President promises to ease Nigerians' pain

President

Speaking through the Minister for Information, Lai Mohammed at the Vanguard Personality Award Ceremony which held in Lagos on Friday, April 8, 2016, Buhari called for patience with his administration adding that he is working towards turning the hardship around.

Buhari, who was jointly honoured with his ex-President, Goodluck Jonathan as Personality of the Year, 2015, said he's confident in telling Nigerians that the change agenda is real and not an electoral gimmick.

In the speech, which was read by Mohammed, Buhari said, “Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, let me use this opportunity to tell our compatriots that this administration is keenly aware of the difficulties they are facing at this time, resulting mostly from the fuel scarcity, poor power supply, inflation etc."

Continuing, he said, 'As a government that was propelled into office by the power of the people, we cannot but feel the pains of our compatriots, and we deeply empathise with them. We are working round the clock to ease the pains of Nigerians, and the efforts of the government have started yielding fruits as we seek to make the petroleum products available nationwide, restore gas supply to the power generating firms, reflate the economy and put Nigerians back to work.

'We understand that Nigerians have started questioning whether this indeed is the CHANGE they voted for, while some have even gone as far as saying that by voting for our party, Nigerians have entered one chance.

'Well, I can tell Nigerians that our CHANGE AGENDA is real, and that indeed, they will get the change they voted for. Nigerians have not entered One Chance, because the One Chance drivers and their conductors have been driven out of town,' he reassured.

The president further said, 'While we cannot but provide context for the challenges being faced by our countrymen and women today, in the sense that it has taken years of mismanagement, corruption and inefficiency to get to this sorry pass, we make no excuses. After all the people voted for us so we can correct the mistakes of the past and enthrone good governance.

'We are doing just that. But we want our compatriots to realize that 16 years of rot cannot be cleaned up overnight. It is much easier to destroy than to build. But we are determined to rebuild our country and to make life more abundant for our people.

'Change is a process, and that process has begun. We commend Nigerians for their perseverance. We urge them not to lose their confidence in the ability of this Administration to bring about the much-needed change. The pains of today are temporary, and will soon give way to abundance joy as we put our country firmly on the path of sustainable growth and development,' he said.