

“Mr. President, the Holy Father, sends his warm greetings and he is keen to denounce corruption everywhere,’’ he added.

The Apostolic Nuncio said he had travelled to the North East and was pleased with the efforts of the Nigerian Army in tackling the insurgents, and recovering some of the earlier lost grounds.

President Buhari also received Letters of Credence from the Ambassador of Niger to Nigeria, Mr. Alat Mogaskia and the High Commissioner of Ghana, Alhaji Rashid Bawa.

Femi Adesina
Special Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity)
February 13, 2018

Press Release: Osinbajo Explains What Sets The Buhari Administration Apart

The prudent management of Nigeria’s national resources and the firm stand against corruption, amongst others, are what have set President Muhammadu Buhari’s leadership from others, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.

Speaking at the Kogi Economic and Investment Summit in Lokoja on Tuesday, Prof. Osinbajo said the Buhari presidency can be scored very high despite daunting challenges in the economy.

The VP is in the state for a number of events, including the MSMES clinics, commissioning of Social Investment Programme, SIP, and the investment summit.

According to him, “Despite 60% less revenue, we have, by stopping grand corruption, made the highest capital spend in the history of the country in the sum of about N1.3 trillion. We are, for the first time, taking on the game-changing infrastructure projects.”

Outlining some of the achievements recorded by the Buhari presidency despite dwindling resources, the Vice President also noted government’s investment in agriculture remains unprecedented.

He said: “We have experienced an agricultural revolution, doing close to 15 million metric tons of paddy yearly. We used to spend almost $3 billion on rice importation, now rice importation has been cut by 80%.”

“We are today building the Lagos-Kano standard gauge rail and we have signed up for the Lagos-Calabar rail project. We are also building, after 40 years, the Mambilla hydro project, while work on the Second Niger Bridge is going on daily.

“We are daily increasing power supply and once we conclude some strategic transmission projects, we would see a truly appreciable improvement in domestic and industrial power supply.”

In the area of effective partnership with state governments, Prof. Osinbajo said, “Also, we have given more support to State Governments than any other government since 1999.”

According to him, “As of September 2017, total support (excess crude account loan and Budget support facility), excluding Paris club refunds, is in the order of N876. 3 billion, and if we add Paris club refunds we will have disbursed N1.91 trillion.”

In the Federal Government’s partnerships with the private sector, Prof. Osinbajo added that “we have through the Quarterly Business Forum and the Industrial Council, collaborated with the private sector. We believe that the private sector is the key.”

He said the Federal Government had, through the Social Investment Programmes, encouraged more young entrepreneurs, as well as empowering vulnerable and poor households across the country.

Earlier in his remark, the State Governor, Yahaya Bello, said the state was ready to engage in partnerships with both the private sector and the Federal Government to transform the fortunes of the state and empower more young people across different sectors.

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity)
Office of the Vice President
13th February, 2018