President Muhammadu Buhari said Thursday that his administration is determined to leave a better Nigeria for future generations.
The president said this at the closing ceremony of the Presidential Policy Dialogue Session held at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
“From the presentations, discussions and exchanges, I could clearly see the patriotism and commitment you all have for this country. This gives me hope that we will surely leave a better Nigeria for future generations to come,” he said.
The president said several case studies were presented on how different countries successfully addressed various issues confronting them.
“listened carefully and attentively throughout all the presentations and the subsequent exchanges in the question and answer sessions. What was very obvious is that the journey for each country was different.
“A good example is on infrastructure development. The path adopted by Ethiopia is from my understanding, the complete opposite of Brazil. This is also the same when it comes to agriculture, where Brazil adopted large scale mechanised agriculture while Ethiopia took the out grower and contract farming model.
“The same can be said when you compare the oil and gas policies of Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States as shown in one of the presentations. Like my brother, the former Prime Minister of Ethiopia mentioned, the only right answer is the one that is tailored to your specific needs,’’ he said.
He said in assessing Nigeria with other countries, laws, regulations, geography, culture, history and many other factors must be taken into account.
“Some of you may remember me saying some years back that what we need are “made in Nigeria solutions for our uniquely Nigerian problems,” he said.
The president said already, the country had partnered with the Kingdom of Morocco on agricultural to revive dozens of abandoned fertiliser blending plants.
He said the federal government had also introduced the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme that provided cheap credit to small scale farmers to buy the right inputs that would lead to enhanced yields.
The president said the present administration had successfully developed a food security programme that provided capital to large scale food processors to enable them to off-take the grains produced by these farmers.
He said the government also introduced policies that restrict imports to support the consumption of locally produced food items.
“Through these interventions, we were able to systematically address some of the value chain issues confronting agriculture. This led to significant job creation in the rural economy and savings in our foreign reserves. They also led to a lowering of food prices,’’ he said.
On infrastructure development, the president said his administration had invested in strategic projects across the country such as the Second Niger Bridge, Lagos Ibadan Express Way and the Abuja – Kaduna – Kano highway.
“On infrastructure development, we decided to build the roads ourselves for now. As a nation, the limited experience we have on road concessions have not been very positive. But that said, we will continue to explore,’’ he said.
On the key proposals made by the experts at the policy retreat for the federal government to consider over the next four years, the president assured that the incoming Federal Executive Council (FEC) would deliberate and implement the relevant strategic initiatives.
