President
Muhammadu Buhari has continued his foreign trips in a bid to repair Nigeria’s
reputation which was severely damaged by the administration of former President
Goodluck Jonathan, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola,
said on Monday.
Fashola,
in an article titled, “PMB’s foreign trips — My takeaway,” also stated that
Buhari’s intervention in the global oil and gas sector led to the recent
stability in crude oil prices
The
minister further stressed that Nigeria currently has the support of the world’s
seven most powerful countries. He attributed this to the visit the President
made during a meeting of the G7 countries in Germany, last year.
On
why he decided to make this public, Fashola stated that he sought to ensure
that every Nigerian who cared about the country had some information about what
the President was doing.
He
stated that barely two decades ago, Nigeria was ostracised from global events
because of bad governance, adding that the country lost the respect accorded
nations like ours.
Explaining
what transpired during the recent meeting with top government officials in
China, the former Lagos State governor stated that six collaborative agreements
were signed.
He
added, “This last mentioned agreement was a legitimate coup by PMB, because the
intelligence was that some West African countries were going to sign before us.
PMB seized the moment. Of course, he had to apologise for our previous failures
on our agreement made to part-fund four airport projects in Lagos, Kano, Abuja
and Port Harcourt and the Abuja-Kaduna rail project.
“The
Chinese had provided their agreed part of 85 per cent but the remaining 15 per
cent Nigeria did not honour during the last administration. Some of the recent
revelations about financial scandals estimated at $2.1bn in the Office of the
National Security Adviser alone during the last administration suggest how
impactful such funds would have been in delivering these critical
infrastructures; but we all know what happened.
“This
is why PMB is travelling. To repair our reputation severely damaged by the last
government, and to assure our partners that Nigeria has changed. From there, to
renegotiate an existing funding agreement to complete critical transport
infrastructure.”
On
the G7 meeting in Germany, the minister noted that the German Chancellor,
Angela Merkel, as host, had invited Buhari on his inauguration to be their
guest, along with some three or four other African countries.
The
agenda of the meeting, he said, was global security, economy and health in the
aftermath of Ebola, which was still raging in some African countries then.
Fashola
stated that apart from the personal aides of the President, other officials who
accompanied Buhari on the trip were Governor Shettima of Borno State, General
Abdulrahman Dambazau and himself.
He
noted that participants at the meeting highlighted the difficulty of time and
the resources that it would take to develop new antibiotics and the risk to
global health.
The
minister said, “If we all appreciate how vulnerable we can be without effective
antibiotics, especially our children, and if we remember how low life
expectancy was and how poor global health was before the discovery of
Penicillin after the World War, we will appreciate the seriousness of the
platform to which Nigeria was invited. I was proud that our President was
there.
“If the seven most powerful nations stand with you, who
can stand against you? I need not say more except that I can attest that PMB
has been following up on these matters, and the progress on security is visible
while results in the economic front will manifest soon enough.”
Tags
Politics