Buhari has solutions to Nigeria’s problems – Mohammed
JULY 3, 2015 : SUCCESS NWOGU
34 Comments
President Muhammadu Buhari
The National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Alhaji
Lai Mohammed, has said the administration of President Muhammadu
Buhari has the blueprint to tackle Nigeria’s developmental challenges.
He noted that Nigeria has enormously and critical challenges in many
sectors especially in areas of health, poverty, education and
unemployment.
He, however, said Buhari’s administration had worked out immediate,
intermediate and long term measures to ameliorate the challenges in
all critical sectors.
Mohammed spoke on Thursday during his 9th Ramadan Lecture in Oro,
Kwara State.
He said Buhari’s government would solve the problems ‘even in the face
of paucity of funds.
According to him, the paucity of funds was caused by the fall in the
price of crude oil, which Nigeria depended on for most of its foreign
exchange earnings.
He added that the paucity of funds was caused by the alleged
“unbridled and maddening corruption that has seen public officers
ferreting away public funds.”
Mohammed said, “I have deliberately taken us through the grim
statistics in the very key areas of health, education, poverty and
unemployment to drive home the point that we are in trouble, as a
nation, if we don’t act in a deliberate, concerted and determined way to
turn things around for the better.”
He said that while Nigerians had made history by voting for the APC to
take over the reins of power from a ruling party, the Peoples
Democratic Party, that held sway for 16 years, they must now follow up
by ensuring that the process of change – which they brought about –
came into fruition.
According to him, the best way to do it is for Nigerians to remain
politically-aware and engaged as they were in the run-up to the
elections.
“That simply means they must be willing to defend the change they
voted for by continuing to support the government of President
Muhammadu Buhari, while preventing the reactionary forces, who never
wanted or voted for change anyway, from sabotaging his party’s change
mantra. Whatever is worth fighting for is worth defending.
“I say this with all sense of responsibility, and against the stark realities
that we face daunting challenges in all sectors. Never before has our
nation been put in a situation where it virtually had to start rebuilding
from the scratch, after almost all sectors have become nearly
comatose. This is why it is necessary for the new government at the
centre to make haste slowly, and get it right once and for all.
“Whereas we face huge problems in the economic and security sectors,
as well as in the area of infrastructural renewal, just to mention a few,
let us restrict ourselves to the social issues alone for the purpose of
these remarks.”
He said that the nation’s health sector was in serious distress.
According to him, Nigeria’s health statistics are worse than the average
for African countries, even though Nigeria claims to be the giant of
Africa.
He said 128 children were dying in every 1000 live births as of 2013
while mortality from malaria was estimated at 1,157 deaths per 100,000
population.
He added that tuberculosis was estimated at five deaths per 100,000
population in 2013.
He stated that “about 900,000 children and mothers die each year in
Nigeria, accounting for 14 per cent of all maternal and 13 per cent of
all under-5 deaths globally, and second only to India.”
According to him, at 576 deaths per 100,000 live births, the maternal
mortality ratio has remained static since 2008.
He stated that although child mortality is falling, progress is insufficient
to reach the MDG targets.
Mohammed also said that “an increasing proportion of child deaths, that
is 37 per cent, occurs during the first month of life from largely
preventable causes which are complications during birth, infection and
complications of premature births.”
He added that under-nutrition remained a significant challenge,
contributing to 35 per cent of deaths in children under-5 years in
Nigeria.
“The proportion of underweight – children who have low weight for their
age- increased by 21% between 2003 and 2013, and the proportion of
children with wasting, that is low weight for height, increased by 64%
during the same period.
“Overall, socio-economic and geographical inequalities in health
outcomes and access to healthcare are stark and increasing, with the
poor and rural having worst outcomes.
“In the area of immunisation, Nigeria is still one of the three remaining
polio-endemic countries, together with Pakistan and Afghanistan. In
addition, Nigeria has the world’s largest burden of HIV-positive
newborns, with more than 50,000 children born with positive status
each year.”
The APC spokesperson said Nigeria’s education system should prepare
the children for the responsibilities of citizenship and prepare the
youths to contribute to the development of the country.
He stated that unfortunately the current system was failing to equip
Nigeria’s children with the knowledge and skills they needed to thrive in
today’s rapidly changing society and economy.
According to him,the current situation of education in Nigeria depicts
large numbers of children, that is 10.5 million, remain out of school.
He added that children from poorer households, rural areas and females
were more likely not to be in school.
According to him, primary school attendance is 44 per cent in the
northeast compared to 81 per cent in the southeast.
Even when children are in school, a large proportion are not learning.
According to him nearly half of all children who have completed
primary school cannot read a complete sentence.
Mohammed also said that a large proportion of Nigerian population live
very close to the poverty line and are highly vulnerable to small
variations of income.
He stated that since 2003, Nigeria had recorded strong economic
growth, with real Gross Domestic Product growth averaging seven per
cent.
He added that however, in the same period, poverty rate had only
declined slightly from about 48.4 per cent in 2003 to 46 per cent in
2010. www.punchng.com/news/buhari-has-solutions-to-nigerias-problems-mohammed/

alright

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The title of this thread is amusing

APC doesn't seem to know the difference between campaign period and governance itself.

Time to work, one month gone but they're still campaigning


Only in Nigeria

Buhari reveals his blueprint for the Niger Delta's problems:
http://www.naijiant.com/photos/buhari-has-the-blueprint-for-tackling-nigerias-problems-lai-mohammed/