President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, assured Nigerians that he has no intention to stay in office a day longer than expected.
President Buhari said this in an interview he granted to the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).
He also promised to abide by the constitution and the oath he took when he was being sworn into office, and expressed his utmost desire to hand over a more prosperous country to his successor in 2023.
Speaking on the nation’s economy, Buhari expressed displeasure with its performance, saying its low performance had been of concern to him. He also assured Nigerians that his administration was doing everything possible to improve Nigeria’s economy.
To revive the economy, the president said plans have been put in place to attract investors worldwide, by reaching out to the international community and allowing their multinational firms to come to Nigeria and establish their presence, hence creating employment to as many Nigerians as possible, which in turn can boost the nation’s economy
The President further said his administration “is poised to diversify the economy from reliance on oil and gas.”
Speaking on corruption, President Buhari said the need to establish special courts in the country has become paramount, especially to try several corruption cases currently stuck in conventional courts.
“You have instances of cases lasting for as long as 10 years before they are determined and, in some cases, judges handling the cases may die. But if there are special courts, there will be a time frame to conclude the corruption cases and not dragging on unnecessarily,” he said.
Furthermore, the President reiterated his warning to those engaged in violent and criminal acts in different parts of the country, saying his administration would not sit back and watch the nation destroyed by anarchists.
He added that his administration will continue to seriously frown at those bent on perpetrating confusion in the land. The president also justifies his hard stance against those causing crisis across the country, explaining that no passionate government would watch the nation it is governing crumble right before him.
On what he meant that his administration would speak to criminals in the language they understand, he referred to recent incidents in different parts of the country, including recent activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), banditry, kidnapping and terrorism, as well as the trails of the #ENDSARS protest as some of the examples of activities targeted at leading the country into chaos.
Buhari said “how can you go to a police station, kill the policemen that are there, loot the armour and burn the place? What do you want to achieve? Then how can government sit aside and allow this confusion to be perpetrated? All they want is confusion and no government can allow confusion.
“Look at the #ENDSARS incident in Lagos. The previous governor of Lagos bought 200 buses to complement transportation in Lagos and he built a complex for the railway, but they went and burnt them.
“What I hope to do is to arrest them, try them, give them very bad publicity and jail them so that people will know that, if they misbehave, they will not get away with it.
The president further disagrees with those accusing him of double standards in dealing with criminalities in different parts of the country. He said they are being unfair to him, and that those who make such allegations probably had not bothered to find out what has been done in states affected by banditry.
“They are being unfair, they should go and ask the governors of Sokoto, Zamfara and Katsina, and they will find out how we have been deploying the police and the military to deal with the bandits’’. He spoke
We are not sparing anybody. But Nigeria is vast and there are a lot of forests.”
He also spoke on assets of elected officials across the country, saying ” they would be embarrassed if an investigation is launched to uncover the sources of their current assets.”
