Live Updates: Town hall meeting to assess Buhari's 1st year

  The first town hall meeting tagged ‘Buharimeter’ is holding in Abuja today, June 9, according to the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD).

  Five federal ministers are participating at today’s inaugural town hall meeting, they include:

Lai Mohammed (Information and Culture), Babatunde Fashola (Power, Works, and Housing), Audu Ogbeh (Agriculture and Rural Development), Amina Mohammed (Environment), and Udo Udoma (Budget and National Planning) would represent the government delegation.

  The exercise is aimed at assessing President Buhari’s APC-led government’s first year in office.11:26Lai Mohammed says his only “sin” was speaking too much before the election (laughter in the hall).

  He describes the Buharimeter idea asa “very good idea” for the government to engage directly with Nigerians.“Long before the first year anniversary we had embarked on our own town hall meeting to give the citizens feedbacks on our achievements.“The first one was held in Lagos.“Any meaningful assessment must be situated within the right context“We campaigned on three broad areas, corruption, revamp the economy and security.”Have we met our targets? If you ask me, I will say we are on track.

  Insecurity: The most daunting security challenge we faced when wecame in was the Boko Haram challenge. Today it had receded and it is not by accident.

  Alhaji Mohammed goes on to list the president’s strategy in scaling back Boko Haram attacks, including relocation of the command office to Maiduguri.

  Corruption: It was corruption that prolonged the war against Boko Haram.

  It was corruption that gave nigerians darkness instead of light, despite sinking millions of dollars into the sector.

  The money recovered so far is a tip ofthe iceberg.

  Economy: He says oil price had crashed from over $100 per barrel to about $28.Funds that would have found their way into private pockets are now accruing to government courtesy of the TSA.

  This administration neither lacks the political will or discipline to fulfil its electoral promises.

  In the coming weeks, the conditional cash transfer will commence, the free meal, vocational training and so on would also begin.

               11:06

While the representatives of the open society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) was delivering her opening speech, Audu Ogbeh, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, arrived. 

The anchor announces that each minister would give a brief presentation of their promises and achievements, followed by resources persons analyzing their presentations, followed by the audiences’ questions.

  Mr Mohammed will the first to speak.

           10:53

I day at Hassan, Director, Centre for Democracy and Development, kicks off the session with her opening remarks.“That all invited government officials are here today represents a shift from the past.“We believe that the quality of citizenship determines the quality of governance.

  “The Muhammadu Buhari campaign made 221 distinct promises across security, corruption and economy.“Buharimeter does policy monitoring and analysis to give feedback to the community.

                10:18

The programme has begun.So far, four ministers have arrived – Lai Mohammed (Information and Culture), Babatunde Fashola (Works, Power, and Housing), Udo Udoma (Budget and National Planning) and Amina Mohammed (Environment).

  Audu Ogbeh (Agriculture and Rural Development) is still being expected, Premium Times reports.