Nigeria’s President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday promised to drastic cut down in cost of governance in Nigeria just as he appealed for support from newly elected members of the National Assembly who would take over in June.
Buhari said he would also target reducing corruption to its minimum and restructure the public sector to guarantee transparency. He therefore urged the members of the eighth legislative Assembly to cooperate with him especially in the budget and related areas.
Buhari, who spoke at a week-long induction programme for the newly elected National Assembly members organised by the National Institute for Legislative Studies in Abuja, listed several benefits of such cooperation between the executive and the legislature and maintained that Nigeria would be the best for it.
He also mentioned that his government would work on reducing the problem of high recurrent cost in order to scale up capital cost as well as human development since the high cost of governance in Nigeria has become the bane of real development both in terms of infrastructure, education and health and human capital growth and development.
“I am here today, to invite you to work with the executive as partners in progress, as champions of good governance and development and as warriors for change.
“Together, we can make this nation great and as a role model in Africa and other emerging economies and democracies.
“Distinguished Members of the 8th National Assembly, I see these challenges as the mission of my presidency.
“I need the support of the Members of the National Assembly on the battle front. I need your support in many respects,” Buhari, who also lamented the slow pace of development in the agricultural and solid mineral sectors, said.
He urged the elected legislators to be serious with their jobs especially in areas of oversight because this would help his government run transparently.
“My mission to bring integrity into governance would better succeed if complemented with a strong culture of transparent oversight,” he said while urging the lawmakers to work with him to address the challenges of insecurity in the country as well as issues in the power sector.
“The legislature by nature is inherently democratic in the sense that all members are equal and are elected representatives of the Nigerian people.
As President-elect, I recognise this fact and believe that legislators carry this heavy burden of representation with all the seriousness it deserves.
“For a President to be successful in addressing community development and general welfare of the various people of the country, he or she would benefit from working closely and in harmony with the legislative arm of government.
“I therefore commit myself to working with the legislature as development partners motivated by the desire to deliver good governance,” he added
