Muhammad Bello

The first meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for the year held yesterday in Abuja and approved three new federal universities to be sited in Gashua, Yobe State; Birnin Kebbi, the Kebbi State capital; and Gusau, the Zamfara State capital.

Following the FEC’s approval, every state of the federation now boasts a federal university.

The Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, who disclosed this at the end of the meeting, said the decision was in fulfillment of government’s plan for each state to have a federal university.

FEC’s approval came on the heels of the disclosure by the Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Ngama, that the transformation efforts of the administration has secured Nigeria a slot among 16 developing nations to be allotted more shares in the World Bank, thus giving the country a louder voice and more influence in the global financial institution.

Speaking on the development, Ngama said Nigeria was on its way to becoming one of the top economies of the world alongside the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations.

He said the opportunity the selection has given Nigeria is that it now has 109 shares added to the ones that the country previously held in the World Bank.

“The shares will not be revealed immediately,” Ngama explained, adding that “payments for the shares will only be made when the shares are called up. We will pay whenever the World Bank calls for payment to be made.

“The significance of having more shares in the World Bank is that the more you have, the greater the voice the country will have in the bank and this would pave the way for Nigeria to join the league of BRICS.”
According to him, the criteria for the selection of a country by the World Bank are: Strength of the economy, rate of growth and impact of its fiscal policy on global economic affairs.

The minister, who listed the economic performance of Nigeria as including improved rate of growth in non-oil exports to about 3,000 per cent and significant GDP growth, posited that Nigeria was growing faster than many countries that were ahead of her before.

He said: “At the end of 2011, Nigeria became the third highest growing economy in the world.”
Earlier, Maku, alongside his colleagues from the Ministries of Education, Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, and Finance, said the president had given the ministers their priorities for the year.

“He gave marching orders to all ministers to work faster and decisively. He argued that having laid the foundation for various programmes, ministers should build on what has been done to deliver to Nigerians. Work as a team and take responsibility for their various MDAs,” Maku explained.

Maku also stated that a lot has been done in the last one-and-a-half years, adding that a key landmark achievement was made in the railway sector, as train services started running from Lagos to Kano.

He added that petroleum products are now being moved by rail and “we envisage that this year, trains will start running from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri. Once this starts, the economy will take off.”

According to him, the objective of the government regarding power this year was to commission more projects initiated last year and increase the generation capacity.
He said with the synergy among sectors such as agriculture, roads and others, the Federal Government was looking forward to greater synergy between ministries.

In her briefing, the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa’i, who made a case for the approval of three more federal universities and got FEC’s approval, pointed out that access to education has been an annual problem that the government is worried about.

She said council approved the establishment of federal universities in Birnin Kebbi, Gashua and Gusau in Kebbi, Yobe and Zamfara States, respectively.
“There are 1.3 million to 1.5 million applicants for JAMB every year. For all categories of subjects sought by students, there is no space or capacity beyond 10%. Lack of ability to provide space is creating a problem for other sectors of the economy,” the minister explained.

The three new federal universities, she disclosed, have been mandated to start skeletal services, adding that they are scheduled to take off before 2014.

On his part, the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Chief Edem Duke, said the tourism brand identity presented to the FEC was approved. Titled Tourism Transformation Agenda, Duke said it is linked with the desire of the president that priority national attention must be given to tourism, culture and national orientation.



http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/yobe-zamfara-kebbi-get-universities/135889/

Okay . . .But OP, your thread title funny oooo !!!

Commendable

How many abandoned projects have we seen in Nigeria? Until the universities kick off with full force, until we have un interrupted power suppy, until our roads are good we are still were we are!

We should learn to start advoiding rhetorics!.