The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that his only regret as a minister of Nigeria is that some Nigerians have failed to appreciate that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is doing so much with little resources.
The minister stated this at a Special Forum of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Mohammed explained that with dwindling resources, no government in Nigeria’s history had implemented programmes alleviating poverty among vulnerable groups and women as well as creating jobs for the youths as the Buhari administration had done.
“My regret in this government is that Nigerians have failed to appreciate that the government is doing much more with much less.
“2010 to 2014 crude oil was selling from 100 dollars to 140 dollars per barrel, but the highest we’ve sold since we came in is 60 dollars.
“Sometimes, at the peak of COVID-19 pandemic, we were even paying for storage because nobody wanted to take our crude.
“With the drop in revenues and security challenges this government hasn’t retrenched one person but put in place programmes to cushion the effects of the pandemic,” Mohammed said.
Mohammed said Nigerians aren’t giving credit to various intervention programmes of government which include the School Feeding Programme, with not less than 12.8 million pupils receiving one free meal per day to develop their mental capacity.
According to him, over one million Nigerians had benefited from the Conditional Cash Transfer programme carried out in conjunction with the World Bank under which N5,000 is paid out monthly to vulnerable Nigerians.
The minister also said the N75 billion National Youth Investment Fund initiated by the government had provided job opportunities for the youths.
