TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari says he has no business in government if he cannot guarantee “decent” elections.

He said this when he received members of the Governance Support Group (GSG) led by Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba in Abuja on Friday.

The president expressed worry over killings during elections in the country.

“I agonised over the elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Rivers states. We should have passed the stage in which people are beheaded, and killed because of who occupies certain offices.

“If we can’t guarantee decent elections, then we have no business being around. Edo State election was good, and I expect Ondo State election to be better,” he said in a statement issued by Femi Adesina, his spokesman.

Speaking on the anti-corruption cases before the courts, the president said he believed the cleansing currently going on “will lead to a better judiciary. When people are sentenced, Nigerians will believe that we are serious.”

Buhari equally told his guests that the progress being made in agriculture and exploitation of solid minerals “gives a lot of hope”, adding: “Our grains go up to Central African Republic, to Burkina Faso, but they can’t buy all the grains harvested this year. And next season should be even better.

“We will focus on other products like cocoa, palm oil, palm kernel, along with the grains. We can start exporting rice in 18 months, and we are getting fertilizers and pesticides in readiness for next year.”

Speaking on behalf of members of GSG, Nwajiuba said the government had succeeded to a large extent on the security and anti-corruption fronts, adding that the group was positive that the economy would soon experience a turnaround, “as the government is working very hard in that direction”.

The group said the biggest constituency of the president was the poor and lowly, and thus recommended what it calls “a social re-armament of the poor.”