Presidency to release book revealing Buhari's scorecard ahead of February 16, presidential poll

Presidency to release book revealing Buhari's scorecard tomorrow

ayodele johnson

February 7, 2019 9:58 PM

Under President Muhammadu Buhari's watch, Nigeria has recorded some accomplishments highlighted in a book scheduled to be released on Friday, January 9, 2019.

President Muhammadu Buhari is walking to a highly contested presidential poll on February 16, 2019, with records of his scorecard since entering government in the year 2015, compiled in a book. [Nigeria on Firmer Ground Towards Lasting Peace & Progress - Presidency]

This was confirmed in a tweet by the Presidency today. When readers look through the publication titled "Nigeria on Firmer Ground - Towards Lasting & Progress", they will find highlighted some of the exploits of his government in social investment, agriculture and security.

According to the book, under Buhari's Social Investment Programme, the present administration has devoted N500 billion to the cause from budgets allocated in 2016 and the following year.

So far 9 million primary school pupils are being fed from the Home Grown Feeding Programme which "aims to deliver school feeding to young children with a specific focus on increasing school enrolment, reducing the incidence of malnutrition (especially among the poor and those ordinarily unable to eat a meal-a-day), empowering community women as cooks and by supporting small farmers that help stimulate economic growth."

Strengthening the military

In the publication, everything is being done to have a modern, professional Armed Forces of Nigeria. And it emphasizes on everything. A chapter was dedicated to touch on this.

Through a renewed policy, Nigeria under Buhari hopes to strengthen the capacity of the country's military services, still dealing with a major headache -- insurgency in the northeast.

The Presidency confirms an interest to keep improving on military competitiveness able to elevate the tactical capabilities of Nigerian troops and indeed the entire Armed Forces, to match with global trends. Nigerian Army troops during an operation Pulse Nigeria

With a positive repositioning in leadership, the Nigerian military has acquired more strength as reflected in the book.

"Aligned with the C-in-C’s vision to evolve a modern, professional Armed Forces of Nigeria, well-trained in all aspects of military operations, compact and mobile, with adequate equipment, firepower and communications, capable of fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities, the ministry has provided political leadership which has refocused, repositioned and revamped the Nigerian military’s capacity to successfully defend and deter external attacks and physical threats by non-state actors."

Enhanced Boko Haram

Lai Mohammed is Nigeria's Minister of Information. On Thursday, he said in a report published by the Premium Times News that the Nigerian troops has defeated home-grown Boko Haram and now battling terrorism on a world scale since a faction of the insurgents joined ISIS, to form the Islamic State’s West African Province (ISWAP).

"A faction of Boko Haram has aligned with the global terror group, ISIS, to form ISWAP, the Islamic State’s West African Province. In other words, ISIS now has a strong foothold in West Africa – with Nigeria at the forefront of the battle against them.

“With ISIS largely dislodged from Iraq and Syria, there is undoubtedly a flush of fresh fighters and weapons to ISWAP. Therefore, our military is fighting a global insurgency, without the kind of global coalition, including the United States, that battled ISIS in Syria and Iraq," the minister reportedly says at a campaign in Abuja to rally more support for Nigerian troops.

The country is grateful for the efforts of troops of the 159 Battalion who repelled an attack from Boko Haram on Monday, February 4, 2019. This was recorded in Kanama, Yobe State when the insurgents reportedly attacked through a border.

ayodele johnson