minister of information Mr. Labaran Maku
At
least that was what the crowd gathered at the National Press Centre dreaded to
hear when the Minister of Information Mr Labaran Maku addressed a world Press
Conference on the activities and achievements of Government.
A
concerned civil servant seated beside me poked me after the address to ask the Minister of
information Mr Labaran Maku if the delay in the payments of August salaries was
as a result of the cash crunch rumoured by a section of the media. http://saharareporters.com/news-page/nigerian-government-broke-targets-pension-savings
I told
him that I have other question to ask the minister but he can do so himself as
it was an open forum and not restricted to Journalists alone, ‘God forbid’ he
said ‘do you want me to lose my Job?’ I am civil servant o’
I asked
him if civil servants were not allowed to ask questions and he just smiled,
anyway that is for another day’s argument, well I suggested a way to which he
can ask a question and remain anonymous and that was through the social media
platform twitter. @FMINigeria which he
did and fortunately the questions was raised
Responding,
the minister of information Mr Labaran
Maku says the federal government is not broke and the economy is stable
‘How can you call
a country that has $ 40 million in reserves and 8 per cent inflation broke? We
are growing, the stability in the economy is one that is desired that’s why
people are coming in to invest so I can tell you certainly that Nigeria is not
broke’.
That
still did not convince my friend the civil
servant who asked the question and scores of other civil servants who did
not understand how the economy was good and ok, yet it did not reflect on their
salaries.
Noticing
the agitation in the audience, Mr Labaran Maku said the delay in the release of
August salaries has nothing at all to do with whether the government was broke.
The information Minister stressed that the delay was caused by technical challenges
in the new payment system and assured that the monies will be paid before the
end of the week (Last weekend).
‘Being
a new payment system sometimes there are unusual delays because we are changing
to ensure that those ghosts that we use to pay, those ghosts that have taken
millions from public sectors particularly the federal public sector stop taken
money from our own purse and so the system we put in place sometimes there are
these delays.’
The
information Minister went further to say that Nigeria’s economy in the last
decade has not been as fantastic as what we have today. He reiterated his address
in the following sub-headings Economy, Agriculture, Transportation, Power, and
Education. Which I will summarize three
ECONOMY.
The
information Minister said for the first time in the history of the country, the
micro-economy of Nigeria has claimed global recognition because the foreign
exchange has remained stable for the last three years, according to him a
stable foreign exchange is able to make investors plan on the long term without
fear of losing their resources.
He gave
an example of the Dangote group entering a deal worth N3.3 Billion to establish
the largest refinery and a petro-chemical company.
‘This
is good because the foreign companies want to see what Nigerians are doing
themselves in their country before they invest, so the Dangote group is opening
the door to the world to come and invest’
Still in
the oil and gas sector Maku said the government will not be able on its own
re-vitalise the downstream sector that is why it has opened free trade zones
where private companies can come and invest in the sector. He gave example of
chevron which is working on our Liquefied Natural Gas which will be in use by
the end of the year because about two hundred companies in the country rely on
gas for power.
The Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) is rising as the minister emphasised, the GDP is
estimated to be between 6.7% - 7% at the end of the year which will see Nigeria
maintain the number one spot in the continent above South Africa and Egypt.
‘Economically
we can tell you that the Nigeria’s economy is receiving greater confidence from
the world, investments are coming in in Agriculture, Investments are coming in
the Gas sector and also the petro-chemical companies that are being established’.
My friend
the civil servant after the submission
by the Information Minister on the state of the Nigerian economy only muted ‘why did they introduce the system if they
know it is not fast?
AGRICULTURE
In this
sector the Information Minister Mr Labaran Maku accused past administrations of
paying lip service to Agriculture until the coming on board of the transformation
agenda of President Jonathan.
According
to the minister, about 750 thousand young farmers are expected to get the
opportunity in agricultural sector to give the sector the required rise it
needs.
‘The most
important thing in Agriculture is deregulation that has taken place in the sector,
what is happening in this sector has never happened since the collapse of the
marketing burst in the mid-eighties, today we are seeing the agricultural
sector driven by private companies supplying seeds and fertilizer directly to
farmers without government involvement we have eliminated bureaucracy that has
hindered the development of this sector’
The minister
emphasized that the deregulation has allowed private individuals to invest huge
amount of monies into this sector, a risks no one was willing to take in the
past decades.
In 2014 Nigeria will not only be the largest
producer of cassava but the largest producer of processed cassava ready for
export because of the numerous cassava plants established in the country said
the Minister.
In the
area of rice production the minister said ‘we have seen the advent of 12 rice mills,
we saw one of them in Eboyin and the one in Kebbi must have been completed by
now and in all these towns we have set up grain reserves’.
According
to him a private farmer has invested $ 40 million dollars in rice production
and by 2015 we will be able to achieve self-sufficiency. The minister called on
Nigerians to patronise local products.
TRANSPORTATION.
At this
moment my friend gave my an insight of
what the information Minister was going to say, he told me the minister will
talk about the rail lines from Lagos to Kano and the airport rehabilitation.
Well it
turns out my friend was right, the Minister of information started with the
railway ‘we are going to visit with media particularly the rail sector before
the end of this month we are going to take the media what is the government is
doing in the standard guage rail line betweenAbuja and Kaduna so that Nigerians
will see the progress going on simultaneously with the Warri- Ajoakuta lines.’
Wondering
how my friend the civil servant knew all these did he get a hold of the script? He said he was present at the ministerial
platform and has listened to the Information Minister speak every day for a
month, and that there’s nothing new that has happened between July and September.
I informed
him that he cannot say that something new has not happened; I reminded him that
for the first time in the history of the country an airline landed and departed
from the south-east to china. He simply responded by saying if I could go to
china I won’t be sitting beside you.
Whatever
he meant I didn’t want to stress further but the point I figured out was that
the average civil servant is less concerned by the economy unless it does
affect his/her salary. If these group of persons that are supposed to well
informed and interested in governance and provide answers to many who don’t know
care less, what will be millions outside the sector be channelling their
strengths into?
Similarly
the government should focus on developing new achievements rather than hammering
and chorusing on the same old issues.
I hope
you have been paid by now my friend?
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