•Tinubu
President Bola Armed Tinubu has said he is desirous of making Nigerians happy by providing good and responsive governance.
He, therefore, pleaded with the people to give him the benefit of the doubt by availing his administration the needed support.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony of Senior Executive Course (SEC) 45 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, near Jos, the president said he was not unaware of the current situation in the country, stressing, however, that his administration was on course in getting Nigeria on the right path to recovery.
Tinubu, who was represented by the Minister of Transport, Saidu Alkali, said as a responsible and responsive government, it was his burning desire to provide good governance at all levels as encapsulated in his renewed hope agenda.
He told the graduates that part of their training was to assist the government in fashioning out programmes that would help in putting the country on the path of steady growth and development
He said: “I, therefore, wish to remind the national institute that so much has gone into training. These include confidence, finance, and effort from the faculty and yourselves. Do not let the nation down as much as expected from you as you return to serve the nation through your various offices.”
While congratulating them, the president told them to put into effective use whatever they had learnt in their various places of work. He also expressed gratitude to them for producing excellent and workable recommendations.
“The government buys into our mission towards a better society as it’s ever willing or ready to support you in achieving it for our nations and people.”
The president also congratulated the institute for the consistency and acknowledge it strives towards achieving the other aspect of its mandate, which is the generation of ideas, new techniques, skills, policies, or new directions to guide policymaking at the highest level, especially in a period of heightened global threat, regional instability, and subsystem national challenges.
He said: “I use this special moment to urge you to continue in this trend, as our government is ready to give you all the necessary support to achieve on your mandate.
“I applaud you for your efforts at engaging the best brands to provide workable solutions to critical national issues, which have been useful in resolving several national issues. Even in the face of limited resources.”
Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Chris Musa, who was the special guest, said the military was more poised than ever to make valid contributions to national development through strategic security.
He said though Nigeria was going through several challenges, they were not insurmountable.
“Based on my own experience, I have realised that our challenges are man-made, most times you see developed economies suffering from natural disasters; either hurricane or flood or whatever.
“But for ours (Nigeria), God has blessed us that we are immune or protected from such kind of challenges, but then we have the human challenges and I’m sure if as human and we decide to say today, this things will be over, I’m sure, God on our side, we will achieve that, so we should look forward to doing that.
“Security forces are doing wonderfully well, most times l look at them as magicians, because if you compare yourselves to other countries and what you have and what you are achieving, it is just a miracle. So, we will continue to do and we will continue to fine tune.
“There are lapses, no doubt about that, but I’m sure people are determined, whether the military, the police, the immigration, cvil defence, everybody is trying to put in the best that we can.
“But, again, if you look at it, what does it fall upon, good leadership. We must have good leaders and leaders that love Nigeria. Two weeks ago, I just returned from Russia, I was there for sometime and I stopped over there at Doha, Qatar and I wept, it took them 15 years from desert to get what they have today, 15 years.
“And I said to myself, why? The only thing they have is natural gas with a population of 500,000, but they’ve been able to move themselves from Third World to First World and I asked myself why not us and we have everything that we need to achieve that.
“But, somehow, we are not there, I’m sure, we will get there if we are determined and we are focused. Unity of purpose is basic and most important. We must take ownership of Nigeria. We should not expect somebody else will come and fix Nigeria for us, nobody will.
“Now we have the issue of JAPA, everybody wants to leave and I tell them that, if everybody in those countries had left, would they have fixed their countries. You don’t expect anybody to come and fix your country. You must stay and fix it yourselves.
“The incident in Kaduna is very unfortunate. I only want to mention it. It is very sad, is something that shouldn’t have taken place, but it is a mistake and it was because those in charge heard a report that something was going to happen and at that instance, they got carried away and reacted.
It wasn’t on purpose. But, you see if you listen to the news, my fear is, when we discourage our troops, next time, even when the original, the real one comes, they would not want to act because they will say if we do and it is a mistake we won’t do anything.”
While urging Nigerians to be passionate in dissecting the issues, the CDS said: “I think we should try and look at this dispassionately when things or incidences occur.
“Nobody in his right mind will wake up and look at people and just bomb them for no reason. We are all Nigerians. We are meant to protect Nigerians and that is is what we are doing and in the course of it, we might make mistakes, because we are humans. It will never be deliberate. So, I appeal to all of us, to firstly always pray for Nigeria, pray for our leaders, stand strong, believe that this country is a great and wonderful country that we have. We must not let it down,” he said.
