By Our Reporters
President Muhammadu Buhari has said Nigeria’s greatest challenge in present time is the issue of insecurity and that his administration will do everything in its power to end insecurity in the country and ensure the persecution of all criminals.
Speaking during a dinner with members of the National Assembly yesterday at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja, in a statement signed by his media aide, Femi Adesina, the president said, “insecurity, manifesting as insurgencies, banditry, kidnapping and urban crime of all sorts is the single most difficult challenge we face today.”
According to him this situation has inhibited government’s ability to build infrastructure, provide the much needed social services to the people, and to attract investments that would drive innovation, create industries, and provide jobs and create wealth.
‘‘Some of the people who perpetuate these various manifestations of insecurity do so for profit, others, in the name of discredited ideologies.
‘‘Whatever their motivations may be, their actions are an existential threat to our country.
‘‘In the circumstances, we must do everything within our power, without consideration of distractions, to put an end to their activities and bring them to book.
‘‘We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted from this objective, or waver in our commitment, and I am confident that together we will triumph in our present efforts,’’ he said.
Buhari commended the National Assembly for discharging their legislative duties with maturity and competence, describing the legislature as ‘‘full partners in national development, saluting the minority parties in the legislature for their cooperation and support for Government programmes.
‘‘Our ability to govern in the best interests of the Nigerian people depends to a great deal on effective collaboration and partnership between the Legislature and the Executive.
‘‘The obligation to check and balance each other is not an invitation to conflict, and it should not be characterised by quarrelsome disagreement when consultation, engagements and compromise have proven time and again to be a more effective approach.
‘‘In the ninth Assembly, you have distinguished yourselves by your conduct in office, by the scale and quality of your legislative interventions, and by your capacity for engaging with the difficult questions facing the country with maturity and competence,’’ he said.
‘‘I congratulate you all, and thank you for your contributions to the difficult, yet necessary task of nation building.’’
The President noted that the executive and legislature came into office at a time of significant challenges for the country.
‘‘Overcoming these challenges require that we finally confront long ignored questions of economics, politics, law and history that are often at the root of our national problems.
‘‘This moment in history requires us to make hard choices, take difficult decisions and act with diligence and patriotism to ensure that our country can survive and thrive long after we have all left.
‘‘What this means in effect is that our jobs will not get any easier. However, the objectives we seek, and will work together to achieve, deserve our best efforts regardless the sacrifice,’’ he said.
As the second legislative year of the 9th Assembly has just come to an end, the President noted that it was appropriate to jointly review shared commitments, to identify what has been achieved, and what is still left undone.
‘‘This way, we can prioritise activities and allocate the resources necessary to ensure that in the lifetime of this Assembly, and of the administration, we can complete the work we have started, and leave behind a record of achievement that will stand all of us in good stead in the assessment of history,’’ he said.