A civil society organization, Nigeria First Project, has passed a vote of confidence in President Bola Tinubu for delivering on his campaign promises in just one year of his administration.
Addressing a press conference on the one-year anniversary of President Tinubu administration, the Coordinator and Director of Research and Documentation of the group, Hamza Umar Saulawa and Bashir Dauda Sabuwar-Unguwa respectively, said Mr Tinubu was implementing his Renewed Hope Agenda faithfully and diligently.
The group said: “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 manifesto in spite of the hullabaloo mostly amplified out of proportion by some politicians and critics of the administration.
“On the other hand,we must equally salute Nigerians for their resilience in the face of nation-building challenges. However,we have confidence in the efficacy of Renewed Hope Agenda, and sincerity of purpose of Mr. President. And we are positive that Nigeria is in safe hand, heading for a greater future.”
Rating Mt Tinubu’s performance on the security and defense sector, the group said the administration has recorded tremendous success in addressing some of the major security challenges in the country.
“Like we all know, security and Welfare of the citizenry, constitute the primary function of any government all over the world. 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,” the group noted.
In the area of education, the group said in the last one year the administration has taken some pragmatic measures towards addressing the challenges bedeviling the sector, especially the allocation of the sum of N1.54 trillion to education in the 2024 budget.
“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”.
“We believe that this was the first step towards transforming the Education sector Tinubu administration has taken,because without adequate funding, the sector will remain in perpetual comatose.
“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.”
On housing and urban development, the group said the administration recorded sterling performance.
This Ministry is under the stewardship of an experienced Political technocrat, Arc. Ahmed Dangiwa.
“Just in one year, the president Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR has already launched the first phase of the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates Development at Karsana in FCT Abuja on Thursday, 8th February,2024 in which 20,000 Housing units would be constructed.
“There is no gainsaying the fact that the construction of 50,000 Housing units by Tinubu administration will stimulate the economy by directly and indirectly creating jobs as well as accelerate Nigeria’s journey towards addressing housing deficit,and thus achieve goal 11 of the United Nations,” the group noted.
On the anti-corruption crusade, the group said the President has set an example of corruption fighting by suspending a minister of his cabinet (Betta Edu,) over allegations of corruption.
“Also , a number of highly placed chieftains of the governing party,APC ,such as former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello,former minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, former minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya Farouk are all being investigated by the EFCC.
“This is an indication that the anti-corruption bodies are enjoying absolute freedom, working without any interference,” the group stressed.
