NGGT Delta: Presidential Aide, Monye shocked by ‘Oshiomole comment’, says Edo Governor must have been misquoted.

[FMINigeria]

                        The Special Adviser to the President on Performance Monitoring, Prof. Sylvester Monye says he is surprised at comments allegedly credited to Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomole, dissociating  himself from the ongoing National Good Governance Tour.

Fielding questions from newsmen during an inspection of the Asaba International Airport with other members of the National Good Governance Tour, Prof. Monye, said "I spoke with the Governor of Edo State in Ekiti on Saturday and I was surprised that he went to talk about it in the media.

"In fact the Governor of Edo State told me that he is happy to host the Good Governance Tour and that he will accommodate the Minister and some people. I think he is quoted out of context.

He however revealed that the Governor raised the issue of not wanting to be seen to be assessed by the Federal Government. "But this is not an assessment tour. This is a tour that is meant to showcase what is happening", Monye explained.

According to the Special Adviser to the President on Performance Monitoring, the decision to have the tour was actually initiated by National Planning Commission, Ministry of Information and his office. "We had series of discussions, perfected it, took it to the Federal Executive Council just as the Minister said, and the Federal Executive Council approved", he added.

He however stated that because the President is conscious of doing national projects, he directed that the issue be presented to the governors because according to him, it will be unwise to go to states to say you are looking... even if you are looking at Federal Government projects alone, you still need to tell the governor that you are coming and you need to solicit their support and corporation.

Commenting further on the issue of funding the Tour, Prof. Monye said "You see, when you talk about funding, you think about estacodes, per diem and little money. But it involves a lot more than per diem. The security that you need to go round for the states, I am sure that is not what the Minister has budget for. So it is expected that a state government is to support the initiative with such support. I expect that all the states will support. All the states have committed to supporting", he stressed.

Highlighting the gains of the National Good Governance Tour in line with its objectives, Prof. Monye said "I have been listening to everybody speak in the last one hour or two, and people are saying is this happening in Delta? We didn't know this is happening in Delta. If this tour has not happened, you will be reading the negatives in the media. But today you are seeing for yourselves. This is only one city by the way. This is only Asaba. As the man from Okpana will say, all the projects are in Asaba, no! It is not all the projects. These are just a few of the projects in Delta State. By the time you go to Agbor, Warri, Uhelli,by the time you go round the Delta State, you would have been very happy. I think it is a good project and all the states should support it".

Also speaking, the President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Mallam Mohammed Garba said "For me I remember when we agreed to participate on this Good Governance Tour, we were invited by the Minister; we discussed the concept and the modalities.

He told the newsmen that the concept of the Tour was agreed to considering it is part of the responsibility of the Media. "Ordinarily, without even the Good Governance Tour the Media is to go round and look at the progress in this democracy. Actually it's part of our constitutional responsibility so I think we don't have a problem with the concept.

"In terms of modalities we also discussed, part of the issue which I think we agreed is that we have to uphold the principles of freedom of expression and the freedom of the press which I think we have been agitating for quite a while and I want to believe that throughout the States we have visited so far that freedom has been guaranteed because we are at liberty to discuss exactly and objectively what we saw and if really you go through our presentations at the various States which we have visited you will realise that there have been different opinions, there is involvement of quite a number of people including the Civil Society, so I am really really very surprised to have this coming from one of our respected Governors in this Country and I also want to believe that he must have been misquoted or maybe there is a problem but in terms of logistics as well.

"I know we discussed this issue very seriously and the purpose actually as I said from the beginning is to ensure that we able to monitor this democracy and I think so far so good. I have not heard to the best of my knowledge where the Minister has called us to say this is what we should report or in any situation where he has influenced our analysis in the case of our presentation, so I want to believe that we are doing our job and quite a number of Civil Society Organisations and Media, they believe in this Good Governance Tour and they are participating more and more. That's my comment on this", Garba said.

Via: Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria