President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday appealed to the militants vandalising oil installations in the Niger Delta to come to the negotiation table in order to end their arms campaign in the oil-rich Niger Delta according to the Punch.
Buhari said this would afford both the government and the militants the opportunity to decide how the nation’s resources could be managed instead of agitators picking up arms against their fatherland.
Regretting that the problems he identified during the campaigns that preceded the 2015 presidential election, which he won, still lingered even with him in the saddle for almost 18 months, the President appealed to Nigerians to be patient with his government.
Buhari spoke when residents of the Federal Capital Territory, led by the Minister, Muhammad Bello, paid him a Christmas visit at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The President said Nigeria and its citizens were uppermost in his mind, stating that he would continue to do all within his powers to improve their living conditions.
He said, “I want you to talk to people to be patient with the government. We are always thinking about our country and we are thinking about our people.
“I assure you that the country and the people of the country are always uppermost in our minds. With our performance in the North-East, Nigerians know that this government is serious.
“For our friends in the Niger Delta area, we will persuade them that they should please sit down with us and agree to manage our resources rather than think of fighting it out.”
While saying that the problems he identified during campaigns were still the nation’s fundamental problems, Buhari specifically identified power and lack of infrastructure as major challenges.
He regretted that during the oil boom, the nation’s handlers at that time failed to save for a rainy day. He noted that while proceeds from agriculture were used to develop oil, he lamented that agriculture was discarded immediately oil started yielding resources for the country.
The President promised that his administration would concentrate on infrastructure development, saying jobs would be created through the process.
