REMARKS BY
HIS EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT GOODLUCK EBELE
JONATHAN, GCFR,
ON THE OCCASION OF THE PRESENTATION OF HAND
OVER NOTES
TO THE PRESIDENT-ELECT,
MUHAMMADU BUHARI, GCFR
THURSDAY, 28 MAY, 2015
PROTOCOLS
1. I welcome you all to this occasion of the formal
presentation of the Hand-over notes of my
Administration to the in-coming Administration of the
President-Elect, General Muhammadu Buhari.
2. This event and tomorrow’s inauguration of a new
administration are truly historic as it is the first time in
the history of our nation that we are witnessing the
democratic and orderly transfer of power at the Federal
level from one political party to another.
3. The Hand-over notes which we now present, contain the
governance philosophy, strategies, policies,
programmes and activities of my Administration for the
period – 2011-2015. Also to be found in the notes are
the objectives, targets and implementation strategies,
achievements and challenges of our key policies,
schemes, initiatives as well as the status of
commitments and liabilities of the various MDAs.
4. As we hand over the affairs of the nation, it is
appropriate to recall that at inception, in May 2011, we
committed ourselves to consolidating national unity
through democratization and good governance. Our
assessment then, and our firm belief ever since, is that
the unity of Nigeria, the security, well-being, greater
freedoms and opportunities for all citizens must remain
the primary objectives of government.
5. The Agenda for National Transformation which we did
our best to implement consisted of clear and consistent
governance strategies, policies, plans, programmes and
projects, in all facets of our national life. Emphasis was
placed on human and state security, democratization,
sound economic management, as well as structural and
institutional reforms.
6. Our foremost concern was the unity of Nigeria.In
keeping with that concern, we engineered a process that
began with a review of issues outstanding from
previous Constitutional Conferences by the Belgore
Committee. After that, we widened political
consultations through a National Dialogue that was
orchestrated through the Okurounmu Committee. These
culminated in the all-inclusive National Conference
which unanimously reaffirmed that Nigeria must remain
united and indivisible.
7. The Conference also made resolutions and
recommendations for serious constitutional, political
and governance reforms, which we have forwarded to
the National Assembly for appropriate legislative action.
It is our hope that the incoming Government will accord
the Report of the National Conference the very high
priority that it deserves, as a genuine expression of the
will of our people.
8. The recognition that the starting point for good
governance is the legitimacy of the government itself
informed our commitment to promoting free and fair
elections.
9. It also motivated innovations in the management and
conduct of elections which we undertook. Hopefully, in
the years ahead, those innovations will be properly and
fully implemented so that Nigerians will be even more
assured of the integrity of the electoral system and the
legitimacy of any government that it produces.
10. To strengthen the social contract between the
government and the governed, we institutionalized the
rule of law as well as the independence of the legislature
and the judiciary. We also promoted group and
individual freedoms. As a result, there is vast expansion
in democratic, social and economic space for all
citizens.
11.Our nation and citizens faced many new challenges over
the past four years but the greatest was the vastly
increased menace of Boko Haram with their mindless
terror, mass killings, utter ruthlessness, kidnapping of
innocent children and other unspeakable acts of brutality.
12. We should all remember that Boko Haram’s
emergence predated our administration going as far
back as 2002. The group however became extremely
malignant with the killing of its leader, Mohammed
Yusuf in July 2009.
13. It therefore became an urgent task for us to effectively
confront the great threat Boko Haram posed to the
security and well-being of our people. To do so, we
overhauled and virtually reinvented our security
architecture to confront Boko Haram and its insurgency.
We re-organized our security apparatus. We re-
equipped and fully motivated our forces.
14. Victory is now in sight and within our reach. However,
the cost in blood of citizens and heroes; and the
diversion of national treasure from urgent needs for
development have been very high. While more than 500
women and children have been rescued from the
clutches of Boko Haram thus far by our security forces,
it remains my sincere hope and prayer that our beloved
daughters from Chibok will soon be reunited with us.
15. I wish to thank the Nigerian people for their resilience
and patience. I also wish to pay very special and
personal tribute to all the men and women of our valiant
armed forces and security agencies. Their sacrifice and
dedication have brought us thus far.
16. While striving to overcome our national security
challenges, we still gave necessary attention to
economic development. Our goal was to achieve long-
term economic growth and stability, improve the quality
and quantum of infrastructure and enhance human
capital development.
17. Our financial system reforms included the Treasury
Single Account [TSA] that unified the structure of
government accounts for all MDAs and thereby brought
order to cash flow management; and Government
Integrated Financial Management Information System
[GIFMIS] was introduced to plug leakages and waste of
resources. The Integrated Payroll and Personnel
Information System [IPPIS] weeded out 60,450 ghost
workers in 359 out of 425 MDAs, yielding N185.4 billion
in savings to the Federal government.
