Buhari’s Tough Decisions Will be in Nigeria’s Interest, Says SGF

The Secretary to the Government of Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustafa, says the tough decisions President Muhammadu Buhari will take during his second term, will be in the interest of Nigeria.

Mustafa, made this known in an interview with newsmen in Yola on Monday, allaying fears expressed in some quarters following a statement by the president that his second term would be tough.

Buhari won a second term of office when he defeated his main opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the rescheduled Feb. 23 presidential election.

He described the president as a good man, who had the trust of ordinary Nigerians and would like to see improvement in their lives, while the nation moved to the next level.

“When we came to power in 2015 about 27 states couldn’t pay salaries; we had to take tough decisions like giving them bailout and Paris Club refund.

“These are tough decisions,” Mustafa said.

He also identified the ban on rice and fertilizer importation as one of the tough decisions taken by the government and which yielded positive results by boosting local production, among other things.

“By such tough decisions we are able to raise the number of rice farmers from 4 million to 12 million and we are about 98 per cent self-sufficient in rice.

“Due to the establishment of many fertilizer blending plants after we banned the importation of fertilizer, the product is now available and the prize is going down,” Mustafa added.

The SGF explained that anti-graft institutions such as Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission as well as the Code of Conduct Bureau were being strengthened to tackle corruption.

He said that eith the strengthening of such institutions, corruption would be nipped in the bud.

“It’s better to prevent it (corruption) instead of spending a lot of money prosecuting corruption cases,” Mustafa said. (NAN)