Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, has told staff of the Presidential Villa that he was committed to rehabilitating Nigeria.
He also reiterated that his administration would recover all looted funds and stop fraud in the civil service.
Buhari spoke at special session he had with the staff at the fore court of the Villa on Wednesday, his third day in office after a 10-day vacation and medical treatment in London.
The president decried the impunity at which past leaders looted Nigeria’s funds.
He also wondered why the country could not save enough during the oil boom, why states could not pay salaries and how anyone thinks it would be easy to sustain an economy that saw oil price drop from over 100 dollars to just 30 dollars.
In spite of the challenges, however, the president told the staff that the change he promised Nigerians during the campaigns must come, but stressed that it was “a period to diversify and begin to feed ourselves using agriculture”.
Buhari further pledged to rehabilitate the country for the sake of posterity and to sustain the fight against corruption.
He told the staff that they were supposed to be in the know of what was happening and how a few people had milked the country dry, promising to recover all stolen funds.
Buhari also asked the staff to always uphold integrity, assuring them of absolute dedication to the service of Nigeria where those who behave themselves would have no problem.
It was a gathering designed to welcome the President back and let the civil servants in the Presidential Villa have a feel of some government actions in the era of change.
He said that the exercise would continue under his leadership and asked the staff to uphold the tenets of integrity.
