"If you educate people, they won’t accept nonsense from anybody"

President Muhammadu Buhari has encouraged Nigerians in diaspora to come back home to help in the education of their countrymen.

According to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the president made the call while meeting Nigerians in the US and Canada on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Buhari said, “You are contributing to this great country (America). If you want to help back home invest in education in your constituencies. If you educate people, they won’t accept nonsense from anybody.”

Meanwhile, the president bashed the Nigerian elite for keeping quiet while the nation’s resources are being plundered by selfish leaders.

He said, “They didn’t say a word, under the PTF (Petroleum Trust Fund) we did roads from Lagos to Abuja, to Onitsha, to Port Harcourt. Since then, roads were not done between 1999 and 2015, yet the elite did not say a word. In 1983, military officers gathered and made me Head of State. I packed the politicians into jail, I told them they were guilty until they could prove their innocence. We seized what they had looted. But after I myself was detained, the politicians were given back what they had looted. How many elite complained about that?”

Buhari further said that he was always concerned about the plight of the masses because they have always stood by him.

He added, “Three times I contested elections, three times I went to court after the elections were rigged against me. No justice, but I said ‘God dey.’
“It was mainly the ordinary people that stood by me. That is why I am always conscious of them. They are my constituency. Even pregnant women on the queue would fall into labour, go to have their babies and still come back to vote for me. I will keep doing my best for the country.”

The president stressed that his administration has fulfilled his major campaign promises in the buildup to the 2015 general election.

He said, “I’ve tried to do my best since I came.

“Security-wise, we are better. Boko Haram still conducts cowardly attacks, but the insurgency is not the same as it used to be. They are terrorists, and have nothing to do with religion. We will continue to deal with them. Ask people in the North-east, especially in Borno State, they will tell you they can sleep with two eyes closed now.”