President Buhari says that the judiciary is his main headache in his
ongoing fight against corruption in Nigeria. According to a statement
released by the special adviser to Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi
Adesina, Buhari said this while speaking with
Nigerians living in Ethiopia during his visit to the country over the
weekend.
"On the fight against corruption vis-à-vis the judiciary, Nigerians will
be right to say that is my main headache for now. If you reflect on
what I went through for twelve years when I wanted to be the President, I
attempted three times and on the fourth attempt through God and the use
of technology, it was possible for Nigerians to elect an APC candidate
as President. In my first attempt in 2003, I ended up at the Supreme
Court and for 13 months I was in court. The second attempt in 2007, I
was in court close to 20 months and in 2011, my third attempt, I was
also in court for nine months. All these cases went up to the Supreme
Court until the fourth time in 2015, when God agreed that I will be
President of Nigeria,’’ Buhari said.
He assured members of the Nigerian community that with the support of
the Chief Justice of Nigeria, he will continue to do his best to improve
the nation’s judicial administration system.
On urban development and infrastructure, Buhari announced that the
Federal Government has ordered a review of several railway transport
projects signed by the previous administration with the Chinese
government.
"The Chinese government was very generous to Nigeria on the projects
signed with the previous government because they agreed to pay 85 per
cent of the project. But the Nigerian government was unable to meet up
with its counterpart funding of 15 per cent, so the Chinese government
was unable to make any impact on the project,’’ he said.
The President said he has directed the Ministers of transportation,
finance, power, works and housing, to revisit the agreements and explore
ways of re-approaching the Chinese government for assistance. He added
that the Chinese government had indicated interest to assist Nigeria on
project financing through its Export-Import Bank
Commenting on the proposed N6.077 trillion 2016 budget submitted to the
National Assembly, Buhari said for the first time in Nigeria, the budget
will be largely financed from non-oil revenue. He identified the
collapse of the international oil market and oil theft in the Niger
Delta as main reasons for projecting more revenues to fund the budget
from the non-oil sector.
"The theft of the oil market by some Nigerians that happen to live there
who feel that the oil belongs to them and not the country is an
irritating thing for those of us who participated in the civil war for
30 months in which at least 2 million Nigerians were killed,’’ he said.
He also said that the proposed budget would focus on increasing
efficiency and transparency in government operations and the blocking of
leakages from revenue generating agencies. He added that the recovered
assets of the country would also be used to reduce the budget deficit.
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