President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday in Abuja said that the 16 years rule of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) failed to plan for Nigeria’s raining day despite high revenue from oil during the period.
He spoke at the Presidential Villa while receiving the President of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Dr Bernard O. Aliyu.
For the greater part of the last 16 years, he noted that Nigeria’s oil was sold above $100 per barrel.
Buhari, in a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, however regretted that Nigeria did not have much to show for the high revenue.
He said: “In the First Republic, more enduring infrastructure was built with meagre resources. But in the past 16 years, we made a lot of money without planning for the rainy day.
“We showed a lot of indiscipline in managing our economy, and that is why we are where we are today. But this time round, we’ll do our best.” He added
He harped on the need to ensure that the potentials of Nigeria are urgently harnessed and used for the good of the country.
He added: “Nigeria needs to work on her potentials, so that we don’t remain permanently at the level of potentials.
“If Ethiopia is sustained largely by her airline industry, we have greater potentials here. But we must move out, engage with the rest of the world, as we need to re-establish the integrity of this country. We need to rebuild this country again.” He said
Dr Aliyu, the Nigerian-born ICAO president commended President Buhari for strides on anti- corruption, and urged Nigeria to pay more attention to development of civil aviation.
“Civil aviation is a catalyst for economic development. The level of aviation development in any country mirrors the economic development of that country,” Dr Aliyu said.
He also pledged to support the development of the aviation industry in Nigeria, urging the country to improve on training and capacity development, aviation security, aerodromes and air navigation, runways, control towers, terminal buildings, among others.
