Buhari Shelves N5000 Monthly Stipend; Urges Nigerians Living Abroad To Be More Focus

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Monday, February 29th, 2016

By Niyi Adeyi

President Muhammadu Buhari has shelved the plan by his party to pay N5000 monthly stipend, to the vulnerable and unemployed youths as well as urged Nigerians living in diaspora to be more focus and diligent on their means of livelihood.

Buhari said these over the weekend at two different interactive for in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as part of his activities in the one week visit to the two Gulf countries.

Mr. President indicated that there was a slight difference in his priority and his party on the payment of N5,000, he considered as “largesse.” to unemployed youths.

Instead, Buhari who is expected back in Nigeria today, held in lieu of paying unemployed youths the monthly token, his administration would build infrastructure; the school; correct them and empower agriculture, mining so that every able-bodied person could go and get work and be productively engaged.

While addressing the Nigerian community Sunday in Doha, President Buhari charged Nigerians to rekindle the spirit of patriotism and selfless service to encourage more foreign investment in the country.

“Like I tell other Nigerians living in other countries, you must be good ambassadors of the country because globally things are quite difficult in terms of security and the economy.

“If you have something doing, please hold it tight to your heart and try to improve on it because things are quite difficult all over.

“For us in Nigeria, we are trying to do our best to reduce unemployment and we realised this quite early enough, that was why we campaigned on the diversification of the economy.

“We have to go back to agriculture, like in the good old days of cocoa, palm oil, palm kernel, cotton, groundnuts, hides and skins’’ the President advised.

On the fight against terrorism, the President told Nigerians in the oil reach State that the Military have made remarkable progress in dislodging Boko Haram terrorists from their previous strongholds in the North eastern part of the country.

“When we came in May 2015, the Boko Haram were effectively holding 14 local governments out of 774 local governments in Nigeria but today they are not holding a single local government,’’ he said.

He said the military and law enforcement agencies were working very hard to prevent and counter Boko Haram attacks on soft targets in the country.

Mr. President affirmed: “We have abundant natural and human resources in the country, including huge oil and gas deposit.

“But the challenge is securing those installations and to persuade some of our countrymen to be more patriotic and stop sabotaging the installations.

“When people are being abducted and some are being murdered, when installations are being blown up now and then, the incentive for people to invest in our infrastructure is quite slim’’.

President Buhari also promised to look into the complaints of alleged blanket denial of visas to families and relatives of Nigerians intending to visit the State of Qatar.