Vice-President Namadi Sambo on Sunday
said efforts were being made to wheel about 20,000 megawatts of
electricity for the country to improve power transmission.
A statement by the vice-president’s
spokesman, Mr. Umar Sani, quoted Sambo as saying this during a meeting
he held with members of the Nigerian-Canadian Association in Toronto,
Canada.
Sambo said to achieve the feat, the government had last week approved the release of $3.7bn for the power sector.
“The Federal Government last week
approved the sum of $3.7bn to improve power transmission so as to wheel
20,000MW,” the statement quoted him as saying.
Sambo told the gathering that the present administration was committed to the provision of necessary infrastructure.
He added that efforts were being
intensified in the areas of power supply, transportation, aviation,
Information and Communication Technology, agriculture and the provision
of affordable healthcare services.
He also said the administration was addressing educational advancement issues with the provision of good governance.
He called on Nigerians in the Diaspora to come home and be part of the new development.
Sambo appreciated their contributions to
national development, adding that it was in recognition of the
contributions that a Diaspora bond of N1bn was set up.
The vice-president urged them to key into such a laudable initiative.
Earlier, the association’s President,
Mr. Fabian Nwoha, had expressed the desire of the body to contribute
positively to the country’s development.
Nwoha, however, said members were holding back due to the reported negative incidences and other vices in Nigeria.
He noted that with the new development
being witnessed in the country, citizens in the Diaspora had confidence
in the ability of the government to deliver on its promises.
He used the occasion to remind the
government of its promise to provide a consular office in Toronto to
help ease emerging diplomatic issues.
The Nigerian High Commissioner to
Canada, Dr. Ojo Madueke, said the association represented the future
that would import their talent and know-how into the country.
This is the History of fuel price increases in Nigeria by Aliyu Ibrahim Gowon - from 6k to 8.45k Murtala - from 8.45k to 9k Obasanjo - from 9k to 15.3k Shagari - from 15.3k to 20k Buhari - from 20k to 20k (Price remain the same) Babangida - from 20k to 70k Shonekan - from 70k to N5 Abacha - from N5 to N3.25k (Price drops) Abacha - from N3.25k to N15 Abacha - from N15 to N11 (Price drops) Abubakar - from N11 to N25 Abubakar - from N25 to N20 (Price drops) Obasanjo - from N20 to N30 Obasanjo - from N30 to N22 (Price drops) Obasanjo - from N22 to N26 Obasanjo - from N26 to N42 Obasanjo - from N42 to N50 Obasanjo - from N50 to N65 Obasanjo - from N65 to N75 Yar'Adua - from N75 to N65 (Price drops) Jonathan - (New year present) N141 Jonathan - (After nationwide strike) N97 Buhari appears to be the only leader that never touched the price of fuel (Increase or decrease). YAR'ADUA is the only leader who did not increase the price, rather he reduced the pump price from N75 to N65 (RIP).
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board
on Wednesday said the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination might
not hold in troubled states in the North.
The examination, in which over 1, 735,720 candidates are expected to participate in will hold on Saturday.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, the
JAMB Registrar/Chief Executive, Prof. ‘Dibu Ojerinde, said the board
“may not hesitate to stop the examination if there is any security
problem”.
Responding to a question on security
challenges in the country, Ojerinde said, “Yesterday it was a big
discussion among some agents as well as JAMB. We believe that things
will be all right. You see, we believe that we will surmount the
problem.
“If however, there is any problem, we
may not hesitate to stop the examination in those areas to the extent
that we will now give the children a chance of doing the examination on
CBT only.
“If you miss Paper Pencil Test in a
challenging area that you cannot do the examination, then you will have
to do the next one and that will have to be as from May 18.
“With God, we shall not experience any
problem. We have put everything humanly possible in place, we have put
this before God, and we believe he is not going to sleep on that day.
But if there is a need for postponement in those places, we shall not
hesitate.”
There have been reported cases of
violence occasioned by the activities of the insurgent group, Boko
Haram, in many states in the north in recent time.
Meanwhile, Ojerinde, said the Board had
concluded arrangement for its first Computer Based Test in 70 centres
across the nation from May 18 to June 1.
The CBT, he said, was an alternative to the Dual Based Test and PPT scheduled for Saturday.
Ojerinde said 1,629,102 candidates
applied for the IPT, 15,008 candidates for the Dual Based Test while
91,610 candidates applied for the CBT.
He said the figure for 2013 showed an
increase of 231,789 applicants when compared with last year’s figure of
1,503,931 representing an increase of 13.35 per cent.
Ojerinde said 145 visually-impaired
candidates registered for the examination while 196 inmates registered
for it from Kaduna and Lagos prisons.
