1. I welcome you all to this occasion of the
formal presentation of the Hand-over notes
of my Administration to the in-coming
Administration of the President-Elect, General
Muhammadu Buhari.
2. This event and tomorrow’s inauguration of a
new administration are truly historic as it is
the first time in the history of our nation that
we are witnessing the democratic and orderly
transfer of power at the Federal level from
one political party to another.
3. The Hand-over notes which we now present,
contain the governance philosophy,
strategies, policies, programmes and
activities of my Administration for the period
– 2011-2015. Also to be found in the notes
are the objectives, targets and
implementation strategies, achievements and
challenges of our key policies, schemes,
initiatives as well as the status of
commitments and liabilities of the various
MDAs.
4. As we hand over the affairs of the nation, it is
appropriate to recall that at inception, in May
2011, we committed ourselves to
consolidating national unity through
democratization and good governance. Our
assessment then, and our firm belief ever
since, is that the unity of Nigeria, the
security, well-being, greater freedoms and
opportunities for all citizens must remain the
primary objectives of government.
5. The Agenda for National Transformation
which we did our best to implement
consisted of clear and consistent governance
strategies, policies, plans, programmes and
projects, in all facets of our national life.
Emphasis was placed on human and state
security, democratization, sound economic
management, as well as structural and
institutional reforms.
6. Our foremost concern was the unity of
Nigeria.In keeping with that concern, we
engineered a process that began with a
review of issues outstanding from previous
Constitutional Conferences by the Belgore
Committee. After that, we widened political
consultations through a National Dialogue
that was orchestrated through the
Okurounmu Committee. These culminated in
the all-inclusive National Conference which
unanimously reaffirmed that Nigeria must
remain united and indivisible.
7. The Conference also made resolutions and
recommendations for serious constitutional,
political and governance reforms, which we
have forwarded to the National Assembly for
appropriate legislative action. It is our hope
that the incoming Government will accord
the Report of the National Conference the
very high priority that it deserves, as a
genuine expression of the will of our people.
8. The recognition that the starting point for
good governance is the legitimacy of the
government itself informed our commitment
to promoting free and fair elections.
9. It also motivated innovations in the
management and conduct of elections which
we undertook. Hopefully, in the years ahead,
those innovations will be properly and fully
implemented so that Nigerians will be even
more assured of the integrity of the electoral
system and the legitimacy of any government
that it produces.
10. To strengthen the social contract between
the government and the governed, we
institutionalized the rule of law as well as the
independence of the legislature and the
judiciary. We also promoted group and
individual freedoms. As a result, there is vast
expansion in democratic, social and
economic space for all citizens.
11.Our nation and citizens faced many new
challenges over the past four years but the
greatest was the vastly increased menace of Boko
Haram with their mindless terror, mass killings,
utter ruthlessness, kidnapping of innocent children
and other unspeakable acts of brutality.
12. We should all remember that Boko Haram’s
emergence predated our administration
going as far back as 2002. The group
however became extremely malignant with
the killing of its leader, Mohammed Yusuf in
July 2009.
13. It therefore became an urgent task for us to
effectively confront the great threat Boko
Haram posed to the security and well-being
of our people. To do so, we overhauled and
virtually reinvented our security architecture
to confront Boko Haram and its insurgency.
We re-organized our security apparatus. We
re-equipped and fully motivated our forces.
14. Victory is now in sight and within our reach.
However, the cost in blood of citizens and
heroes; and the diversion of national treasure
from urgent needs for development have
been very high. While more than 500 women
and children have been rescued from the
clutches of Boko Haram thus far by our
security forces, it remains my sincere hope
and prayer that our beloved daughters from
Chibok will soon be reunited with us.
15. I wish to thank the Nigerian people for their
resilience and patience. I also wish to pay
very special and personal tribute to all the
men and women of our valiant armed forces
and security agencies. Their sacrifice and
dedication have brought us thus far.
16. While striving to overcome our national
security challenges, we still gave necessary
attention to economic development. Our goal
was to achieve long-term economic growth
and stability, improve the quality and
quantum of infrastructure and enhance
human capital development.
17. Our financial system reforms included the
Treasury Single Account [TSA] that unified
the structure of government accounts for all
MDAs and thereby brought order to cash flow
management; and Government Integrated
Financial Management Information System
[GIFMIS] was introduced to plug leakages
and waste of resources. The Integrated
Payroll and Personnel Information System
[IPPIS] weeded out 60,450 ghost workers in
359 out of 425 MDAs, yielding N185.4 billion
in savings to the Federal government.
