“2017 Will Be Better” – APC Governors Tell Nigerians

As Nigerians continue to grapple with tough times occasioned by the ongoing recession, governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have pleaded with Nigerians to be patient, assuring them that there will be a positive change in their living conditions next year.
Speaking with State House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday, chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, Rochas Okorocha, assured Nigerians that the APC-led federal government will take Nigeria to the Promised Land.
He pointed out that Nigeria is going through a very serious economic surgery, and as every surgical operation is painful, everybody in the country is experiencing the current suffering.
“We share the pains of Nigerians; every human being must feel it. We also feel what they are going through. But we are asking for a little patience; let us do things the right way and do it once and for all.
“I am sure that by next year you will begin to see changes: the price of rice will drop; price of dollar will begin to stabilise and we will see a lot of challenges, but at this painful moment, nobody likes it. So Nigerians should bear with us as a government,” Governor Okorocha said.
The governor further absolved his party o being responsible for the hardship.
According to him, this was not a problem brought by the APC government, but a problem that existed long before the party came to government.
He asserted that the APC was just trying to clear the mess of the past.
“But we must take responsibility and we must never shift the responsibility to anybody,” he said, adding that as the party in power at the moment, APC was now responsible for both the good and the bad that were happening in Nigeria “but we are promising Nigerians that we shall fix it.”
Meanwhile, Okorocha, who is also the governor of Imo State, expressed the fear that the internal crisis in Ondo APC may affect the party’s fortunes in the forthcoming gubernatorial poll.
He said, “I agree with you to some extent but I believe (that) before the election, all things will be fixed right because Ondo is coming back to APC and we would do all we can.”
When asked what transpired in the meeting with the president, Okorocha said APC governors met with President Buhari and discussed a lot of issues as they affected the nation and its development.
“We came particularly to encourage him and to congratulate him for the release of the 21 Chibok girls and we said whatever was the action taken to bring back these girls, let the action be repeated so that the rest of the girls can be free. This will help because this is a very big achievement in the life of this government.
“Again, we came to report to Mr President that his agriculture policy is producing result. This time around, we have bumper harvest in most parts of the country in rice production and other things. So that policy should be sustained.
“And the funding policy by CBN, the anchor borrowers, should be encouraged because it is yielding results. In the next couple of years, Nigeria would be self-sufficient in agriculture and would not need to import any more food products into this country. That is a great achievement.
“We also encouraged him on the fight against corruption, that he should continue. We know that in the pursuit of good programmes, certain lapses will be noticed and there is nothing wrong in pursuing a good cause. We encouraged and thanked him for the efforts he is making to move this country forward,” the Imo State governor said.
On the call by some stakeholders in the party for the national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, to resign, Okorocha said, “We are not talking about anybody resigning; we are talking about rebuilding the party to make it a stronger party, right from the booth level to the national level.”