It’s a time of challenges and tough choices –Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that Nigeria is at a period of monumental challenges, and that tough choices need to be made, even though he noted that the country is also at a time of what he described as incredible opportunities for achieving competitiveness.
He said, “We are at a time of monumental challenges and tough choices, but also a time of incredible opportunities for achieving competitiveness, inclusive growth and sustainability”.
Speaking at the 21st Nigerian Economic Summit Group, NESG, tagged Tough Choices: Achieving Competitiveness, Inclusive Growth and Sustainability, President Muhammadu Buhari, who was represented by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, also said that the greatest priority of his administration now is to bail out poor Nigerians from abject poverty by providing social protection that would lift their standard of living.
Buhari, said that he was called upon to clean up the mess and rebuild the institutions that corruption had ravaged over the years.
“We, as a government, are called upon to make tough choices in exchange control restrictions, altering the absurd recurrent to capital expenditure ratio, reducing the deficit and reducing the overall size of governance. We are called upon to clean up the mess and rebuild the institutions that corruption has ravaged over the years,” the president said.
The Federal Government also said that it will strive to reform the judiciary and education system to fight corruption and curtail impunity in the system as there would be no mercy for looters of the economy, just as it justified the reason for granting financial bailout to states.
He lamented, that millions of people die on a daily basis as a result of abject poverty, and that they are completely alienated from the economy.

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“So, we need social intervention to improve the lives of these people. This improvement will come from education, health, feeding, among others”, he said.
He continued, “To effectively compete for international and local investments, we need to improve our position on economic indices.
“This calls for huge investment in infrastructure to power the economy. But as we take the tough macro and micro decisions, we are compelled to redress the increase in high rate of poverty and inequality, rising unemployment and insecurity.
“It requires rethinking of the citizens. This is why our economic model will involve substantial social safety investments over the next few years”, he said.

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