18. Improved Revenue Mobilization was
achieved through improvements in the laws
and compliance measures. In 2013 alone,
these measures resulted in a 69% rise in
Federal tax revenues from N2.8 trillion to
N4.8 trillion. Also, Waiver Policy and Trade
Facilitation were reformed to create a more
rational regime. Our emphasis shifted to
granting waivers to specific sectors instead
of individual companies and the Sovereign
Wealth Fund was established to provide
stabilization from external shocks, provide
funding for critical infrastructure and savings
for future generations.
19. Our Financial Sector reforms addressed the
issues of inefficiencies in the coordination
and monitoring of the financial system. Our
policies promoted transparency, better risk
management, new banking models and
payment systems. We established the Assets
Management Corporation of Nigeria as a
resolution mechanism for toxic banking
assets. We strengthened banking supervision
and enhanced public confidence in Nigerian
Banks.
20. Similarly, we undertook innovative reforms
for job creation and repositioned the
manufacturing, agriculture and housing
sectors. Specifically, it was observed that
over the years, job creation did not keep
pace with economic growth. Thus
unemployment, especially amongst the youth
was assuming alarming dimensions.
21. To address this, my administration made job
creation a key consideration for all
programmes in the Transformation Agenda.
Emphasis was also shifted towards
empowering youths to become entrepreneurs
rather than job seekers, through such
initiatives as Youth Enterprise with Innovation
in Nigeria (YOU-WIN), Graduate Internship
Scheme (GIS), the SURE-P Technical
Vocational Education and Training
Programme (TVET) and the Youth
Employment in Agriculture Programme
(YEAP).
22. Manufacturing in Nigeria faces many
challenges, including poor power supply,
high cost of input, high cost of doing
business, multiple taxation, poor
infrastructure and lack of synergy with the
labour market. To address these problems,
we launched several programmes and
initiatives including the National Industrial
Revolution Plan and a new National
Automobile Policy designed to boost
domestic car production and expand existing
capacity. Since then, five new private vehicle
assembly plants have been established.
23. Agriculture is critical to national survival and
yet the sector was besieged with many
problems. By year 2010, Nigeria was the
second largest importer of food in the world,
spending about N 1.3 trillion on the
importation of fish, rice and sugar alone.
24. The reforms we introduced in agriculture
dramatically increased local production of
staple food and saved us vast amounts of
money that we would have spent on the
importation of food items.
25. To address the glaring inadequacy of critical
national infrastructure, we focused on the
Power Sector, Roads, Railways, Aviation,
Ports and Harbours as well as on Water and
Sanitation, Information and Communication
Technology.
26. My government introduced the Power Sector
Roadmap in 2010.Since then, we have
privatized the generation and distribution
aspects in a most transparent process.
Obstacles to the private sector investments
in power supply were removed and we
developed cost effective electricity tariff to
make the sector more attractive. It remains
our hope that the successor companies to
PHCN and also the private sector will step
forward with the necessary investment to
make the power reform work.
27. The major challenge in the road sector in
Nigeria is the high cost of building roads and
it continues to rise. The other challenge is
the fact that because of regular use, roads
are one of the fastest depreciating assets in
developing countries.
28. To address this, Government has developed
the required legal and regulatory framework
and created opportunities for Private Public
Partnership (PPP) in road construction and
maintenance.
29. From Ore/Benin Road, Lagos/Ibadan
Expressway to the Kano/Maiduguri
dualisation projects, we made concerted
efforts to address age-long problems of
delays in construction, design defect, neglect
and ineffective maintenance. The
construction of the historic Second Niger
Bridge has also commenced, and on
completion, it will open new and far-reaching
opportunities for greater trade and interaction
among our people.
30. In the Aviation Sector, our government
developed a Master Plan to institutionalise
safety and security, and to develop
infrastructure at the airports and local
airlines. We embarked on the reconstruction
and rehabilitation of 22 airports nationwide.
Construction work on five new international
terminals in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt,
Kano and Enugu are also on-going.
31. There has been a revolution in rail
transportation. We rehabilitated the old
narrow gauge network and ensured that it
has served our people steadily for three
years running with new coaches and
improved expanded services nationwide.
32. We are in the construction stages of a new
national network for standard gauge speed-
train services, with the new rail line segment,
from Abuja to Kaduna, successfully
completed. In addition, we have initiated the
process for the construction of an
ultramodern coastal rail line that will run
from Lagos to Calabar, with a link to Onitsha.
33. We have also successfully completed the
dredging of River Niger, from Warri in Delta
State to Baro in Niger State, and completed
construction works for the Onitsha River
Port. Other River Ports at Baro, Lokoja and
Oguta, are at advanced construction stages.
