President Muhammadu Buhari has given a list of what Nigerians should expect in the year, 2020 and beyond just as he described the year as the beginning of a decade of prosperity and promise for Nigeria and Africa.
He assured Nigerians of a great experience in the growth of the country in the next twelve months.
In his New Year message titled “A letter from the President at New Year”, the president stated that among other things, Nigerians should expect serious improvement in the nation’s power supply.
He promised to improve on the nation’s infrastructure development, agriculture and fight against corruption among others.
His words: “This is a new year and the beginning of a new decade – the Nigerian Decade of prosperity and promise for Nigeria and for Africa…
“To recapitulate, some of the projects Nigerians should expect to come upstream from 2020 include: 47 road projects scheduled for completion in 2020/21, including roads leading to ports; Major bridges including substantial work on the Second Niger Bridge; Completion of 13 housing estates under the National Housing Project Plan; Lagos, Kano, Maiduguri and Enugu international airports to be commissioned in 2020; Launching of an agricultural rural mechanisation scheme that will cover 700 local governments over a period of three years; Launching of the Livestock Development Project Grazing Model in Gombe State where 200,000 hectares of land has been identified; Training of 50,000 workers to complement the country’s 7,000 extension workers; Commissioning of the Lagos – Ibadan and Itakpe – Warri rail lines in the first quarter; Commencement of the Ibadan – Abuja and Kano – Kaduna rail lines also in the first quarter; Further liberalisation of the power sector to allow businesses to generate and sell power; Commencement of the construction of the Mambilla Power project by the first half of 2020; and Commencement of the construction of the AKK gas pipeline, OB3 gas pipeline and the expansion of the Escravos – Lagos pipeline in the first quarter of 2020.”
The president reiterated Nigeria’s decision not to open its closed borders until it felt safe to do so.
“The joint land border security exercise currently taking place is meant to safeguard Nigeria’s economy and security. No one can doubt that we have been good neighbours and good citizens. We have been the helpers and shock-absorbers of the sub-region but we cannot allow our well-planned economic regeneration plans to be sabotaged. As soon as we are satisfied that the safeguards are adequate, normal cross-border movements will be resumed,” he said.
