President Muhammadu Buhari has called on Labour Unions to allow his
administration concentrate on fixing infrastructure in the country
rather than distracting it, Igbere TV News reports.
The President
made the call on Thursday (today) during a meeting with the leadership
of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) at the State
House, Abuja.
He urged the student leaders to continue to plead
with the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, while assuring them
that he will speak with the lecturers’ body (ASUU) “so that they don’t
encroach on your efforts to qualify in time.”
“In three and a
half years, we have improved tremendously on what we met. We are trying
to do infrastructure. No matter which part of the country you come from,
you will see the efforts we are making in terms of roads; we are trying
to
fix rails, we are trying to do power, through the use of gas and solar.
“If you note what we have done in these three and a half years, you will not regret voting this administration into power.”
Buhari
also stated that Nigeria was doing very well in agriculture “as the
country was about to attain food sufficiency and security.”
He
said that he had explained in details while presenting the 2019 budget
estimates, the earnings and expenditure and therefore expected the elite
to understand the position of the government on certain issues, adding
that it is the responsibility of the government to look after the
employed as well as the unemployed.
He further urged the youths to start preparing themselves to lead the country.
“There
is a tendency for you to think that you can do better than anybody, but
it is very good for you to know the facts that leadership entails,” he
said.
Buhari also assured the Labour leaders that, having been
in positions of leadership at various stages in life, and with the
experience, he means well for Nigerians and indeed, workers, and should
be allowed to fix infrastructure so that more Nigerians could be taken
out of the poverty cycle.
“I am totally loyal to this country.
Whatever I do is in the interest of the ordinary people especially those
who do not have the benefit of being educated like you, and are just
trusting whoever is leading them,” he said.
He expressed
gratitude to the students for appreciating some of the things his
administration has been able to put in place and called on them to
mobilise support for government, as it strives to make Nigeria a better
place.
Responding, the President of NANS, Comrade Danielson
Bamidele Akpan, expressed satisfaction over the efforts of the Buhari
administration, especially in the transformation of the transport sector
as well as the decimation of terrorists in the North-East.
He,
however, requested the government to intervene in the incessant strikes
in the education sector; involve more youths in governance; and look
into the plight of students in different institutions who have been
expelled for ‘political’ reasons.
High point of the (NANS) visit was the presentation of a birthday card to the President to mark his 76th birthday anniversary.
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