President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday appealed to Nigerians who are yet to feel the impact of his administration and those who believe that the government is not doing enough to bear with the administration.
The President made the appeal in Ilorin at a town hall meeting with traditional rulers, youths, students, organised labour, market women and other stakeholders on the #EndSARS protest and its aftermath.
The Kwara State meeting hosted in Ilorin by Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed was attended by Governor Abdulrazaq Abdulrahman.
The Speaker of Kwara State House of Assembly, Hon. Yakubu Danladi; the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Sulu Gambari and other traditional rulers, representatives of market women, traders and other stakeholders attended the event.
In the President’s message delivered by the minister, he said the administration has the interest of the youths and the people in general at heart and has been doing a lot to touch their lives.
The President said the government was constrained by dwindling resources occasioned by the impact of COVID-19 which also affected the global economy.
He said: “If we have not done enough or we have not touched everybody, we appeal that you please bear with us.
“In the first instance, what we have is less than 60 per cent of the revenue that was available to other governments that came before us.
“We all know what we suffered during COVID-19, and as we are just trying to recover from this we also faced another crisis.
“We appeal that you should please assist the government and be patient.
“This government is dedicated to serving the people and we will continue to try our best to do so.
“I thank you all for your perseverance, understanding and patience.”
The President said the administration has many initiatives targeted at creating jobs for the youth and alleviating poverty among women and vulnerable groups.
He said the government initiated the N75 billion National Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) to provide opportunities for the youth.
He said the fund is part of the N2.3 trillion economic sustainability plan aimed at cushioning the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on most vulnerable Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across the country.
He also listed MSMEs Survival Fund as part of the administration’s initiative at jobs sustainability.
He said the fund is a cluster of grants aimed at helping MSMEs to meet their payroll obligations and safeguard their jobs from the shock of COVID-19 pandemic.
The President said other initiatives targeted at the youths included N-POWER which had engaged 500,000 beneficiaries with 400,000 more in December.
He said 10,000 youths had been trained and benefitted under N-TECH and N-AGRO respectively.
The President said the federal government FINTECH created enabling environment for growth of businesses that use technology to enhance or automate financial services and processes.
He said over two million farmers, traders, mostly youths, were empowered under FARMERMONI, TRADERMONI and MARKETMONI.
The President said over 500,000 youths have also benefited from the Graduate Internship Scheme which provides short-term employment graduates.
He said 1,000 farmers from each of the 774 LGAs in the country were empowered and guided under the Youth Entrepreneurship Support programme.
Earlier, Gov. Abdulrazaq thanked the President for the initiative of directing ministers to interact with the people at the state level.
The governor prayed for peace, unity and stability of the country.
In his contribution, the Emir of Ilorin said the town hall meeting was a good forum for the people to express their minds and grievances to government.
