Don't Expect Change Overnight - Buhari Reiterates

The President elect, Mohammadu Buhari,
on Sunday said the change Nigerians are
expecting cannot happen overnight.
Buhari also said the incoming administration
will, in the short term, lay emphasis on
agriculture and mining to deal with the
challenge of youth unemployment.
He said this while receiving in audience
members of some northern groups, led by
Alhaji Maitama Sule and the Northern Elders
Forum, in Abuja, on Sunday.According to
him, the task before the northern leaders,
especially the clergy, is to help sensitise the
public that the change they desire and voted
for, cannot happen overnight.He pointed
out that it took 16 years to destroy the
nation’s economy, noting that the nation
earned more within the last 16 years under
the Peoples Democratic Party, than it did
since 1914, but that most of it was frittered
away.He said, “The biggest message is to
try and persuade the people that it is not
possible to change the state of affairs now.
It took 16 years and those 16 years, most of
you know it better than myself, Nigeria
earned revenue more than what it earned
from 1914 to then.
“You know that we used to have Nigeria
Airways, Nigeria National Shipping Line,
Nigeria Railways. Where are they now?
Where is the infrastructure? Between then
and now and what we earned in-between
and what is on the ground.
“That is how efficiently how the PDP
managed Nigeria in the last 16 years. Now
we have invariably inherited all the
problems, especially in the north east.”
Buhari added, “So, you have to convince
your constituencies that you have virtually
arrived at the wrong time and that they
have to temper their expectation with some
justice towards the leadership.
“I think whatever has to be deployed
especially in the churches and mosques,
this is the quickest way to communicate
this to the ordinary people, continue to
remind them if all the things I said in all the
states I visited.
“We picked three fundamental problems.
The first is security. The country has to be
secured before anything can be put in place
and then the economy. The fact is that
more than 60 per cent of the Nigerian
population are youths and most of them,
whether they have been to school or not,
are unemployed and this is the biggest
danger if we don’t know it."