Nigeria on the rise again, says Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari says Nigeria has entered its glorious era in spite of insecurity and economic challenges.

He said this on Saturday at the graduation of senior executive course 37 of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPPS) in Kuru near Jos.

Represented by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, Buhari said Boko Haram and other such insurgent groups around the country would soon be consigned to history.

While acknowledging that some issues of agitations by some groups and sections in the country could not be ignored, he said creating employment opportunities would reduce the tension.

He charged the institute to conduct comprehensive study on causes of insurgency and how to build civil capacity to defeat mindless violence.

“I want the institute to come up with policies which integrate needs of the vast majority of the populace and not just based on GDP projections,” he said.

“MNI’s end up in their offices after their course of study at NIPPS, without the required enthusiasm to enforce implementation of the policies they made.

“I think we must encourage ourselves and take ourselves seriously instead of doing this just to take a title. The institute will find a way of monitoring members instead of just producing high quality results which just die here. Let’s make efforts to see that those who implement policies use them.”

The president said his administration would support the institute with funding, but remarked that corruption remains the bane of the nation’s development.

“What has eluded our leadership is not lack of good policies but strength of character to implement them,” he said.

“Our problem is not legislative, but lack of political will and weak legal process – delay in the judiciary and suppression of the entire legal system.”

He promised that his administration would address this and “other distortions in the system on which corruption of leadership thrived”.

Buhari called on persons and interest groups within the country to submit to peaceful means of expressing themselves without violating the laws of the land.

About 63 persons graduated as Members of the National Institute (MNI) at the ceremony, bringing the total number of its granduands since inception in 1979 to 1,784.