President Muhammadu Buhari has appealed to all Nigerians to refrain from promoting divisive tendencies and hatred but promote unity and oneness. In his 2018 democracy day address to Nigerians, on Tuesday, President Buhari said the commemoration of this year’s Democracy Day is “a celebration of freedom, a salute to the resilience and determination of Nigerians and a re-commitment by Government to keep its promise to lead Nigeria into a new era of justice and prosperity”.
The President said in the spirit of the season of celebration of the nation’s 19 years of uninterrupted democratic journey, “let us resolve to avoid hatred and intolerance; we can only achieve our objectives in an atmosphere of harmony and peaceful co-existence”.
He thanked Nigerians for standing by him in the last three years in achieving the three cardinal points of this administration namely; Security, Corruption and the Economy. President Buhari again boasted that “before this administration came into being three years ago, Boko Haram held large areas of land spanning several Local Governments in the North East.
Today, the capacity of the insurgents has been degraded leading to the re-establishment of authority of government and the release of captives including, happily, 106 Chibok and 104 Dapchi girls, and over 16,000 other persons held by the Boko Haram”. Speaking on his administration’s anti-corruption fight, he said “Like I have always said, if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will destroy the country. Three years into this administration, Nigerians and the international community have begun to applaud our policies and determination to fight corruption.
We are more than ever before determined to win this war, however hard the road is. I therefore appeal to all well-meaning Nigerians to continue to support us in this fight”. On the economy, the president has this to say: “This administration has therefore focused on revamping the ailing economy it inherited in 2015. In 2016, government executed an expansionary budget and developed the Strategic Implementation Plan. For the first time, 30% of the budget was earmarked for capital expenditure which represents an upward review when compared with the 2015 budget.
The SIP was followed by the development of a comprehensive medium term plan – the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan 2017 – 2020”. Buhari appealed to Nigerians to conduct themselves with respect and refrain from any act capable of causing violence in the country during the forthcoming general elections in 2019. He said “the up-coming months will usher us into another season of general elections. Let me use this opportunity to urge us all to conduct ourselves, our wards and our constituencies with the utmost sense of fairness, justice and peaceful co-existence such that we will have not only hitch free elections but also a credible and violence free process”.
