Lai speaks on only regret under Buhari

Lai Mohammed, minister of information, says his only regret in the current administration is that Nigerians do not appreciate how much the government is doing with little resources.

Speaking at a special forum of NAN in Abuja on Tuesday, Mohammed said no government in the history of Nigeria has implemented programmes alleviating poverty among women and vulnerable groups like the Buhari administration has done.

He said even with the drop in revenue, the government has not retrenched anyone from their job.

“My regret in this government is that Nigerians have failed to appreciate that the government is doing much more with much less,” he said.

“2010 to 2014 crude oil was selling from 100 dollars to 140 dollars per barrel, but the highest we have 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 has not retrenched one person but put in place programmes to cushion the effects of the pandemic.”

Mohammed said Nigerians do not give enough credit to the government for its various intervention programs such as the school feeding program and the conditional cash transfer programme.

He said the N-power initiative targeted at the youths has engaged 500,000 beneficiaries with 400,000 added from December.

The minister also made reference to the MSMEs survival fund aimed at giving the enterprises grants to enable them meet their payroll obligations and safeguard jobs from the shocks of COVID-19.

“This includes the payroll support for businesses in health, education, hospitality and food production sectors targeting 500,000 beneficiaries,” he said

“The One-Off payment to support self-employed individuals like mechanics and drivers, hair dressers, Keke Napep and Okada riders, plumbers and electricians with a one-time payment of N30,000 for 333,000 beneficiaries.

“Formalisation support where Federal Government will register 250,000 new businesses with the Corporate Affairs Commission at no cost to MSMEs.

“General MSMEs grants which provides N50,000 to an additional 100,000 MSMEs as well as Guaranteed Offtake Stimulus Scheme which aimed to stimulate direct local production in the 36 states and the FCT.”