 Our honoree, His Excellency Ashiwaju Bola Amei Tinubu, Jagaban Bogu, Jagaban Africa, etc., etc., etc., and his wife, Her Excellency Senator Mrs. Remy Tinubu. Let me say first that just before I go on to what my role is here, to say that we started this colloquium now about 10 years ago, and I'm sure that most of us have heard the story. Many of those who started the colloquium, the idea of the colloquium with us are probably here today. Most of us had worked with the then governor of Lagos State, Governor Bola Amei Tinubu, for several years, some for four years, some for eight years, and we decided that it was important to ensure that every year on the occasion of his birthday, we will take time to discuss matters of national importance. Part of the reason why we did so was because Ashiwaju Bola Amei Tinubu ran an unusual government in Lagos State, and let me say why it was unusual. The reason why it was unusual was because it was a government where there was a great deal of argument, and he as the leader of that government allowed so much argument and so many different shades of ideas. I recall a particular occasion when we started talking about the land use charge. Some of it is, I mean today where also I know that there are issues around the land use charge, but when the land use charge, when the whole concept developed around the land use charge, there were so many arguments. One group felt that we shouldn't even introduce a charge. Another group felt it was important to do so. I remember that in Ikeja, where this argument was taking place in the governor's guest house, we were in a small room and Ashiwaju was there. Lai Mohamed was there. Wali Adu, Yemeka Adoso, I think Delia Laki and a few others, and we all gathered there arguing on both sides. At some point, when Ashiwaju was losing the argument, he said, ah, shayi no di bofuni, and I'm like, freeing what that means. He said, ah, were you the people who were voted for? Then he stormed out of the room and left. Then we all waited. Nobody left. We just waited and waited there. Then he came back a few minutes later and said, ah, eh, shayi no di, meaning are you people still here? Then he continued the argument. Now he came back with more facts and figures. So we suspected that when he stormed out of the room, he actually went to go and bring some more facts and figures. In the end, we instituted a charge and so many other, so many other different ways by which the foundation for what we see in Lagos State today was developed. And I want to just commend Ashiwaju Bola Adu Netinobu again for ensuring that not only did he develop a whole generation of persons who have become, in various respects, leaders, but also that he allowed that group of people to develop ideas, to contradict him many times, to controvert his own ideas many times. And many times, ah, he given to, to those ideas and we've seen the results of it. My role here is to tie the knots and link the philosophy to governance and commitment of our social investment program. I want to thank his excellence to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Mohammad Ibuwari, for giving me the opportunity to coordinate this program and also for giving me a free hand to run the program. The way the program is structured, as you probably heard, is that in order to ensure transparency, we left all of the issues around procurement and finance to the Ministry of Budget and National Planning. And we have a steering committee of ministers, an interministerial group about six or seven ministers, I think, who decide what to do and what the direction will be. I chair that group of ministers, that interministerial team. I must again say and pay my deep respects to the man in whose honor we are gathered here and for whom we gather practically every year to talk and advance ideas that we hope will shape our nation for the better. And I must say again that the Bola Tinubu Colloquium still draws its thematic priority from the main focus of Bola Tinubu's life, the people. Not only is Ajiwaju Bola Tinubu a man of the people, his life story in both public and private affairs tells of a fighter and a champion of people-oriented causes. Let me say that when we began this journey in 2014, and when I say this journey I refer to our government, our party, the APC, was determined to change the dominant narrative about our country. We were determined to ensure that the notion of a country rich in natural resources, but even richer in human capital, for being destroyed daily by grand corruption and the impunity in the looting of public resources, we had to change that narrative. We saw a nation where a few in office had so privatized the commonwealth that while all prices were at their highest, and we were getting growth figures as high as 70%, the majority of the people remained extremely poor. On one of our campaign trips in Zamfara State, Mr. President said, look at the eyes of these people, and of course we saw the poverty and desperation in their eyes, and then he said, they expect us to fix the problem of their poverty as soon as we get into office. So the President on the campaign trail emphasized three things, security, the economy, and by the economy here, in particular the welfare of the people and corruption. To address the question of the welfare of the people, we realized that if we waited for the economy to pick up and then provide jobs for the people, especially young people, many would have given up hope, and many would have ended up in all manner of illegal activities. So we decided on two things, to want to invest heavily in agriculture, to create jobs in the hinterland, provide enough food locally and for all of the urban areas. And in our agriculture program, I'm sure that many would already agree that this has been a tremendous success. Several millions of Nigerians have been employed in agriculture. Some who had abandoned their farms, in fact, Mr. President tells a story of his own village where people used to let out farms, they used to lease out their farms to farmers from Kano. But now nobody is leasing out their farms anymore. Everybody is on his own farm. The more interesting part of that story is that not only are more people now going to hatch, they are also taking more wives. We also decided to put in place an audacious social investment program to the tune of 500 billion Naira, the largest pro-poor program in our nation's history, and the largest social safety net, at least in sub-Saharan Africa. This was despite the fact that by 2015 all prices fell by over 50 percent and our production also fell from over 2 million barrels a day to less than 700,000 barrels a day, sometimes even 500,000 barrels in 2016. We have seen today the empirical evidence of the successes of the program and all of that is evidence for us to see and listen to several of the testimonies and stories. 