Buhari reiterates commitment to addressing Niger Delta grievances

• Says Security Agencies Have Been Mandated To Deal With Herdsmen/Farmers Clashes

President Muhammadu Buhari has again reiterated the commitment of his administration to addressing the grievances of the people of Niger Delta, even as he urged graduates of the National Defence College to be jet-age compliant.

Meanwhile, half-way through the year, the President has also assured that the 2016 budget, when implemented, would reposition the country for good. The President gave the assurance yesterday in Abuja while addressing Course 24 Participants of the National Defence Academy (NDA) at the graduation, where he was the special guest of honour.

He said the commitment of his government to tackle the issues of underdevelopment and years of neglect in the Niger Delta area is unwavering.“This is a priority we have set before us and we intend to make appreciable gains in correcting the ills of the past in the Niger Delta by assuaging inherent grievances.”

Buhari urged the participants to inculcate the core values of transparency, accountability and good morals in administration and management of the country’s resources, if reasonable progress must be made. He assured that the nation has regained the confidence of the international community and the tempo must be sustained for the collective good of the country.

“Our nation has made tremendous progress in the last one year towards taking her rightful position in the comity of nations. We hope to continue to build on this progress in the coming years so as to ensure that Nigeria maintains the enviable heights it has achieved thus far. It is a task that all of us must resolve to do”, he stated.

He said the new world of technology where innovations and concepts are formulated by the minute requires proactive and mobile administrators to meet up. “By the minute, new ideas and concepts are being introduced, established ideas are being re-defined and research is opening new fields of learning. Your challenge would be to harness the latest defence and security research as well as extant government policies for the benefit of your Services, Organizations, and indeed your nations.”

The President charged the graduates to see their graduation as a significant milestone in their professional career, saying emphatically to the Nigerian participants that it is the beginning of new challenges as they should “be ready to join the ongoing process to change Nigeria for the better”.

On the issue of insecurity in the country, Buhari said with the decimation of Boko Haram insurgents by the armed forces of the country, any form of criminality would not be condoned, as the government in partnership with the local and international agencies, is rebuilding the damages done to the Northeast. “On the matter of herdsmen/farmers clashes, I wish to state that this administration will not tolerate or condone acts of banditry and criminality, under any guise. As such, our security agencies have been mandated to deal with such acts decisively”, he said. He promised to look at the recommendations made by the graduating class in subjects that relates to the socio-political and economic issues in Nigeria.