President Muhammadu Buhari held his first Presidential Media Chat on Wednesday fielding questions about some of the key issues in the country from the whereabouts of the Chibok girls, the Nigerian Army-Shiites clash and pressure to devalue the naira.



Here are some key comments by the President:

On the clash between Shi’ites and the Nigerian Army in Zaria and his silence

i. I have allowed the army and the Kaduna State government to come up with their reports before I come out to speak on the clash. This does not mean that the police and the DSS are not doing their part.

ii. The situation in Zaria is very serious… How can one group create a state within a state?

On the state of tertiary institutions

I don’t like the idea of University students sitting on windows to receive lectures.

On whether he actually promised to pay unemployed youths N5,000

I cannot come here and deny that.

Foreign exchange restrictions

I. We need power, railways, roads… These are our priorities; not people looking for money to bring in rice (to the country).

II.Foreign exchange will be made available to the productive sector of the economy and not for luxury items.

On calls for the devaluation of the Naira

I need to be convinced about devaluing the Naira.

On asset declaration

I declared my assets four times… I don’t have to ask them (Code of Conduct Bureau) to give you the asset declaration… You have a constitutional right to the documents.

On the continued bomb attacks in parts of the North-East

I. The Hijab will have to be banned if this (the suicide bombing) continues.

On the debate about fuel subsidy

By the end of the next quarter, we will not be talking about subsidy. How much is the price of

fuel (in the international market) now?

Reported plans by the National Assembly to spend billions on cars

I cannot see the National Assembly spending N45bn to buy cars on top of the transport allowance they collect.

On the pace of the anti-corruption war

I. Our major constraint is that accused person must go to court first and under such circumstances, we cannot prejudge what the courts will do but there are documents and how the government will react through the Ministry of Justice will determine what we will do because what we are going so we cannot determine issues while they are still in court.

II. If any member of my cabinet is corrupt, I will sack the person.

III. Members of the cabinet are supposed to declare their assets.

On whether funds have been recovered from looters

I. Money has been recovered but the fact that whatever we recover will end up in court because Nigerians will always want to know the truth and the truth will be what the courts have discovered by the submission made to them in terms of bank statements where money was recovered, where money was lodged, when it was lodged, how it was lodged whether it was money from petrol, customs and excise or money directly from the Central Bank. When we do that I think Nigerians will feel a bit better.

II. It is a very nasty situation that we are in, but we cannot fold our hands and not do anything; we are doing our best.

Chibok girls

We are keeping our options open. We are prepared to negotiate with boko haram for the girls… There is no firm intelligence where those girls physically are and what conditions they are in but what we learnt from our intelligence is that they (terrorists) kept on shifting them around so that they are not taken by surprise and they get freed. And a whole lot of them are not in one place and we don’t know how many divisions they have and where they are. There is no intelligence to say that the girls are alive and in one place. That is the honest truth.

On the agitation for Biafra over alleged marginalisation

We have boko haram and then Biafra. Help me define the extent of marginalisation. Who is marginalising them? Why? How? Do you know? … The constitution said there must be a minister from each state. Who is the Minister of Petroleum? Is he not Igbo? Who is the Governor of Central Bank? Is he not Igbo? Who is the Minister of Labour? Who is the Minister of Science and Technology? Who is the junior minister of education?

On the continued detention of suspected looters and alleged violation of court orders by the DSS

You can see the type atrocities that those people committed against soldiers and the country. The former president goes to the governor of the Central Bank and say, ‘give N40bn to so, so, so… And then he fails to account for it and you allow him to go and see his daughter in London while and you have two million people in IDPs, half of them don’t even know their parents. Which kind of country do you want to run?

And the one you are calling Kanu. Do you know he has two passports – one Nigerian, one British – and he came to this country without any passport?… There are criminal allegations against him and I hope the court will listen to the case.


SOURCE: https://www.thenews.ng/metro/honest-truth-top-quotes-from-president-buharis-first-media-chat/

That is my president. Hate him or love him, he is what we need at this point in time.

