On Thursday, five Nigerian ministers participated in the inaugural town hall meeting tagged ‘Buharimeter,’ organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in Abuja. The meeting was conceptualised to provide a methodical and systematic assessment and evidence-based report on the performance of Buhari’s administration against its electoral promises. The programme began at 10:00am and was attended by five ministers of the federation, the Minister of Power, Works, and Housing, Babatunde Fashola; Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh; Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed; Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma and the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed.
According to Idayat Hassan, a director at the CDD, this event will give the government an opportunity to report back to its constituents and give the citizenry an opportunity to engage directly with government on crucial national issues. She also stated that this interaction is critical to strengthening democratic accountability in Nigeria.
Here is what happened at the event:
The event started at about 10:00am and as at that time there were only four ministers seated excluding the Minister of Agriculture who later joined in. Each minister was asked to give a brief presentation of their promises and achievements, followed by resources persons analyzing their presentations, followed by questions from the audience. Here is what the Ministers had to say:
Lai Mohammed- Minister of Information
Lai Mohammed was the first to speak among the ministers. He spoke about insecurity, corruption and the economy. During his presentation, he made a comment which made everyone laugh by saying that his only “sin” was speaking too much before the election.
“Long before the first year anniversary we had embarked on our own town hall meeting to give the citizens feedbacks on our achievements. The first one was held in Lagos.”
“Any meaningful assessment must be situated within the right context.”
On APC campaign promises
“We campaigned on three broad areas, corruption, revamp the economy and security. Have we met our targets? If you ask me, I will say we are on track.”
It’s this government that brought the country to light when government pumped a lot of money into power.
On insecurity
“The most daunting security challenge we faced when we came in was the Boko Haram challenge. Today it has reduced and it is not by accident.” He also listed the president’s strategy in scaling back Boko Haram attacks which included relocation of the command office to Maiduguri.
On corruption
Lai Mohammed said it was corruption that prolonged the war against Boko Haram. It was corruption that gave Nigerians darkness instead of light, despite sinking millions of dollars into the sector. The money recovered so far is a tip of the iceberg.
“Funds that would have found their way into private pockets are now accruing to government courtesy of the TSA.”
On the economy
He further stated that this administration neither lacks the political will or discipline to fulfill its electoral promises. He remarked that in the coming weeks the conditional cash transfer will commence for programmes, which include the free meal and vocational training.
Udo Udoma – Minister for Budget and National Planning
He said last year’s election was fought against a difficult economic trend, and that significant decline in revenue began in 2014.
“In recent weeks we’ve had a lot of oil installations distractions.”
On corruption
“Even if we stop all corruption in Nigeria, we will not solve our economic problems.”
“He says solving the economic problem is a difficult challenge.”
On the budget
“The 2016 budget was crafted as an expansionary budget, moving the capital budget from N500 billion last year to N1.8 trillion.”
“It was clear to us that one of the main things you need is to create an enabling infrastructure for the private sector.”
“How do we do that? Anticorruption campaign has helped us, so also has the TSA as the Minister mentioned.”
“How do we expand revenues? And diversify the economy?”
On the plan of this administration
“We came out with a citizen’s guide for the 2016 budget. It’s on our website and it explains all these things I’m talking about.”
“We listed 34 key actions and we are on the way of achieving a number of them.”
“We want to ensure that we narrow the gap between the parallel market and the official and the CBN is looking at that.”
“There is a big scheme going on in Kebbi state and we are giving out interest rates at nine percent to farmers.”
“We are also looking at solid minerals. The Minister has already launched a road map to plug leakages in that sector. We want to diversify into solid minerals, agriculture, and manufacturing.”
“Our main thrust is that government alone cannot turn this economy around, but it must be able to provide an enabling environment.”
Audu Ogbeh – Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development
On successes so far
“Kebbi is now the single largest producer of rice in the country.”
“350,000 tons of wheat was harvested in Kano and Jigawa.”
“Nigeria is now number three in cashew production and we want to move to the number one position.”
On the high cost of food stuff
“The high cost of food stuff is because over the past 30 years we migrated completely from a culture of food production to food importation.”
“We will launch our road map next week. The summary is that we hope to achieve self-sufficiency in the production of rice, wheat, soya beans, maize, and millet.”
“The federal government has no land and has no farm. The Minister only designs policies and seeks the support of the states and local governments.”
On Fulani herdsmen
“We want to end the herdsmen clashes.”
“States have donated lands for ranches.”
On loans to Farmers:
Our target is to lend to farmers at five per cent interest. No country planning for meaningful agriculture lends to farmers at 18 percent.
I want to appeal to the young people to think of what to do in the agricultural sector. Years ago I went back to my village to go into farming. Today, I’m a cashew farmer with 14,000 trees in the village.”
Amina Mohammed – Minister of Environment
It is important to plan well with the abundant human resources.
On Budget for the Ministry of Environment
“The budget is insufficient for the protection of the environment, so we have to look outwards.”
On progress
“We signed into law the 2016 environmental regulations that give power to states to enforce them.”
“Last week, we launched the Ogoni clean-up. It was something that had been on the table for years and one promise we had brought to fruition.”
“On erosion partnership with the World Bank, we have increased the number of states benefitting from six to 17.”
“We went across Nigeria in 8 days to see the huge ecological challenges in the country”
“People also need to their part. People need to contextualize issues. Rome was not built in a day.”
Babatunde Raji Fashola – Minister of Power, Works, and Housing
“I am not overwhelmed with the magnitude of the work in the ministries. I am just taking time to understand my team.”
On progress
“We are also working towards the standardization of meters around Nigeria.”
“We asked the DISCOs to submit information to us. We have also introduced ranking to make room for competition among DISCOs.”
“We are working on transmission lines around the country. We have five year plan to increase transmission for five years.”
“We are working on a laboratory environment to come up with designs that can suit the populace.”
On Ajaokuta steel
“The Ajaokuta steel plant is caught up in legal entanglements and there is little the government can do for now.”
On power
“Yes, there is no power. But it does not mean there is no capacity to produce power. In February, we were able to meet 5,000 megawatts.
On Vandalism
“I don’t know any country that wants to have electricity that destroys its electricity infrastructure.”
“People have even begun to remove bolts and nuts from tracks that had been laid for rail.”
He says there is a strategy going forward.
“There will be a time when we cannot rely on gas solely.”
