President elect Muhammadu Buhari has urged Nigerians to tamper their expectations from his government with understanding and patience, saying it would take a while for the fortunes of the nation to be restored.

Buhari said this while receiving a group of Northern leaders led by Ambassador Maitama Sule in Abuja.

He said while his government would do all it could to bring economic and social development to Nigerians, the expected success would be a collective effort from all stakeholders across the country.

He said he was particularly appalled by the revelation that over 400, 000 barrels of crude oil was stolen daily under the watch of the outgoing administration adding that such drain pipes would have to be sealed for the nation to move forward economically.

“You can imagine what is happening in the high sea where up to 400,000 barrel of crude oil, which we rely on, is stolen every day with the full cooperation of those who are supposed to protect it. Fuel price has gone down and 90 per cent of the foreign exchange we rely on comes from that,” Buhari lamented.

He said that the biggest message at the moment was to persuade Nigerians to understand that it is not possible to change the state of affairs within a short while.

“It took 16 years and those 16 years, most of you know it better than myself that Nigeria earned revenue more than what it earned from 1914 till then. You know that we used to have the Nigeria Airways, Nigeria Shipping Line and the Nigeria Railways. Where are they now? Where is the infrastructure between then and now and what we earned in-between and what is on ground? That is how efficiently the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, managed Nigeria in the last 16 years.”

He said also that the revamping the north east would take a while due to the massive destruction insurgents had wreaked on the area over the years.

He said the economy and security would top his agenda when he assumes office, followed by the fight against corruption.

“The country has to be secured before anything can be put in place and then the economy. The fact is that more than 60 per cent of Nigeria’s population are youths and most of them, whether they have been to school or not are unemployed and this is the biggest danger if we don’t know. So, there must be jobs for these people as quickly as possible for us to even enjoy relative peace.”

He added that agriculture and mining would equally be given a prime place in the search for a durable alternative for revenue for the country, Buhari stated.

Sule who spoke on behalf of the elders urged the president – elect to see his victory as an act of God and to make sure he did not disappoint Nigerians.

He expressed optimism that Nigerians would learn to live peacefully despite their obvious differences.