His stand on foreign exchange restrictions are on point. Our industries are not growing because of importation of basically everything... toothpick, frozen chicken, rice, generators, fabrics.... you name them. We can't continue that way. Most of these things are stuffs that can be produced locally. Nigerians should be grateful that the government is resolute enough to take that stand.

We can't devalue the naira because of businesses that do not contribute anything to employment and economic growth.

And of course, we can't subsidise the the dollar for them either.

But if they insist, they can source for forex from the black market.

Whatever you can no longer import because of rising forex... learn how to produce or manufacture it locally!

I love you PMB! I know a lot of well meaning Nigerians do too

We pray God helps you win the war against corruption and insecurity too

sai baba,wailin wailer abeg park well

Baba

This summary is for the indomie brains that could not comprehend yesterdays interview. I hope we are clear now.

ok... Waiting for ACtion...

Sai Buhari
Wailers n haters continue
He is here to stay


Modified... Yet someone will still come and tell me Gej did better. Hmmm, no comment

Your foreign exchange restriction policy is meant to discourage import of goods that can be produced locally. that's good.


Buh one question for you baba; what are you doing to encourage already established businesses within the country?


Take for instance the automobile industry. Local manufacturers like IVM and others need supports, incentives and concessions because such an industry can be a huge employer of labour in the country when fully harnessed. keep trying baba.


#babathinko

Baba continue

This man in very intelligent. see correct and unbiased answers to their biased questions.

even though I don't like you(buhari) BT if u can put little of our words into action Nigeria will be great.

This is the curse. It is powered by the anger of 170 million good Nigerians. If you fall within the section of Nigerians who sees fault in every solutions, who subverts the progress of the nation for personal growth, who speaks from both sides of their mouths regarding what a well-meaning president is expected to do, who supports corruption and corrupt officials, who closes their eyes to all the atrocities committed by corrupt people in favour of screaming insane garbage about the rule of law and harrassing the judiciary to set looters and criminals free just so you can take your share, who wants all the good things about Nigeria to fail by all means and at all cost...TAKE NOTE: 2016 will be your year of agony. It will usher in an extended period of pain to you. (Just you, not your innocent family members - except they are culpable too). 2016 is the year you will watch your own personal ruins in 3D clarity. I dont know if you will survive to see 2017. Personally i wish you do, so that your agony and devastation will be drawn out to the fullest as you suffer every iota of pain you richly deserved to the maximum. That is for 2016. As for your last day of 2015, all i can say is that it shall not be well with you throughout today.

I am calm. I represent the voices of the masses who wakes up daily to place a curse on you, but are too busy struggling in the mess your corruption has created and propagated. Receive Your Curse. Know that if you are guilty and you insult me back, your curse and its effect shall be tripled. And Automatic.

ril19:
Your foreign exchange restriction policy is meant to discourage import of goods that can be produced locally. that's good.


Buh one question for you baba; what are you doing to encourage already established businesses within the country?


Take for instance the automobile industry. Local manufacturers like IVM and others need supports, incentives and concessions because such an industry can be a huge employer of labour in the country when fully harnessed. keep trying baba.


#babathinko

He answered this when he said the productive industries should approach the CBN and present a business case to get dollars for spare parts and raw materials.

Talk is cheap, I need action, letz see hw 2016 will turn out

I don't see why and how some people are poorly rating this media exercise. His responses are sharp and apt.


I think the guy is on course.


Kudos

PassingShot:

He answered this when he said the productive industries should approach the CBN and present a business case to get dollars for spare parts and raw materials.

Interesting! And how exactly do you approach the CBN?

This president is actually worse than I thought.

Anyway, the good thing about our current predicament is that even those who voted for and still supports Buhari, who is obviously the most clueless president in my lifetime, would also feel the heat one way or the other, except of course those directly employed by his government.

[s]

Sincere9gerian:

Interesting! And how exactly do you approach the CBN?

This president is actually worse than I thought.

Anyway, the good thing about our current predicament is that even those who voted for and still supports Buhari, who is arguably the most clueless president in my lifetime, would also feel the heat one way or the other, except of course those directly employed by this government.

