EIGHT would-be ministers appeared before the Senate yesterday with a bagful of solutions they believe would help President Goodluck Jonathan's transformation agenda if properly implemented.
Most of the questions from the senators were on portfolios the nominees may occupy when they are eventually inaugurated by the President.
Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, gave an insight into what easily fit into economic diplomacy when he told the Upper House that Nigeria needs to review its present foreign policy to address its present economic realities.
Ashiru said the time had come for the country to review the foreign policy put in place in 1986, which makes Africa the centre-piece of its foreign policy.
Another nominee, Mike Onolememen from Edo State, appeared conversant with the challenges in the road and construction sector, when the key interest the senators showed in his answers, portrayed that he could fit into the works ministry.
On the high cost of building materials, which the Senate said had affected the cost of road and housing in the country and how he intends to address the challenges, Onolememem advised the Federal Government to identify roads that are economically viable across the country and seek alternative ways of funding their construction and maintenance.
Onolememen, an architect said many of the problems of road development stem from the lack of project review and continuity of funding on the side of government. He added that the cost of road construction depends on the topography since Nigeria has varied geographical landscape.
The business of the day started with Alhaji Bukar Tijani, a nominee from Borno State, who was drilled on his plans to boost agriculture and how to contain the incessant conflicts between the Benue people and the nomads if confirmed a minister. .
He began with job creation in the agriculture sector, adding that the main challenge of agricultural development in Nigeria is that only the aged engage in farming. He emphasised the need to bring youths to the sector. .
To Ashiru, "a time has come for us to have a slight shift (in our foreign policy) so that we can use it to support government's programme to create jobs, to reduce poverty, to support government's effort in the power sector, national security, food security. The emphasis should change so that our ambassadors can have top most drive to bring in investors, and concentrate on our investment promotion. There should be no visa restriction for investors. Nigerians should be treated with dignity and there should be no reason for maltreatment. It is unacceptable to put Nigerians under the rain and sun over visa,'' he said.
The nominee, who was eventually cleared by the Senate, also indicated that Nigeria may redouble effort in the fight for permanent seat in the United Nations (UN). "Nigeria deserves a permanent seat in the UN because more than any country, she has assisted other countries to restore peace and independence in some other countries. We have paid our dues,'' he said.
He added that the time had come for Nigeria to tie her assistance to other nations to investment. "The time has come to tie assistance to aids. There should be a provision that after assisting to restore peace, Nigeria should enjoy investment flow,'' he remarked.
"We want to see that the private sector is the lead while government will look at how best she can facilitate. One of the ways is by providing funding, so that young people, women, are organised into groups so that they can enhance their capacity to allow them go into venture or enterprise of their choice,'' he said.
Noting that women play prominent role in agriculture in the country, Tijani suggested that both women and youths should be organised in such a way that they can assess credit facilities to boost output.
"I also want to recognise that women play major roles in agriculture, which is more than that of men. While we have government, we want young stars to be organised in such a way that they can get some interventions. One of the problems is dealing with individuals when it comes to credits and getting a guarantor. Once they are organised, they can be guaranteed to get small credit of 24-month for short-term and five years for the medium-term. .
Speaking on food security, he stressed that any nation that cannot feed itself is insecure. In Nigeria, he said the issue is not of total food insecurity but rather that the country has not attained the desired goal.
To encourage small-scale farmers, who produce over 90 per cent of local consumption, the nominee canvassed for, aside credit facilities, for technical approach to farming. As it is done in other parts of the world, he called for research and technology as well as provision of post-harvest storage facilities towards improving agriculture.
On the problem of inadequate housing, Onolememem stated that the issue had assumed a near-crisis situation as 90 per cent of Nigerians still live in rented accommodation, spending about 60 to 70 per cent of their total income on rent.
To provide housing for Nigerians, he projected that the government should embark on building one million houses yearly for the next seven years while slamming the Federal Housing Authority (FHA)'s slow pace of constructing only 43,000 housing units in the past 40 years. This he said was not in the interest of meeting any target of housing-for-all.