Working with the states and development
partners, we have facilitated the process
towards the development of two new deep
sea ports at Lekki in Lagos, and Ibaka in
Akwa Ibom. We have also implemented
reforms to streamline the clearing regime in
existing ports, increasing cargo turnover
time and easing business for all users.
34. In the oil and gas sector, our local content
policy has continued to empower Nigerian
companies, particularly in technical and
engineering projects. The Gas Revolution
Industrial Park in Delta State is
unprecedented in the subsector, and will not
only deliver Africa’s biggest industrial park,
but all the accompanying benefits to local
industry and job creation.
35. We recognized Human Capital as the most
important agent for transformational
development. Our reforms in this sector
focused on Health, Education and Social
Development and also on Women and Youth
Empowerment and Social Safety Nets.
36. In the Health sector, the comprehensive
National Strategic Health Development Plan
(NSHDP) of 2011 laid the foundation for
widening access and improving the quality of
healthcare with lower infant mortality rates
and higher life expectancy for the
populace.Our effective curtailment of the
Ebola epidemic has continued to receive
worldwide acclaim as an example in prompt
and effective national disease management.
On our watch, guinea-worm has been
eradicated from Nigeria and we are on the
verge of wiping out polio entirely.
37. In the Education sector, our objectives are
clear and precise. They emphasise
expansion of access and the upgrade of
quality. I am proud that we have widened
access by establishing 18 more Federal
Universities and other specialized
polytechnics. We strengthened TETFUND and
used it to boldly address the problems of
inadequate infrastructure in the existing
institutions.
38. I am particularly proud of our efforts with
regards to Early Childhood Education and
Out-of-School Children. We provided modern
hybrid Almajiri Education Programme in the
North, attended to schooling needs of boys
in the South-East and ensured the
construction of special girls’ schools in 13
States of the Federation to improve girl-child
education. We expanded opportunities for
open and distance learning and provided
scholarships at all levels to help improve
access to quality education for bright and
promising Nigerians.
39. We have promoted gender-mainstreaming
with commensurate priority and opportunities
for our womenfolk, beginning with ensuring
that not less than 30 per cent of key Federal
appointments go to women. Other initiatives
that we have taken include: the National
Gender Policy, Establishment of Gender Units
in Federal MDAs, Women Empowerment
Training Programmes, Micro-Credit for
Women, Social Safety Net Programmes and
the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Scheme.
40. My Administration has emphasized giving a
free hand to our Anti-corruption agencies
such as the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) and the Independent
Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC). We
preferred that they mature into strong
institutions instead of being the images, the
hammer and the anvil of a strong man. We
must encourage them to abide by the rule of
law and due process instead of resorting to
dramatic or illegal actions orchestrated for
cheap applause.
41. Beyond the very impressive records of
enhanced convictions by statutory anti-
corruption agencies like the EFCC and ICPC,
our other strategy has been to fashion
economic policies that deliver higher
deterrence and frustrate concealment. In this
regard, the Bureau of Public Procurement has
played a central role and impacted strongly
on the fight against corruption.
42. In Sports, we have improved our national
performance in team and individual events.
The disappointment of not qualifying to
defend our African Football Championship
was cushioned by a decent FIFA World Cup
appearance, an Under-17 World Cup win in
addition to other victories in other
international football tournaments and the
Paralympics. We have also encouraged
excellence in other sports, apart from
football, resulting in exceptional performance
in international sporting events, especially in
athletics.
43. Our foreign policy position remains strong.
In October 2013, Nigeria was elected as a
non-permanent member of the United
Nations Security Council for the second time
on our watch. Our country had only served
in that capacity thrice before 2011, since
independence in 1960. Our Administration
also played a leading role in the resolution of
security and political challenges in our sub-
region, particularly in Niger, Cote D’Ivoire,
Mali, Guinea-Bissau and Burkina Faso.
44. In addition, we increased engagement with
Nigerians in the diaspora who contribute so
much in remittances to their fatherland. Our
Administration successfully encouraged more
of them to invest in Nigeria and others to
return home and join in the task of nation-
building.
45. In summary, Your Excellency, distinguished
ladies and gentlemen, our administration has
done its best to intervene robustly and
impact positively on key aspects of our
national life.
46. There is no doubt that challenges still
abound, but they are surmountable and
overwhelming national transformation
remains realisable, with continuity,
commitment and consistency.
47. Nigeria is blessed with citizens that will
always remain faithful, firmly committed to
national unity, accelerated political, social
and economic development.
48. As we hand over the reins of government, I
believe that our nation is secure, our
democracy is stable, and the future is bright.
Let us all work together, and with greater
resolve, continue to build a stronger and
more prosperous nation.
49. May God Almighty continue to bless our
dear country, Nigeria.
50. I thank you all.