[/s]

finally, a president with balls.

I admire the president's honesty...He didn't try to sugar coat anything.

But the down side is that, he sounded clueless about many issues. He would need to ask the CBN Governor, He may have missed the programme which exposed his Ministers' involvement in corruption, etc.

The chat also showed that with enough pressure, Buhari can bend (which is evidence that he doesn't have a clear objective) as it relates to his agreement to ban Hijab when pressed by the journalists.

Buhari is a good man, but the Dictator is still strong within him as he doesn't respect the Judiciary. He even made the police look inferior by saying "How can the Police investigate the military when it should be the other way around".

We are in for rough times ahead.

On the agitation for Biafra over alleged marginalisation
We have boko haram and then Biafra. Help me define the extent of marginalisation. Who is marginalising them? Why? How? Do you know? … The constitution said there must be a minister from each state. Who is the Minister of Petroleum? Is he not Igbo? Who is the Governor of Central Bank? Is he not Igbo? Who is the Minister of Labour? Who is the Minister of Science and Technology? Who is the junior minister of education?

it is saddening to hear the buhari say that by giving political offices to individuals the district which the individual hails is well treated.

How does giving political offices to selfish politicians benefit the common man, how many of these politicians reach out to their people expect during another election period.

Buhari should be listing possible FG projects that he wants to embark on in the region that will touch their lives.

Moreover, the people have nothing much to show in terms of FG presence in their region for 100years and about 55yrs independence, they also have the right to decide not to be a part of Nigeria.

He should rather call for a conference, where our existence as a country should be negotiated, if after 100yrs, some people call themselves igbos, Yorubas and hausas with their own agenda, one claiming to be superior to another, then Nigeria is a joke.

These ethnic issues and tribalism should be handled seriously else our problems will persist.

And what happened to all the boring tales about returned looted funds we've been fed with in the last few months? Why do we need the courts to declare how much was returned exactly? Why didn't the government wait for the courts before rushing to the media? Who is fooling who?

coolcharm:
That is my president. Hate him or love him, he is what we need at this point in time.

His stand on foreign exchange restrictions are on point. Our industries are not growing because of importation of basically everything... toothpick, frozen chicken, rice, generators, fabrics.... you name them. We can't continue that way. Most of these things are stuffs that can be produced locally. Nigerians should be grateful that the government is resolute enough to take that stand.

We can't devalue the naira because of businesses that do not contribute anything to employment and economic growth.

And of course, we can't subsidise the the dollar for them either.

But if they insist, they can source for forex from the black market.

Whatever you can no longer import because of rising forex... learn how to produce or manufacture it locally!

I love you PMB! I know a lot of well meaning Nigerians do too

We pray God helps you win the war against corruption and insecurity too

park well
Nigeria has many of these industries.
the only problem is the reckless use of moni by govt.
every tin use by govt including tooth brush are imported. they can never use aba shoes or innoson car and u re talking jargon.

Buhari basically justified the shi'ite massacre when asked about it, he started talking about how shi'ites block roads and run a parallel government.

I just see HOPE for Nigeria when I see PMB.

#HOPE4NIGERIA









Meanwhile

He approached those questions logically

I still sitting on the fence. Until I see and feel the promised change, I won't be swayed with mere words.


year 2016 shall be your year of unprecedented breakthrough. click LIKE if you believe.

b

Baba mouth action...all mouth, no action

PMB!

No Devaluation of Naira.
No Forex if you are importing Rice, toothpick, textiles and other
finished goods that can be source locally....It's time to do another
business
Considerations will be given to students schooling abroad including
professional certification seekers to finish their studies.
But if you are into importation of raw materials which cannot be
sourced locally, that will improve our industrial sector ..FOREX will
be made available to you
I love #EmefieleEconomics
Long live President Buhari

15. "I think"

16. "I will crosscheck with CBN"

17. In response to questions on devaluation : " Bad roads!"

18. "Credible members of bokoharam"

I have never seen such a thing in my life, yet, softwares in the form of e-paper tigers like mapet think they can muzzle me with insults.

Still reading