President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday appealed to labour unions to reduce pressure on his administration through their constant agitations and allow him concentrate on fixing infrastructure in the country.
Buhari made the appeal during a meeting with the Executive Committee of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, in the State House, Abuja.
A statement by the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, quoted him as saying: “In three and a half years, we have improved tremendously on what we met. We are trying to do infrastructure.
“No matter which part of the country you come from, you will see the efforts we are making in terms of roads; we are trying to fix rails, we are trying to do power, through the use of gas and solar. If you note what we have done in these three and a half years, you will not regret voting this administration into power.”
President Buhari also noted that through his administration’s effort in the agric sector, the country was on the way to attaining food sufficiency and security.
He urged the students to continue to plead with the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, to end their strike, assuring that he would also speak with the union “so that they don’t encroach on your efforts to qualify in time.”
Buhari told the students that he had explained in details during the 2019 budget presentation, the estimates, the earnings and expenditure and therefore expected some understanding from Nigerians, especially the elite.
Calling on the youths to brace up to lead the country, he said: “There is a tendency for you to think that you can do better than anybody, but it is very good for you to know the facts that leadership entails.”
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The President assured labour leaders that he meant well for Nigerians and indeed, workers, in trying to fix the decayed infrastructure.
“I am totally loyal to this country. Whatever I do is in the interest of the ordinary people especially those who do not have the benefit of being educated like you, and are just trusting whoever is leading them,” he said.
In his comments, the leader of the students, Danielson Bamidele Akpan, expressed appreciation of the efforts of the administration, especially in the transformation of the transportation sector as well as the decimation of terrorists in the North east.
He however, called on the President to involve more youths in governance, and look into the plight of students in different institutions who have been expelled for ‘political’ reasons.
