Posted on: 07:22 Mon, 04 Apr 2016



President Muhammadu Buhari on
Monday in Abuja stressed the
urgent need to ensure that the
potentials of Nigeria are harnessed
and used for the good of the
country.

Receiving the President of the
International Civil Aviation
Organisation (ICAO), Dr Bernard O.
Aliyu at the State House, Abuja,
President Buhari declared:

“Nigeria needs to work on her
potentials, so that we don’t
remain permanently at the level of
potentials.

“If Ethiopia is sustained largely by
her airline industry, we have
greater potentials here. But we
must move out, engage with the
rest of the world, as we need to re-
establish the integrity of this
country. We need to rebuild this
country again.”

The President recounted that for
the greater part of the last 16
years, oil sold above $100 per
barrel but expressed regret that
the nation did n0t have much to
show for it.

“In the First Republic, more
enduring infrastructure was built
with meagre resources. But in the
past 16 years, we made a lot of
money without planning for the
rainy day.

“We showed a lot of indiscipline in
managing our economy, and that
is why we are where we are today.

But this time round, we’ll do our
best.” Dr Aliyu, the Nigerian-born
ICAO president commended
President Buhari for strides on
anti- corruption, and urged
Nigeria to pay more attention to
development of civil aviation.

“Civil aviation is a catalyst for
economic development. The level of
aviation development in any
country mirrors the economic
development of that country,” Dr
Aliyu said.

The ICAO president pledged to
support the development of the
aviation industry in Nigeria, urging
the country to improve on training
and capacity development, aviation
security, aerodromes and air
navigation, runways, control
towers, terminal buildings, among
others.

Femi Adesina
Special Adviser to the President
(Media & Publicity)
April 4, 2016