FG to PDP: Our achievements are real not propaganda, lies

Tom Okpe, Abuja

Contrary to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)’s opinion that the present administration is running on propaganda and lies, President Muhammadu Buhari has said that his administration had recorded concrete and genuine achievements which are there for all to see.

The President made this assertion at the opening of the two-day Nigeria Governors’ Forum Conference for Media Handlers of States’ Chief Executives’ in Abuja on Monday.

Represented by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, he said, “for our administration, our achievements are there for all to see. We are delivering in the broad areas that formed the plank of our policies: Security, fight against corruption and the economy, which includes the massive provision of infrastructure, ease of doing business and agriculture, just to mention a few”.

Providing facts and figures, the President listed his administration’s achievements in ending subsidy, ensuring the availability of petroleum products; in raising power generation, transmission and distribution, in the massive provision of infrastructure; in tackling insecurity and making a success of the agriculture revolution, among
others.

“Those who accused this administration of ‘propaganda and lies’ in the fuel supply sector, for example, did not tell Nigerians that whereas they paid between 800 billion and N1.3 trillion as ‘subsidy’ yearly in their time without making the products available even at regulated prices, this administration is not paying any subsidy, yet all products are currently available at competitive prices and fuel queues are now history. In their time, they paid subsidy of N3.7 billion daily in 2011; N2.2 billion daily in 2012 and 2013, and N2.5 billion daily in 2014, all for products that were never available.

“Those who accused this government of ‘propaganda and lies’ also said we have not achieved anything in the power sector. Comment is free; facts are sacred, as they say. When this administration assumed office on May 29 2015, available power on the grid totaled 2,690MW, transmission capacity was around 5,000MW and distribution capacity was 4,000MW.

“As at September4, 2017, the available power that can be put on the grid was 6,619MW; the transmission capacity was simulated at 6,700 MW (up from 5,000 MW in 2015) but the distribution capacity was 4,600 MW, which was what was put on the grid. On September 12, 2017, production of power reached an all-time level of 7,001MW,” he said.

”Because of the increased spending in areas of roads, power and housing, the massive debts owed to contractors are being settled so they can recall workers who were laid off and re-open closed work sites. As a matter of fact, during the implementation of the 2016 budget, we paid 103 construction companies executing 192 projects and they, in turn, employed 17,749 people directly and 52,000 people indirectly in works.

”So far this year, N47.169 billion has been paid to 62 contractors working on 149 projects to continue work on roads and bridges and keep people at work. Similar payments are being made to supervising consultants and to contractors in housing and power sectors of the ministry”, he assured.

The President also highlighted the achievements that have been recorded by his Administration in the area of the Economy, wondering whether it is ‘propaganda and lies’ that headline Inflation has now fallen for the eighth consecutive month; that foreign exchange reserves are up to $32 billion, from $24 billion a year ago: that oil
production is at nearly 2 million barrels per day and that Home-grown School Feeding Program now being implemented in 17 States is benefiting more than 3 million public primary school children and more than 30,000 cooks across 20,000 schools.

He said close to 200,000 youths are now benefiting from the N-Power Program, which recruits unemployed graduates to work as teachers, agricultural extension workers, and health extension workers; that the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Program (GEEP), which provides micro-credit to farmers, traders, and artisans, now has in excess of 1 million beneficiaries, with women accounting for 56% of that number, and about $1.8 billion, the capital inflows in the second quarter of 2017 were almost double the $908
million in the first quarter.

”If our achievements are based on ‘propaganda and lies as they claim, why our agricultural revolution is achieving so much success: We have commissioned the 120,000 MT per annum WACOT Rice Mill in Argungu, Kebbi State. We have commissioned the 60,000 MT per annum Edo State Fertilizer Company Limited. What about the commissioning of OLAM’s 750,000 MT per annum Integrated Poultry Facility in Kaduna State? Do you know that 15 moribund Fertilizer Blending Plants have now been revived and in operation across Nigeria, under the
Presidential Fertilizer Initiative, creating 50,000 direct jobs and 70,000 indirect jobs”, he queried.

He said when the Administration assumed office in 2015, Boko Haram was active in at least 10 states, could stroll into Abuja at a time and target their own choosing to cause maximum havoc, in addition to holding territories and collecting taxes.

”Today, Boko Haram has been so degraded that it lacks the capacity to carry out any organized attack, while also increasingly losing the capacity to even attack soft targets. Importantly, Boko Haram no longer holds any territory. The same vigor is being used to address the herdsmen-farmers’ clash, kidnapping for ransom and other crimes”, the
President said.

The President observed that the biggest challenge facing government information managers is how to project the achievements of their principals against the background of worsening cases of disinformation and fake news, adding that “the best way to tackle the problem is to remain focused, refuse to be distracted or intimidated and also use facts and figures to counter the purveyors of disinformation and fake news.”