PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan is to launch a massive public works programme aimed at providing jobs for unemployed youths.
The President also restated his commitment to free and fair elections at all times.
The government is also working on a new governance structure for the nation's roads that will attract Foreign Direct Investment and the private sector funding of its construction and maintenance.
Already, a Federal Government's delegation led by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has left Nigeria for China in respect of federal highways in the country.
The Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen, told journalists in Abuja that the public works programme to be executed under the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Scheme (SURE) would involve the construction, completion and rehabilitation of key federal highways, rails, refineries, hydro-stations, information technology and water.
About 370,000 Nigerians are to benefit from the programme. While the skilled workers will be recruited and deployed to the critical sectors, there would be training in artisanship for unskilled youths.
Onolememen said that those to be deployed in the Ministry of Works projects would be engaged in "maintenance of roads, filling of pot-holes, vegetation control and other related tasks so that they would be given the opportunity to earn a living and contribute their quota to national development."
Four major federal highways and two bridges have been chosen to be implemented under the programme. They include the Sagamu-Ore-Benin, Onitsha-Enugu-Port Harcourt, Kano-Maiduguri and the Abuja-Lokoja roads and the second Niger Bridge at Onitsha and the Owote Bridge in Benue State.
The minister noted the imperative of a new governance structure for Nigerian roads as the one in place now "is not the best. So, the new governance structure of the roads must attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) and private sector funding. We are continuing multilateral co-operation for contracting roads. Last year, we awarded the Enugu-Abakaliki Road and the Ogoja-Ikom roads. They are part of the Trans-Africa Highway and are being funded by the World Bank and the Nigerian government at a ratio of 90 per cent to 10.
"The Public Private Partnership (PPP) road governance structure is in the process of delivering the expansion and modernisation of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Road, Lagos and the second Niger Bridge. The bridge is expected to cost about N100 billion with the private sector contributing N70 billion and the Federal Government N30 billion. This Federal Government counterpart-funding payment is spread over three years and will come through the SURE programme. The PPP projects will be well delivered as the ministry now has enough capacity to cope with its implementation."
On the Apapa-Oshodi expressway, Onolememen stated that plans were on to include the construction of additional dedicated roads to serve the Tin Can and Apapa ports, the tank farms and the Atlas Cove roads.
President Jonathan, who spoke at the presentation of the former governor, Alhaji Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, as the party's standardbearer in the February 18 gubernatorial election, said that in the past, it was thought impossible to conduct free and fair elections but that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government was now doing so from the local council to the federal level.
He said that the government would continue to ensure free and fair elections to the end of his tenure in 2015, adding that "elections must be free and fair and we will maintain our slogan of one man one vote, one youth one vote and one woman one vote."
The President was confident that the party would win the remaining three states of Cross River, Sokoto and Bayelsa as it did in Kogi and Adamawa states.
He said that as a nation, Nigeria was facing various challenges, including infrastructural development and that with the people's massive support for the PDP government, the nation would get to its destination.
According to him, the crowd of people from the airport to the venue of the ceremony, the Sokoto Trade Fair Complex, was an indication of the support enjoyed by the party in the state.
He praised the people for their support, which enabled the former governor and now the party's candidate to put in place everything that had been planned for the state.
He told the people that the outcome of the forthcoming election was already a foregone conclusion and urged them to properly secure their voter's cards so as to vote on the election day.
In his speech, the PDP Acting National Chairman, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, described Wamakko as the one and only candidate of the party who was duly elected to be the party's standardbearer on the February 18 elections before inviting President Jonathan to present the party's flag to the candidate.
Also speaking, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, said that members of the National Assembly were solidly behind Wamakko.
Other dignitaries on the occasion included Vice President Namadi Sambo, Senate President David Mark, the former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the governors of Adamawa, Jigawa, Kebbi and Kaduna states as well as the deputy governors of Katsina and Kano states.
There was heavy security both within and outside the venue with two ambulances and two fire-fighting vehicles on standby.
The Guardian