BUHARI: We’ve Not Banned Anyone From Travelling
PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has said officials of past administrations including ministers are entitled to full rights and privileges under the constitution and must not be subjected to any undue harassment and intimidation at airports or other points of entry and exit.
“We have not banned anyone from travelling,” said the President.
Responding to some cases of “VIP stoppages” at the airports, as reported to him yesterday, Buhari directed all agencies under the government to run their affairs in full compliance with extant rules, regulations and the constitution of the country.
“Unless otherwise directed by the courts, no law-abiding citizens should be barred from travelling abroad. We must treat fellow citizens with courtesy and respect. Officials at the borders and other points of entry and exit should conduct their affairs in strict compliance with due process. No one has my permission to bar anyone from travelling abroad,” the President said.
Meanwhile, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron has urged Buhari to come before the G7 industrialized nations with a ‘wish list’ when he shows up at its meeting, scheduled for June 7-9 in Berlin, Germany.
Delivering this message to the President at a meeting on Friday shortly after the inauguration, British Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Philip Hammond, said his Prime Minister had requested a list of what Nigeria wanted to help succeed against the current challenges facing the country.
“We are waiting for your own list,” said the minister on behalf of Cameron.
This meeting was a follow-up to an earlier one between the then President-elect and Prime minister Cameron, at which commitments were given to the in-coming administration in several areas, including the fight against terrorism, power and energy and such matters of common concerns of migration challenges facing the continent, as well as what he called “intelligence fusion” to secure Africa from global terror.
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1 Comments
Before and after independence, Nigeria had RELIED on Britain and some European countries to “assist” us do this and do that, but more than fifty years nothing has ever happened, We have relied so much on outside help for our success but all to no avail. It is not to the European nation’s economic interest to see an truly “independent” nation that is capable to take care of itself. China and India has leaped forward economically and has advanced technologically, and are able to compete with major powers today by encouraging, protecting and supporting local “contents,”, their scientist and and their industrialist. There are literally thousands of Nigerian experts all around the world who are capable of changing Nigeria and making it a success and competitive globally. Nigerian government should work hard to locate these experts who are spread across the world, and to look inward within Nigeria for its own technological advancement. Obasanjo government had that vision and it helped his government.. If mediocrity and corruption are jettisoned in Nigeria, and if merit and not tribalism is the yardstick for competence, Nigeria should be able to help itself. We have talked so much on decentralized power, decentralized police force, and many progressive recommendation that has been made to help build a system and an institution that can outlive generations and that will bring stability, it is time, we stop dancing around the peg and courageously start implementing this recommendations. If Buhari is our last chance at getting it right, then it must deviate from the old ways of thinking and of doing things, and must be able to work on the path of change that is centered on Nigerian Renaissance and Revolution that is THINKING BIG, and able to ACT BOLDLY, RESTRUCTURING OF NIGERIA IS THAT STEP WE MUST TAKE. OUR MESSIAH MUST COME FROM WITHIN AND NOT WITHOUT. Government must help organize our experts into groups, and task them on solving Nigerian problems, listen and listen to their recommendation and allow for healthy debates among these panel of experts. Everything in life starts with experiments, and change is all about experiment- a controlled experiment will help us find out what work and what does not work, and that is the only way we can change for the better and move forward. WE MUST CONSTANTLY EXPERIMENT AND TEST OUR HYPOTHESIS, IF WE MUST ADVANCE AS A NATION.
We will review and take appropriate action.