200 jobs for undergraduates employed under the MPAR program, 300,000 more waiting to be employed, they've been pre-selected, 7 million children being fed daily in 22 states so far. Beneficiaries of microcredit loans going to about 300,000, almost 700,000 households benefiting from conditional cash transfers. As for our fight against corruption, we realized, as Mr. President said, that if we don't kill corruption, corruption will kill us. Corruption is an existential problem for Nigeria. Let me pause here to reiterate that from all I have seen in government in the past three years, the corruption of the previous five years is what destroyed the Nigerian economy. Every time we talk about this, every time we talk about corruption, our opponents say, don't talk about it, just do your own, don't talk about it. The Europas have an urge, they say, talk about the Oroiru or Kuala Nika for, and I'll translate that. When the conversation comes to the matter of tales, the frog will say, let us keep that, don't talk about it. We will talk about it and if for us or for us, because and the reason why we will talk about it is because we first, we must let our people know that we cannot afford to go this way again. Never again should we allow a system where people take the resources of this country and steal the resources of this country, use the resources against the people, and at the same time, they want to continue in rulership. The second is that we as a party and your government, we as a party and your government must show the difference between us and the party and government that impoverished our nation. We must show that difference. Let me give you an example. In 2014, when oil was between $100 and $114 a barrel, the actual releases for capital for three ministries, power, works, and housing, then there were three separate ministries, was in total $99 billion. While transportation got $14 billion and agriculture got $15 billion, I'm talking about actual releases, not budgeted, actual releases, what they actually got. Now let's compare that with capital releases to the same ministries in 2017, when all prices were between $50 and $60 a barrel, $415 billion for power, works, and housing, $415 billion, $80 billion for transportation, $65 billion for agriculture, totaling $560 billion in a time when we are earning at least 50% less than we were earning in 2014. What is the reason why this is possible? This is possible because if you do not steal the resources of the people, you can spend it on the projects that concern the people. It's as simple as that. If you are not stealing the money, you will spend it on the right things. And this is what we have seen. This is what we have seen. When the president introduced it, when he insisted that the TSA must be done, we suddenly discovered that we actually could see for ourselves how much money was available in the system and so much money was available. We dug up the money from everywhere and we found that this money was available. I want to say that this same government that spent $139 billion, $139 billion only on all of the, on a Greek power, works, and housing, transport, etc. Between January 2015 and the elections, the sum of $100 billion in cash and $289 million altogether, about $100 billion, $289 million in cash was released and spent, shared. This sum of money was in excess of the amount of money that was spent on power, works, and housing, on transport. And this is the point we are making, that there is no country in the world and we must know this, there is no country in the world that will allow its resources to be plundered in the way our own resources are plundered and expect to be economically and expect to be economically viable. It's not possible. Nigeria is unlike any other country because of the level of corruption that was perpetrated. We must stop that corruption. And that is why, that's why we are so committed. When you fight corruption the way we are fighting corruption, corruption is going to fight back. The system will fight back. You will find the fight back is taking place everywhere. It's taking place on social media. It's taking place everywhere. But we are determined. And this is the reason why you listen to the stories of these young people. When you listen to the stories of the vulnerable, the disabled, and all of these people, these are the people for whom we are responsible. These are the people that we have, who voted for us. We must ensure that we defend their rights. It is in defense of their rights. It is in the defense of the rights of these people that we will put everything out to make sure that those who have been taking the resources of this country are made to pay for it. I'll just give you one last example. Three billion US dollars was lost to something called the Strategic Alliance Contracts in NNPC. Three billion US dollars. The people simply took the oil and never paid back. Now, the same three billion dollars, the Minister of Finance sat with us at a meeting of the economic management team. And we're proposing, in fact, right now that has already been, because three billion dollars is about a trillion Naira. We are now proposing the following roads for the same three billion Naira. Abuja Kaduna Kano Road, Second Niger Bridge, Enugu Potakot Road, East Wed Road, Shagamo Rebini Road, Kano Maiduguri Road, Abuja Lafia Akuanga Kefi Road, and Lagos Abel Kuta, the old road. All for the same three billion. That is why the criminal looting of this country cannot be allowed to continue. And those who did it must be held to account. Today, we earned 50 percent less than five years ago, and we're investing several times more. In 2017, we spent 1.3 trillion on capital, the largest in the history of this country, despite earning 50 percent less. The majority of our people depend on the integrity of those who govern them, because they don't have a voice. They are far too poor, in many cases far too vulnerable to be able to see anything for themselves. It's a historic duty as a party and as a government to provide for all of them, to be a voice for them, to make the sacrifices that are necessary, even where those sacrifices are costly. We must make those sacrifices for them. That is why I'm so pleased that the government of President Buhari has chosen the path of the people, to stand with the people, to be with the people. We are not an elite government. We have chosen to take the side of the people and we'll remain taking the side of the people of this country. Again, let me commend the man for whom we are gathered, Ashwajubola Metsinugu, a man who has been known time and time again for his battles for the people of this country, beginning here in Lagos State, all over the southwest and for the entire nation. I want to commend him for his resilience and for sticking to his principles as a fighter for the people of this country. On our part as a government and for the rest of us, I believe that the best times for our country are here to come, the future of our country is bright. Day by day, step by step, we're going in the right direction. Our country is getting better and better every day. Thank you very much. God bless you.