Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja
The newly appointed Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, on Tuesday promised to promote a synergy among varying government policies with a view to guaranteeing the effectiveness of such policies.
Mustapha, who made this promise while answering questions from State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, said he would hesitate to make promises about the office he’s yet to occupy.
Mustapha will be sworn in today at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting by President Buhari.
The prospective government scribe who said his main responsibility would be to coordinate effective implementation of government policies, advocated the need for emergency declaration to move Nigeria forward from its current state.
According to him, the government had the responsibility to improve the living standard of the people who voted for it as he hailed government’s anchor borrowers’scheme, describing it as a good platform to guarantee food security.
He said Nigerians had huge expectations from the federal government as he canvassed the necessity not to disappoint them, pointing out that the president is focused on his three-point agenda to fight corruption, guarantee security and boost the economy.
“Well, I’ll 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 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, and I can assure you that my responsibility is that of coordination and ensuring the implementation of government policies as generated.
“Nigeria is not in lack of information and policy formulation, sometimes, it is the synergy of those policies for the purposes of attaining the goal that has been lacking, and 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. We need an emergency acceleration to get out of where we are, and I can assure you that the president is focused on the three-pronged approach to take his government to fight corruption, diversify the economy and also the aspect of security.
“We’ve done so much in the area of security. Even the diversification of the economy so much has been achieved. There are no poor farmers in Nigeria again. Honestly, for anybody that is able. We can deploy our hands and our energy to growing our agriculture.
“I’ve been speaking to some of the governors. They are doing remarkable work with the anchor borrower scheme and other schemes that are coming up. I believe that if we can do that consistently for a number of years, we’ll 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.
“The 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 whichever vision that has been made plain for those that are being charged with responsibilities we 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.
“We went round and campaigned and sought their mandate, freely they gave us and it behooves on us charged with responsibilities to ensure that we do not disappoint them. The expectations are great out there. 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’ve come at a time when the resources are very lean, in some cases, not available but I believe with prudent management as being put in place by the President, we’ll be able to navigate this very difficult terrain and at the end of the day, every Nigerian will have a smile on his face.
“We are not promising heaven on earth, but we can move our people from this state of squalour in which they are to a state where there will be hope, there will be expectations. And hope does a lot of things because your desire for living for tomorrow is to rekindle back hope. 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 will require us to push the nation ahead,†he said.
