By Teryima Andrew
Nigerians living in the United Kingdom have pledge their support for President Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration to re-contest his office.
“We welcome the good news president Buhari has decided to seek re election in 2019. Nigerians in the UK are excited that the president is visiting us. We support the president and the Vice President in their efforts to make Nigeria greater. They have been doing a good work despite various challenges and obstacles.”
Chairman, Buhari Diaspora Support Organisation, Charles Sylvester, in a statement Saturday send to Journalists in Nigeria, via e-mail, the group said the President’s achievements in the last three years are enough to earn him a second term in office.
Mr. Sylvester, who is also the Coordinator, Association of Nigerian Entrepreneur, UK, said that having degraded the capacity of Boko Haram to operate freely, the release of the Dapchi girls and massive investment in agriculture, Buhari has demonstrated enough faith in the Nigerian project and so deserved continuity.
The Diaspora Nigerians condemned what they described as plans of corrupt politicians and the opposition to try and embarrass the president during his visit to the UK and categorically state that they do not represent the views of majority of Nigerians in the UK who are supporting the PMB administration to make Nigeria greater.
My Sylvester listed some of the achievements as investments in agriculture through the Anchors Borrowers Programme to improve local produce, improving fertilizer distribution and access across states through the presidential fertilizer initiative, reduction in rice imports as a result of government’s policies that have encouraged massive rice production across Nigeria.
According to him, in less than three years the country has achieved foreign exchange stability and increasing external reserves to $46 billion, which has surpassed the ERGPs target of $30.56 billion despite global low oil prices and production challenges.
“The introduction of the One Primary Health Centre per ward programme of the Federal Government.
“Effective implementation of the Treasury Single Account and increasing government revenue by over N3 trillion as well as entrenching transparency and accountability.
“The establishment of MSMEs Clinics, a small Business support programme to support entrepreneurs and small businesses in different states.
“Reforms by the Federal Government to inspire start-ups to cut unemployment saw Nigeria rise 24 places on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking, earning the country a place on the List of Top 10 Reformers in the world.
“Social Investment Programmes (SIP) through N-Power Volunteer Scheme creating jobs for over 200,000 (and still counting) unemployed graduates in all the 36 states and the FCT,
Government Enterprise and Empowerment (GEEP) Scheme; commenced in November 2016 in collaboration with the Bank of Industry, where soft loans ranging from N10, 000 to N100, 000 have been given to over 189,000 market women and traders across different states,
Home Grown School Feeding Programme, where almost three million schoolchildren have been fed, while tens of thousands of cooks have been engaged in their respective states,
Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme, under which about 25,000 less privileged Nigerians so far are now being funded with the monthly N5,000 stipend in 9 pilot States (Bauchi, Borno, Cross Rivers, Ekiti, Kwara, Kogi, Niger, Osun and Oyo). More beneficiaries are expected to be added in more states.
“The Nigeria Customs Service recorded its highest revenue collection, crossing the One Trillion Naira (N1, 000,000,000, 000) mark;* the target for 2017 was 770 billion Naira (N770,573,730,490) and 2016 collection was just under 900 billion (N898,673,857,431.07).
