The Secretary to the Government of Federation, Mr Boss Mustafa, had downplayed the tough second term statement of President Muhammadu Buhari, saying the tough decisions the President will take during his second term will be in the best interests of the country.
The SGF stated this while speaking to reporters in Yola, the Adamawa State capital.
He also allayed fears that the nation’s economy may be worse hit during the President’s impending second term, adding as a good man, President Buhari is out to improve living standards in the country.
He said: “When we came to power in 2015 about 27 states couldn’t pay salaries. We had to take tough decisions like giving them bailouts.
“These are tough decisions.”
He also claimed that the ban on rice and fertiliser importation was one of the tough decisions taken by the government, adding that this has yielded positive results because it helped boost local production.
“By such tough decisions, we are able to raise the number of rice farmers from 4 million to 12 million, and we are about 98 per cent self-sufficient in rice production.
“Due to the establishment of many fertiliser-blending plants, after we banned the importation of fertiliser and the product is now available and the prize is going down”, Mustapha said.
The SGF also claimed that anti-graft institutions such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission and Code of Conduct Bureau were being strengthened to tackle corruption.
He said, “It’s better to prevent it (corruption) instead of spending a lot of money prosecuting corruption cases.”