Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, has said that President Bola Tinubu was putting final touches on how to address the challenges facing the media industry in the country.
The Minister said this on Sunday at an interaction with newsmen in Lagos after a meeting with the President.
Disclosing that he was in Lagos to brief Tinubu on Easter break on his invitation, Idris said: “What I can say is that Mr. President has the media industry in mind. One of the first questions he asked me is, how are they faring, especially as a result of the meeting he had with media executives in Abuja a couple of weeks ago, a number of issues were raised, and Mr. President is looking at them dispassionately, and he has asked me for my own input, and I’ve given him. He’s going to take the final decision on how he can help the media to do its work better.
“He has also called on me to continue to inform Nigerians that he is indeed listening to them, all the observations about what is happening in the country. Mr. President is listening. He is a keen watcher of events, and as the Commander-in-Chief, he has asked Nigerians to once again, come together, reflect, think deeply about Nigeria, be patriotic the more as he works to ensure that especially issues of security are resolved once and for all.
“He just came back from Jos, and security is uppermost in his mind, he keeps talking and discussing with the security agencies on how we can find a lasting solution and collaboration with our regional partners, collaboration with international partners to ensure that we bring lasting peace to our country.
“He is also happy with some of the reports that he’s getting from the international development partners, international finance agencies, the rating agencies, they’re all giving Nigeria a pass mark.
Everybody is seeing that the reforms are actually working in the interest of Nigerians, and Nigeria is finding its place in the comity of nations, once again, these are all things that Mr. President is very happy about and is going to continue to work to make sure that the reform actually take hold strongly for the benefit of all Nigerians”
Asked about the connotation of the President’s meeting with the Chadian President ahead of his condolence visit to Jos, Plateau state, last week, the Minister said: “It is very significant because we are fighting terrorism; terrorism has no borders, we all know, especially with the issues happening in the Sahel. It is almost impossible for Nigeria to act alone and as I said earlier, the President is saying regional cooperation, especially with our neighbors, is absolutely important.
“So the visit of President Deby to Abuja to see Mr. President on the same day that he went to Jos is very significant. A lot of number of issues were discussed on how the cooperation can be further deepened, not just between Nigeria and Chad, but all our neighbors, to ensure that all the issues, the security challenges in the Sahel are actually curtailed, because without that, it will be almost impossible for us to fight insecurity.
This, of course, is an addition to what Mr. President is doing with our international partners; the United States, the European Union, United Kingdom… all of them. Recall that even when the President went on a state visit to the United Kingdom,
security was also top on the agenda.
A number of issues relating to how Nigeria can be helped to solve this issue, as issue of security, once and for all, was also discussed.”
Chairman of the BUA Group, Abdul-Samad Rabiu, who also spoke with newsmen after meeting the President said his meeting was in line with his tradition to visit the President during Sallah though after over two weeks of the Celebration and his birthday.
