Why Nigerians should stop criticizing Buhari’s Independent Day speech – Lai Mohammed

Nigeria’s Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, has given reasons Nigerians should stop criticizing President Muhammadu Buhari’s Independence Day speech.

A lot of Nigerians have criticized Buhari’s speech, saying that it fell short of what they expected on such an occasions.

But reacting to the criticisms that have trailed the speech since October 1, on AIT’s Focus Nigeria, monitored by DAILY POST, the Minister said the President wouldn’t have said anything else apart from the things he told Nigerians.

According to him, President Buhari, in his speech, addressed the most important challenges facing the country.

Lai Mohammed said, “57 years after, I’m still optimistic that Nigeria will be great. Living together for 57 years with all the challenges; with all the ups and downs show that we are growing stronger. I think there’s hope for Nigeria.

“Oh yes, there’ll be agitations here and there; there’ll be ups and downs; But I think in this administration, we are getting our priorities right. We are focused on the economy; we are focused on governance; we are focused on things that will improve the quality of lives of Nigerians.

On president Buhari’s Independence speech, he said, “I think it depends on how the people look at the Independent Day speech of President Muhammadu Buhari. The President started with what I think is the most important thing: The unit of this country.

“Then he went to the issue of security; the issue of the economy and then the issue of fighting corruption. I think these are issues that are genuine; these are issues without which we cannot move forward. He is telling us that if we don’t have a secured country, there won’t be any development.

“If we do not have unity, there won’t be any development. Mr. President is taking advantage of history to say that ‘I have fought in a civil war before and I know the horrors of a civil war that its not a joke and nobody should even toil with it.’ I think Mr. President was very frank and he expressed his concern on what he thinks is important to this country.

“And of course, if the President does not talk about the achievements of the government on that day, what else is he supposed to talk about? Nigerians don’t want to hear what you want to do as much as what you have done.”