Saka (Afeez Oyatoro) just upgraded
Hafeez Ayetoro, ace comedian and Nollywood actor, who has become the
face of Etisalat for some years now, has switched network from the GSM
company he was known with, to telecom giants MTN.
It will be recalled that Hafeez’s face became a part of Etisalat
branding for years, I can authoritatively inform you that
the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education lecturer, was given an
irresistible amount of money to switch allegiance.
The advert starts with Saka dressed in green traditional attire, only
to transform into a bright yellow attire as he leads a music band.
“I don port o, I don port go MTN. I don upgrade to MTN,” Saka sings and dances.
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Tuesday,stated that President Goodluck
Jonathan-led administration will produce results in 2013 even as she claimed that the year is going to be a game changer and turning point
for the nation. Dr Okonjo-Iweala who was a guest on Amanpour, said this
at the Christiane Amanpour current affairs programme aired on CNN.
The minister further stated that that the Jonathan administration is
already producing results even as the macroeconomics stability has been
restored.
Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria, is full of promise. But fulfilling that promise is often a struggle.
Plagued by corruption and mismanagement, the resource-rich country has a poverty rate of over 50%.
Maternal mortality is shockingly high and more than half of Nigerians
don’t have access to electricity, according to the World Bank.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the country’s finance minister and the former
World Bank official has been lauded as the reformer Nigeria needs.
But she too isn’t immune from Nigeria’s problems – her own mother was
kidnapped for a terrifying five days before being released.
President Goodluck Jonathan promised to address corruption in the
country. Nevertheless, a former governor – an ally of Jonathan – has
been convicted of embezzling million in public funds and has since been
pardoned.
“Nigeria does have a problem with corruption and so do many other
countries,” Okonjo-Iweala told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an interview
that aired Tuesday. “I don’t like the fact that when people mention the
name Nigeria the next thing they mention is corruption.”
Technology could be the answer the problem, Okonjo-Iweala believes.
“We must build electronic platforms. We must distance people from the
money. These things were recommended by the world bank and IMF,” she
told Amanpour. “We are doing them.”
President Jonathan is calling for the judiciary, the legislative and
the executive arm to meet together about this issue all together for the
time first Okonjo-Iweala said.
“Because even if you catch somebody, if they go to courts and they
are let off lightly the president can’t do anything about that. The
judicial system also has to be strengthened,” she said.
“This is a country of 170 million people; 99.9 percent of them are
honest, hard-working citizens who just want to get on with their lives,”
Okonjo-Iweala said, proudly. “And they want a government that delivers
for them.”
Oil should be Nigeria’s saving grace, but oil leakage causes a significant drain on the economy.
“We are still a poor country,” she admitted. “We can’t afford any leakage.”
On tap of that, there is immense oil theft, which Okonjo-Iweala puts
at 150,000 barrels stolen a day. She compared the situation to Mexico,
which sees tens of thousands of barrels stolen each day.
“We need them to treat this oil like stolen diamonds. The blood
diamonds,” she said – calling on the international community for
assistance. “Make it blood oil. Help us so those people don’t have a
market to sell this stuff.”
Nigeria is also plagued by problems with its electrical grid.
When the country’s president last appeared on CNN, he told Amanpour,
“That is one area that Nigerians are quite pleased with the government,
that’s a commitment to improve power. It’s working. So if you are saying
something different, I’m really surprised.”
That interview caused an uproar in Nigeria, with many of the county’s
very active social media citizens taking to Twitter and Facebook to
voice their frustrations with the power grid and President Jonathan’s
comments.
Okonjo-Iweala said the power problems all come down to previous government’s lack of investment.
“If you’ve neglected a sector for that long, you’ve not invested,
you’ve not even maintained your basic facilities, it’s not going to
happen that fast. It takes time,” she said.
While Nigerians often complain of power outages – telling CNN they
often have to use generators to watch the news channel – Okonjo-Iweala
maintained there has been improvement.
“That month, when you interviewed the president,” she said, referring
to Amanpour’s previous interview of Jonathan, “the polls showed,
independently, scientifically that they are in technical partnership
with dialogue. That 54 percent of Nigerians felt there was some
improvement,” she told Amanpour.
“Nigeria is not the only country. Almost every developing country has
a problem with power, as you know. India has it. South Africa has it.
South Africa is far better off because they’ve invested much more.
But many developing countries, even China, they are struggling with keeping up with infrastructure,” she said.
Okonjo-Iweala said that the administration has accepted that the government is not the best place to run the power sector.
“If we want this country and this economy to do better, we just have
to get out. And Nigeria is pursuing one of the most sweeping
privatization programs in any country in the world,” she said. “We are
selling off everything.”
That said, the lights even went out on President Jonathan during a
speech he gave a speech in front of cameras just this past Easter day.
I couldn't upload the video because of the network here. You can download the video here
http://goo.gl/HvIm0
