President Muhammadu Buhari,says t past debts that were incurred in the past, cancellation advocacy were not channeled into appropriate economic goods and services in the country.
This,he said, directly lays the foundation upon which the economic growth will be experienced.
The President,who spoke at the public presentation of a book in honour to mark the 86th birthday celebration of former chairman of Nigerian Port Authority,NPA,Alhaji Bamanga Tukur,was represented at the event by his Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari.
President Buhari said, “I recalled Bamanga Tukur’s activities with Tony Blair led Commission for Africa in 2004/2005 and how that led to the 2005 G8 Summit landmark decision on debt cancellation for 32 African countries. Prior to that, many poor African countries were using large portion of their little resources to service debt obligations.
“The benefits of debt cancellation were that many African countries were then able to free up resources which they previously channeled into debt servicing and deployed them into socio-economic and infrastructural projects. That explained the fact that shortly after, the fastest growing economy was from Africa which perfectly fuelled Africa’s rising narrative. To my mind, much credit has not yet been given to the role played by Alhaji Bamanga Tukur in the process. We must recognize that now.
“Unfortunately, these debts that were incurred in the past, cancellation advocacy were not channeled into appropriate economic goods and services that directly lay the foundation upon which the economic growth will be experienced.
“Debt, if properly contracted and utilised effectively, is an important instrument in the economic blueprint of a government in its policy making sphere.
“Our President is determined to execute these projects and ensure that before he departs office, under his watch, infrastructure gap of Nigeria which was widened has been reduced considerably.”
Also speaking, chairman/Chief Executive Officer of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), General Buba Marwa (rtd), has advocated for drug test for intending couples.
He noted that HIV test and genotype test are usually carried out by intending couples before marriage, wondering why drug test should not be conducted on such couples before wedding.
He said:”Before I leave this stage, I must take advantage of this audience. Please, how many of you will like your daughters to mary drug addicts? Raise your hands. “Before wedding, we always do HIV test. We do genotype test. I appeal to you, please, let also have a drug test before wedding.”