The nominee, who received a lot of accolades from many law makers shortly after his screening, added that Lagos State alone needed about 243,000 houses over a couple of years to meet the rising demand in the state.
He also urged federal and state governments, and local councils to collaborate and identify with the project of providing mass houses for all Nigerians so that the vision will not be compromised.
Onolememen also commended President Jonathan for controlling the cost of building materials in the country which he said was a right step in the right direction to make houses available for all Nigerians. He admitted that the issue of high cost of housing is a nagging one. He however opined that rather than continue to import raw materials, Nigeria should leverage on technological advancement to improve on its locally made building materials. .
Onolememen also spoke on the National Building Code, which came into effect in 2006. He said it should be strengthened to take care of building collapse.
On abandoned projects, which value the Senate estimated to be over N1 trillion, he said: "Most of those projects do not have clear funding mechanism, yet they are awarded. They are awarded without proper planning and most times, it is a problem of incompetent contractors and lack of continuity, corruption and other vices. If we have continuity in terms of project execution, the cases of abandoned project would be reduced."
Alhaji Bolaji Abdullahi, a nominee from Kwara State, while canvassing improved salary structure for journalists in both public and private sectors considering the embedded hazards, called for sanity in the profession. .
"There should be mechanism for determining minimum wage for certain sectors. Certain sectors carry peculiar hazards and such should be put into consideration. I will support enhanced remuneration of journalists in the public and private sectors. Poor salary of journalists should not be excused for unethical behaviours." .
Olajumoke Akinjide, one of the two female nominees for the day, was asked to take a bow and go, considering her enormous qualifications while the other female nominee, Hajia Zainab Ibrahim Kuchi, from Niger State, was asked one question and allowed to leave.
The nominees confirmed by the Senate yesterday were Tijani, Onolememen, Abdullahi, Ashiru (Ogun), Akinjide (Oyo), Yerima Lawan Ngama (Yobe), Ambassador Bashir Yuguda (Zamfara), and Kuchi (Niger)
Senate President David Mark informed the Upper Chamber that Jonathan had forwarded a fresh list of ministerial nominees. They are Mrs. Stella Ochekpe for Plateau State, Mr. Edem Duke (Cross River), Nelson Wike (Rivers), Mrs. Ama Pepple (Rivers), Mrs. Hadiza Mailafiya, Dr. Nurudeen Mohammed (Nasarawa), Mrs. Omobola Johnson Olubushola (Ondo), and Dr. Mohammed Leko (Bauchi).
At the House of Representatives, members took a swipe at the increasing cost of maintaining the nation's refineries without corresponding benefits to the nation.
They also lamented the gradual decline in the nation's foreign reserve despite the steady increase in the price of crude oil in the international market.
During a question and answer session with the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke at the National Assembly, a lawmaker, Adeola Solomon (ACN, Lagos), said: "It is very sad that as the sixth largest oil producer in the world, Nigeria still depends on imported petroleum products. I think that we need to be more sensitive, transparent and open as a government in dealing with issues in the petroleum sector. We are also seriously worried that despite the steady rise in the crude oil price, which is in the region of $112 per barrel now, our foreign reserve has been shrinking. What is responsible for this? Government must do something serious to ensure that Nigerians reap from this natural blessing."
In his own argument, John Enoh (PDP, Cross River) wondered if government took the right decision in reversing the sale of the refineries.
He said that what government was spending on refineries in terms of maintenance had no corresponding benefit on Nigerians.
Alli Yakubu PDP, Yobe State said: "All we want in your reform is for refineries to work because in the past 10 years we have been hearing same stories. Give us an analysis of the state of each of the four refineries because all of them cannot have the same problem."
But Mrs. Alison-Madueke said the government must continue to invest more funds in the maintenance of refineries because they still belonged to government.
"What do we do to our refineries? Should we throw them away? We must continue to maintain them so long as they belong to the government," she said.
The Guardian
Nigeria is a great country endowed with unequal human resources sound in policy-making and theoretical justification but lack in practical implementation of their policies. Nigeria always has the best blueprint but implementation has been the problem. WHY?