From LAYI OLANREWAJU,Ilorin
Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed yesterday said that President Muhammadu Buhari has kept Nigeria afloat amidst myriad of challenges buffeting the country.
Alhaji Mohammed added that President Buhari has also set the country on a trajectory of growth and development.
The minister said that naysayers, sponsored attackers and desperate opposition politicians are out to run down the president’s unprecedented achievements.
The minister told journalists in Ilorin, Kwara state capital in commemoration of President Buhari’s 79th birthday anniversary.
According to him: “President Buhari is a steady hand in troubled times, and that explains why, presiding over the affairs of the country at a most turbulent period, he has managed to keep the nation afloat, and even set it on a trajectory of growth and development.
“Despite a myriad of security challenges, and amidst dwindling national earnings and a crippling global pandemic, he has racked up a number of achievements, most of them unprecedented.
“Like I said recently, his achievements may not seem too obvious now, especially with naysayers, sponsored attackers and desperate opposition politicians unrelenting in their craft, but posterity will surely be kind to this man, whose life has meant service to his fatherland, a man who goes to bed at night and wakes up in the morning thinking Nigeria.
“He fought a war to keep Nigeria together, and that explains his passion for the country’s unity.
“It is said that everything happens for a reason. That Buhari is in charge of Nigeria at this time is not mere happenstance. His years in the military that saw him reaching the peak of his career; his various positions within and outside the military, his global exposure, his unmatched demeanor and, above all, his wisdom have all helped to stabilize Nigeria at the most difficult of times.”
Reeling out the administration’s achievements, Mohammed said that the Buhari’s administration had “leapfrogged Nigeria to the modern rail era; set the nation on the path of unprecedented infrastructural development; built the Second Niger Bridge that his predecessors only built on paper; gave Nigeria its first modern airport terminals in decades; provided social safety net for the poor and introduced school feeding system that has helped push up school enrollment.
Others according to the ministrler include Institutionalization of measures to fight corruption through the strict implementation of TSA and the introduction of the Whistle blower policy, among others.
He added that the administration had “restored our country’s respect and dignity in the comity of natioms, as you can see in the recent quick reversals of flight bans by the UK and Canada and the quick decision by the UAE to reverse itself on the number of slots given to a Nigerian airline; upgraded military hardwares for our armed services and restored the respect of our gallant military.
“I believe God has a reason for keeping him alive when many had written him off as dead.”