18. Improved Revenue Mobilization was achieved through
improvements in the laws and compliance measures. In
2013 alone, these measures resulted in a 69% rise in
Federal tax revenues from N2.8 trillion to N4.8 trillion.
Also, Waiver Policy and Trade Facilitation were
reformed to create a more rational regime. Our
emphasis shifted to granting waivers to specific sectors
instead of individual companies and the Sovereign
Wealth Fund was established to provide stabilization
from external shocks, provide funding for critical
infrastructure and savings for future generations.
19. Our Financial Sector reforms addressed the issues of
inefficiencies in the coordination and monitoring of the
financial system. Our policies promoted transparency,
better risk management, new banking models and
payment systems. We established the Assets
Management Corporation of Nigeria as a resolution
mechanism for toxic banking assets. We strengthened
banking supervision and enhanced public confidence in
Nigerian Banks.
20. Similarly, we undertook innovative reforms for job
creation and repositioned the manufacturing, agriculture
and housing sectors. Specifically, it was observed that
over the years, job creation did not keep pace with
economic growth. Thus unemployment, especially
amongst the youth was assuming alarming dimensions.
21. To address this, my administration made job creation
a key consideration for all programmes in the
Transformation Agenda. Emphasis was also shifted
towards empowering youths to become entrepreneurs
rather than job seekers, through such initiatives as
Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YOU-WIN),
Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), the SURE-P
Technical Vocational Education and Training
Programme (TVET) and the Youth Employment in
Agriculture Programme (YEAP).
22. Manufacturing in Nigeria faces many challenges,
including poor power supply, high cost of input, high
cost of doing business, multiple taxation, poor
infrastructure and lack of synergy with the labour
market. To address these problems, we launched
several programmes and initiatives including the
National Industrial Revolution Plan and a new National
Automobile Policy designed to boost domestic car
production and expand existing capacity. Since then,
five new private vehicle assembly plants have been
established.
23. Agriculture is critical to national survival and yet the
sector was besieged with many problems. By year 2010,
Nigeria was the second largest importer of food in the
world, spending about N 1.3 trillion on the importation of
fish, rice and sugar alone.
24. The reforms we introduced in agriculture dramatically
increased local production of staple food and saved us
vast amounts of money that we would have spent on
the importation of food items.
25. To address the glaring inadequacy of critical national
infrastructure, we focused on the Power Sector, Roads,
Railways, Aviation, Ports and Harbours as well as on
Water and Sanitation, Information and Communication
Technology.
26. My government introduced the Power Sector Roadmap
in 2010.Since then, we have privatized the generation
and distribution aspects in a most transparent process.
Obstacles to the private sector investments in power
supply were removed and we developed cost effective
electricity tariff to make the sector more attractive. It
remains our hope that the successor companies to
PHCN and also the private sector will step forward with
the necessary investment to make the power reform
work.
27. The major challenge in the road sector in Nigeria is the
high cost of building roads and it continues to rise. The
other challenge is the fact that because of regular use,
roads are one of the fastest depreciating assets in
developing countries.
28. To address this, Government has developed the
required legal and regulatory framework and created
opportunities for Private Public Partnership (PPP) in
road construction and maintenance.
29. From Ore/Benin Road, Lagos/Ibadan Expressway to the
Kano/Maiduguri dualisation projects, we made
concerted efforts to address age-long problems of
delays in construction, design defect, neglect and
ineffective maintenance. The construction of the historic
Second Niger Bridge has also commenced, and on
completion, it will open new and far-reaching
opportunities for greater trade and interaction among
our people.
30. In the Aviation Sector, our government developed a
Master Plan to institutionalise safety and security, and
to develop infrastructure at the airports and local
airlines. We embarked on the reconstruction and
rehabilitation of 22 airports nationwide. Construction
work on five new international terminals in Lagos,
Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano and Enugu are also on-
going.
31. There has been a revolution in rail transportation. We
rehabilitated the old narrow gauge network and ensured
that it has served our people steadily for three years
running with new coaches and improved expanded
services nationwide.
32. We are in the construction stages of a new national
network for standard gauge speed-train services, with
the new rail line segment, from Abuja to Kaduna,
successfully completed. In addition, we have initiated
the process for the construction of an ultramodern
coastal rail line that will run from Lagos to Calabar, with
a link to Onitsha.
