President scores his govt high

In his New Year Message to Nigerians yesterday, he said despite several continuing domestic and global challenges, for Nigeria, 2013 witnessed many positive developments.
He maintained that foreign direct investment into Nigeria had also been strong, saying “for the second year running, the UN Conference on Trade and Development has named Nigeria as the number one destination for investments in Africa”.
He said the results of a revolution being witnessed in the agricultural sector were evident, saying “We’ve tackled corruption in the input distribution system as many farmers now obtain their fertilizers and seeds directly through an e-wallet system. In 2013, 4.2 million farmers received subsidized inputs via this programme…Our food import bill has also reduced from N1.1 trillion in 2011, to N648 billion in 2012, placing Nigeria firmly on the path to food self-sufficiency”.
The president said that in 2013, the government completed the construction of nine dams which increased the volume of our water reservoirs by 422 million cubic metres.
 He also scored his government high on education, saying it had government almost tripled the allocation for education from N224 billion to N634 billion between 2007 and 2013, improved access to education by constructing 125 almajiri schools, establishing three additional federal universities in the north, rehabilitating 352 laboratories, constructing 72 new libraries in the federal unity schools and rehabilitating laboratories of all the 51 federal and state polytechnics across Nigeria.
In the health sector, the president said the government was building strong safety nets and improving access to primary health care under the Saving One Million Lives programme.
“In 2013, we recruited 11,300 frontline health workers who were deployed to under-served communities across the country. Over 400,000 lives have been saved through our various interventions. We’ve reached over 10,000 women and children with conditional cash transfer programmes across 8 States and the FCT.”