President Muhammadu Buhari has held a special meeting with members of his cabinet where he told them that the new four-year mandate given to his administration would be tough.

He told them that he would pursue his campaign promises of securing the country, transforming the economy and the fight against corruption.

The cabinet ministers were in the State House, Abuja, on Friday to congratulate him on his electoral victory.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on Wednesday declared President Buhari, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the 2019 Presidential Election, held on Feb. 23.

Buhari was declared re-elected having polled 15,191,847 votes, winning in 19 states, to defeat other 72 candidates including Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 11, 255,978 votes.

President Buhari chats with Vice President Osinbajo and NSA Monguno during a congratulatory visit from members of the cabinet

The president said: “My last lap of four years I think is going to be tough because people are very forgetful – that was why wherever I went I reminded them of the campaign by our party of the three fundamental issues – security because you have to secure a country or an institution to manage it properly.

“If you don’t secure it you can’t manage it no matter how much propaganda you put in place.

“Secondly the economy, the unemployed able bodies is the problem of this country as a whole – more than 60 per cent are youths – that meant 35 years and below – they need to be kept busy.

“I realised that and I think God heard our prayers that the two previous rainy seasons were good and we had the foresight to get the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Central Bank to try and give soft loans to farmers so that able bodies that have land can go back to land.’’

The President, who also spoke on his campaign tour, stated that the successful completion of the tour had proven the opposition wrong that he was unfit to govern the nation.

He said the campaign tour did not only prove that he was medically fit but a clear indication that he was ready to continue in leading Nigeria for the next four years.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the highlight of the event was the presentation of congratulatory cards to the president by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha and the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Winfred Oyo-Ita. (NAN)

Update news