33. We have also successfully completed the dredging of
River Niger, from Warri in Delta State to Baro in Niger
State, and completed construction works for the Onitsha
River Port. Other River Ports at Baro, Lokoja and Oguta,
are at advanced construction stages. Working with the
states and development partners, we have facilitated the
process towards the development of two new deep sea
ports at Lekki in Lagos, and Ibaka in Akwa Ibom. We
have also implemented reforms to streamline the
clearing regime in existing ports, increasing cargo
turnover time and easing business for all users.
34. In the oil and gas sector, our local content policy has
continued to empower Nigerian companies, particularly
in technical and engineering projects. The Gas
Revolution Industrial Park in Delta State is
unprecedented in the subsector, and will not only deliver
Africa’s biggest industrial park, but all the
accompanying benefits to local industry and job
creation.
35. We recognized Human Capital as the most important
agent for transformational development. Our reforms in
this sector focused on Health, Education and Social
Development and also on Women and Youth
Empowerment and Social Safety Nets.
36. In the Health sector, the comprehensive National
Strategic Health Development Plan (NSHDP) of 2011
laid the foundation for widening access and improving
the quality of healthcare with lower infant mortality
rates and higher life expectancy for the populace.Our
effective curtailment of the Ebola epidemic has
continued to receive worldwide acclaim as an example
in prompt and effective national disease management.
On our watch, guinea-worm has been eradicated from
Nigeria and we are on the verge of wiping out polio
entirely.
37. In the Education sector, our objectives are clear and
precise. They emphasise expansion of access and the
upgrade of quality. I am proud that we have widened
access by establishing 18 more Federal Universities and
other specialized polytechnics. We strengthened
TETFUND and used it to boldly address the problems of
inadequate infrastructure in the existing institutions.
38. I am particularly proud of our efforts with regards to
Early Childhood Education and Out-of-School Children.
We provided modern hybrid Almajiri Education
Programme in the North, attended to schooling needs of
boys in the South-East and ensured the construction of
special girls’ schools in 13 States of the Federation to
improve girl-child education. We expanded opportunities
for open and distance learning and provided
scholarships at all levels to help improve access to
quality education for bright and promising Nigerians.
39. We have promoted gender-mainstreaming with
commensurate priority and opportunities for our
womenfolk, beginning with ensuring that not less than
30 per cent of key Federal appointments go to women.
Other initiatives that we have taken include: the National
Gender Policy, Establishment of Gender Units in Federal
MDAs, Women Empowerment Training Programmes,
Micro-Credit for Women, Social Safety Net Programmes
and the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Scheme.
40. My Administration has emphasized giving a free hand
to our Anti-corruption agencies such as the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the
Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC). We
preferred that they mature into strong institutions
instead of being the images, the hammer and the anvil
of a strong man. We must encourage them to abide by
the rule of law and due process instead of resorting to
dramatic or illegal actions orchestrated for cheap
applause.
41. Beyond the very impressive records of enhanced
convictions by statutory anti-corruption agencies like
the EFCC and ICPC, our other strategy has been to
fashion economic policies that deliver higher deterrence
and frustrate concealment. In this regard, the Bureau of
Public Procurement has played a central role and
impacted strongly on the fight against corruption.
42. In Sports, we have improved our national performance
in team and individual events. The disappointment of
not qualifying to defend our African Football
Championship was cushioned by a decent FIFA World
Cup appearance, an Under-17 World Cup win in addition
to other victories in other international football
tournaments and the Paralympics. We have also
encouraged excellence in other sports, apart from
football, resulting in exceptional performance in
international sporting events, especially in athletics.
43. Our foreign policy position remains strong. In October
2013, Nigeria was elected as a non-permanent member
of the United Nations Security Council for the second
time on our watch. Our country had only served in that
capacity thrice before 2011, since independence in
1960. Our Administration also played a leading role in
the resolution of security and political challenges in our
sub-region, particularly in Niger, Cote D’Ivoire, Mali,
Guinea-Bissau and Burkina Faso.
44. In addition, we increased engagement with Nigerians in
the diaspora who contribute so much in remittances to
their fatherland. Our Administration successfully
encouraged more of them to invest in Nigeria and others
to return home and join in the task of nation-building.
45. In summary, Your Excellency, distinguished ladies and
gentlemen, our administration has done its best to
intervene robustly and impact positively on key aspects
of our national life.
46. There is no doubt that challenges still abound, but they
are surmountable and overwhelming national
transformation remains realisable, with continuity,
commitment and consistency.
47. Nigeria is blessed with citizens that will always remain
faithful, firmly committed to national unity, accelerated
political, social and economic development.
48. As we hand over the reins of government, I believe that
our nation is secure, our democracy is stable, and the
future is bright. Let us all work together, and with
greater resolve, continue to build a stronger and more
prosperous nation.
49. May God Almighty continue to bless our dear country,
Nigeria.
50. I thank you all.
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