The newly-appointed Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, says he will work to ensure more cooperation between government ministries and departments.
Mr. Mustapha said this on Tuesday while speaking to State House correspondents after he met with President Muhammadu Buhari in his office.
Mr. Mustapha, who was appointed on Monday, said his role in the government is to coordinate and ensure the implementation of government policies.
“Nigeria is not in lack of information and policy formulation, sometimes it is the synergy of those policies for the purposes of attending the goal that has been lacking,” he said.
“I think those are some of the things that I am going to bring to the office. There must be coordination, there must be synergy so that we can have a thrust that can move us forward,” he said.
The SGF said he found Mr. Buhari in high spirit adding that the president’s return to good health is a miracle.
“The President in his normal candour and humour just cracked jokes and he was in very high spirit. “I was pleasantly gladdened in my heart when I saw how robust and how uplifting he is in his spirit and in spite of the enormity of the fact that he has to deal with navigating the affairs of this nation.
“But he looked in-charge, quiet, calm and calculated, and the beauty about it is that his recovery process has been very very remarkable, it is just a miracle and I just want to thank God for that,” he said.
Mr. Mustapha said he will work to ensure that the Buhari administration achieves its three-pronged approach to governance by dealing with corruption, diversifying the economy and tackling insecurity.
He said the administration has done well in security and diversification of the economy.
Asked what he will do differently, Mr. Mustapha said he will wait until he takes the oath of office and receive briefings before deciding what to do.
“Well, I will wait until the oath of office is administered on me. Once that is done, I’ll now begin to take briefings from the office and begin to chart a roadmap.
“It is always not too fashionable to begin to talk about an office you have never occupied. That will be being too presumptuous and I wouldn’t want to do that at the moment.
“I will want to step into the office first. But I have a general picture of where we should be going,” he said.
He said Mr. Buhari’s policy on Agriculture is helping to curb poverty in the country.
He said the ANCHOR borrowers programme and others have the capacity to take Nigeria out of its economic difficulties.
“I believe that if we can do that consistently for a number of years we will get out of this quagmire. Because a nation that cannot feed itself has a long way to go in terms of institutional and industrial development.
“So, like I said I will not be too quick to say what I am going to do in office, but I have a general picture. Mr. President has cast the vision, all of us that are appointees of government have the singular responsibility to ensure that we run with that vision.
“He has made it plain and any vision that has been made plain for those that are being charged with responsibilities are supposed to run with that vision to ensure that at the end of the day the dividends of democracy is delivered to the people of Nigeria,” he said.
We will not disappoint Nigerians
The SGF, who was part of Mr. Buhari’s presidential campaign team, also assured that the administration will not disappoint Nigerians.
He said the campaign team went round the country seeking a mandate which was granted by the citizens “freely”.
“It behoves on us charged with responsibilities to ensure that we do not disappoint them,” he said.
Mr. Mustapha said he is aware of the high expectations of Nigerians from the Buhari administration.
“You live with families and you know the expectations of families. You live in communities, you know the expectations of those communities.
“You live in geographical jurisdictions and you know the expectations of those people.
“But we have come at a time when the resources are very very lean, in some cases not available but I believe with prudent management as being put in place by Mr. President we will be able to navigate these very difficult terrain and at the end of the day every Nigerian will have a smile on his face,” he said.
Mr. Mustapha said although the Buhari government is not promising “heaven on earth”, he said it can move Nigerians from a “state of squalor in which they are to a state where there will be hope, there will be expectations”.
He said hope does a lot of things, because of citizens desire to live for tomorrow.
“And if there is hope that things will be better, the people of Nigeria are very understanding people and I can assure you that they will continue to give this government the kind of support that we require to push the nation ahead,” he said.
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