Obasanjo Urges Army to Support Reforms

This Day (Lagos)
NEWS
December 17, 2003
Posted to the web December 17, 2003

By Segun Awofadeji
Bauchi
President Olusegun Obasanjo has charged the Nigerian Army to join hands with
the present administration to educate and mobilise the people around its
economic reforms agenda so that the nation can forge ahead.
The president who gave the charges in an opening address at the Chief of Army
Staff (COAS) Annual Training Conference in Bauchi yesterday said that the
current reforms being embarked upon by the federal government would enable the
nation to redirect and reconstruct its political economy for the good of the
Nigerian people.
Obasanjo who was represented by the Minister of Defence, Dr. Rabiu Musa
Kwakwanso, noted that this administration was "working hard to execute very
challenging but absolutely necessary reforms," which according to him was
organised around "accelerated privatisation; civil/public service reforms as
well as the anti-corruption, transparency and accountability reforms."
He said that he had already briefed the leadership of the military on these
reforms, and how they affect the Armed Forces, stressing that his government
was determined to see these reforms through "as they constitute our only chance
of recovery, growth and development."
Obasanjo who agreed that some of the reforms would be painful, however pointed
out that those that were profiting from the poverty pain, disillusionment and
frustration of our people will oppose them.
He added that "political opportunists and the enemies of development will try
to exploit the temporary pains," citing the opposition to the deregulation of
the down stream sector of the oil industry to buttress his case.
His words: " Today, we have evened the price, fuel is available, queues have
disappeared, and prices are coming down, while funds previously used for
subsidy will now go into developmental issues and private refineries would be
built in response to the realistic price for petroleum products."

   

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