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| L-R: Director Gender, Nigeria First Project, Amb. Aisha Musa Lawal, Coordinator, Hamza Umar Saulawa, Director Research, Comrade Bishir Dauda and Director, Contact and Mobilization, Hon. Rilwan Mukhtar, during the press conference on the First Anniversary of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in Abuja yesterday. |
• Urged him to focus on fulfilling his campaign promises
'Seun Ibukun-Oni, Abuja
DAILY COURIER - A civil society organisation, Nigeria First Project has rated President Tinubu's one year in office high for arresting the drifting insecurity, repositioning the education sector among others.
The group during a press conference on Sunday May 26, in Abuja on the first anniversary of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu stressed that its assessment of the administration is a product of well researched information from open sources.
"As a Civil Society Organization, this corresponds to our aims and objectives of promoting good governance and accountability in Nigeria, and ensure that the president is delivering on his campaign promises to the electorates. This enhances not only service delivery, but also citizens' participation in governance.
"To come up with our position, we have gathered data through Desk Review in which we massively consulted secondary sources, such as Newspaper Reports, Magazine analysis, electronic media, social media, Citizens' Delivery Tracker, onsite visits, ministerial briefings, among others" a part of the statement signed by the Coordinator, Hamza Umar Saulawa and Director, Research and Documentation, Bishir Dauda Sabuwar Unguwa Katsina reads.
The statement commended the president for focusing on delivering his Renewed Hope Agenda and listening to the concerns of Nigerians rather than the distractions by politicians.
It further reads: "We are happy that so far Mr. President is Implementing his Renewed Hope Agenda faithfully and diligently. This in our opinion goes contrary to the entrenched tradition of some politicians who promised one thing before election and implement another thing after election.
"We therefore, salute President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's courage to continue to stick to his manifestoe in spite of the hullabaloo mostly amplify out of proportion by some politicians and critics of the administration.
"However, we have noticed how Mr. President is being responsive and sensitive to the complaints of great Nigerian Citizens, and the measures he has taken to ameliorate the suffering of the common man."
Highlighting major sectoral achievements of the president in his first year in office, the statement on defence reads:
"First and foremost, we have seen a paradigm shift in the way and manner, the various Security agencies work. We have discovered that the secret behind the tremendous improvement in the sphere of security of our nation is associated with the overcoming of rivalry and battle of supremacy amongst the various security agencies. In achieving the foregoing, we have identified that in the last one year, the office of the National Security Adviser has played an indispensable role. We therefore commend the National Security Adviser, and urge him to continue toeing this line of promoting healthy synergy amongst the security agencies.
"This group is also impressed by the performance of Tinubu administration in counterterrorism and fighting against armed banditry and kidnappings for ransom. Our gallant military troops deserve commendation for neutralising 9,303 terrorists/criminals, including degenerated kingpins such as Damina, Dangote, Kachalla Azarailu, Boderi, to mention but a few . This is apart from arrest of 6,998 ,and rescued of 4,641 hostages.
"Looking at all the facts and figures regarding the success recorded in the security and defence of our country, our coalition is of the view that Tinubu government deserves applause not castigation. And it is on the course of restoring peace and security in Nigeria."
On education, it listed the appointment of a seasoned professor as minister of education, huge budgetary allocation to education, student loan scheme and teachers training programs as some of his achievements:
"In the Education sector, the Tinubu administration in one year, has taken some pragmatic measures towards addressing some of the challenges bedviling the sector firstly by appointing a first class professor, Professor Tahir Mamman.
"Secondly, in the 2024 Budget, we acknowledge that the president has allocated the sum of N1.54 trillion to the education sector . This has been noted in the analysis made by Premium Times, an online News Platform, “Education sector has one of the highest allocations alongside defence and security”.
"Worthy of mentioning is the priority Tinubu administration accorded the teacher education. This includes training and retraining of teachers.For instance, the training of 22,500 teachers on digital Literacy and remote learning across 16 States of the Federation, training of 35,000 teachers across the country on the use of ICT in the classroom and 400 Library staff on ICT in Library Services and specialised IT skills; provided ICT equipment for the production of digital content for all 36 States and the FCT.
"Equally important, is the welfare of students. Besides signing the landmark Students Loan Act, which no doubt would improve the capacity of the common people to access and afford quality tertiary education,the Tinubu administration through the ministry of education has also granted scholarship to over 345 Nigerian scholars in foreign institutions under the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA); facilitated the award of 51 scholarships to Commonwealth scholars under the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Award (CSFA); also 2,122 Postgraduate and Undergraduate students benefitted from Nigerian Scholarship Award; awarded scholarship to 145 Girl-Child in Government owned tertiary institution under Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and 16,000 students studying Education in both Universities and Colleges of Education benefited from Bursary awards.
"Other milestone achievements in the education sector is the establishment of (9) new Federal Science and Technical Colleges (FSTCs), Thirteen (13) Federal Universities out of which eight (8) were Colleges of Education converted to Universities; six (6) Federal Polytechnics and six (6) Federal Colleges of Education to accommodate the newly trained teachers and non-teaching staff and granted autonomy to Federal Tertiary Institutions for recruitment of academic and non-academic staff,etc.
All the aforementioned have been delivered in one year; yet the cynics are yet to acknowledge these."
Among other sectors highlighting the achievements of the president are the housing sector where Renewed Hope housing scheme has kick started in some states. It also spotlighted the social safety net for vulnerable Nigerians and the increase anti-corruption drive.
The statement concluded reading: "The Tinubu administration in just one year, has been able to deliver dividends of Democracy to the citizens, including implementing policies that will positively affect not only this generation but also generation yet unborn .
"There is no doubt about the fact that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR has delivered, taking into cognizance , all the verifiable projects, programs and policies that spur sustainable Economic growth and development being Implemented in the country."
