By Egena Sunday Ode
President Muhammadu Buhari has said the remaining days of his administration would be dedicated to working towards solidifying the delivery of key strategic priorities of security, economy and anti corruption fight.
The president stated this on Saturday in a New Year message to Nigerians personally signed by him.
He said his administration would continue to push back and dismantle operations of extremist and criminal groups waging war against the Nigerian state.
He also said focus would be placed on maintaining and building economic growth through the diversification programme with emphasis on non oil sources.
According to President Buhari also, his government would sustain collaboration with the executive, legislature and the judiciary arms of government in order to effectively prosecute the fight against corruption.
His words: “The year 2023 would, indeed, be a time when we would work to solidify on delivering key strategic priorities under our “SEA” – (Security, Economy and Anti-Corruption) Agenda. Some of the key priority areas we would direct our attention and strengths to include:
“We will continue to engage, push back and dismantle the operations of both internal and external extremist and criminal groups waging war against our communities across the Nation. We will also focus on ensuring that free and fair elections would be held come February 2023. Our security forces are working in partnership to ensure the wins we have got in war against insurgency, banditry, secession and other crimes are sustained and more wins acquired.
“For the economy, our focus would be on maintaining and building economic growth through the national economic diversification agenda that supports the goal of national food self-sufficiency and growth in non-oil sources. The ongoing infrastructure revolution by our administration will see us deliver the key projects across the Nation in power, rail, roads, ports and technology.
“On the anti-corruption drive of our administration, we have created new records in this fight, growing from 117 convictions in 2017 to 3,615 convictions as at December 2022. We as a government are committed to ridding our nation of all forms of corruption, through the collaboration with all the arms of Government to effectively prosecute this fight.”
President Buhari also stated that he would take responsibility over any interpretation of the legacies of his administration at all levels, saying that he had offered his service to the nation with the best of his ability.
“As we welcome the New Year, let us look with hope to 2023, a year to move forward as a Nation towards unity, progress and prosperity. I offer my own personal felicitations, mindful of the various opinions and interpretations of our executive legacies. I welcome and accept both the accolades and criticisms in equal measure secure in the conviction that I did my best to serve our dear country Nigeria and I pray that the next President will also pick up the baton and continue the race to make Nigeria one of the leading countries of the world by the end of this centuryc,” the president said.
