diva_tosin: I have no doubts in my mind that Gov Oshiomhole of Edo State is scared about the Good governance tour.
He feels threatened that the tour may finally burst the bubble about the hype surrounding his mediocre performance in Edo Srate.

eze ndi-igbo1:
So because GEJ is not putting on the apparells of your colonial masters,he is not well dressed?
You are an hopeless idiott.

trix!:
Its amazing how people come here on NL to abuse the President of the federal Republic of Nigeria.
Many of these people have never led even a small group of people, and have NO made no sort of achievement.

Jonathan Commends Lagos Government at Eko Atlantic City Opening

President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday commended the Lagos State government and her partners for the successful completion of the Eko Atlanti City project.

The president made this commendation at the opening of the Eko Atlantic City, which was witnessed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton in Lagos.

President Jonathan announced that the Federal Government will soon launch a new mortgage promotion agency which will ensure that all Nigerians have access to proper housing.

He said, “I am pleased to announce that we have commenced work on establishing a Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Corporation (NMRC) to help in providing finance for the housing and construction sector.

“The NMRC, which will be private-sector led, will be established as a PPP arrangement. The partners will include the Federal Government, Nigeria’s local banks and savings & loans institutions, and the multilateral institutions, especially the World Bank which is providing concessional credits of three hundred million dollars. Subsequently, the NMRC would be able to access the capital markets to raise long-term funds via bond issues.”

Below is President Jonathan’s speech at the event:

REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN, GCFR, AT THE MAIDEN VISIT TO THE EKO ATLANTIC CITY PROJECT IN VICTORIA ISLAND, LAGOS, ON THURSDAY, 21ST FEBRUARY, 2013.

PROTOCOLS

1. I am highly delighted to be here today on my maiden visit to the construction site of Eko Atlantic City. This landmark event is continuing the good news narrative that Nigeria must embrace permanently.

2. It took us nineteen years for us to win the nation’s cup again; the trains that now run from Lagos to Kano took us another nineteen years to get them back on track.

3. And in this same year preceding our centenary, we are gathered here to witness the ground breaking of a modern city that will rise from the Atlantic bed in the commercial nerve centre of our beloved Lagos. This is good news indeed.

4. I want to congratulate South Energyx Nigeria Ltd, the Government and good people of Lagos State, Messrs Dredging International Ltd and all the financial institutions, especially First Bank of Nigeria Plc, First City Monument Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, BNP Paribas Fortis and KBC Bank, for this most outstanding initiative.

5. The correlation between well-planned development and good quality of life as a bedrock for higher standards of productivity and sustainability cannot be over emphasized even as we note that housing is an important sector that provides jobs for our young men and women.

6. It is in this regard that the Housing and Urban development sector has been accorded priority attention by my Administration in recognition of its huge potential as an engine of growth and sustainable development. To this end, the enabling policy frameworks for kick-starting the revitalization of this sector are now being put in place.

7. As part of the overall Transformation Agenda, this administration is committed to harnessing the potential of the housing and construction sectors as an important growth area for the Nigerian economy.

8. All over the world, housing and construction constitute an important component of GDP. The sector has extensive backward and forward linkages, and thus can drive job creation for the building materials industry, for artisans such as plumbers, carpenters, and masons, and also for those who specialize in the interior and exterior decoration of buildings.

9. Admittedly, there are challenges in the housing and construction sector that cut across a number of areas, including property titling and high costs of building materials among others. To resolve these challenges I convened a presidential retreat with a view to consulting widely and extensively with various stakeholders so as enable Government take the right decision in the interest of our people.

10. I am therefore pleased to announce, as one of the outcome of the retreat, that we have commenced work on establishing a Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Corporation (NMRC) to help in providing finance for the housing and construction sector.

11. The NMRC, which will be private-sector led, will be established as a PPP arrangement. The partners will include the Federal Government, Nigeria’s local banks and savings & loans institutions, and the multilateral institutions, especially the World Bank which is providing concessional credits of three hundred million dollars. Subsequently, the NMRC would be able to access the capital markets to raise long-term funds via bond issues.

12. We anticipate that the NMRC will provide more liquidity to the housing and construction sectors, and with its operations, would hopefully lead to reduced mortgage and construction finance interest rates.

13. The e-collection platform created by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) for a more efficient collection and management of the National Housing Fund (NHF) and the broadening of its products to include provision of credit for informal sector workers are other complementary efforts to increase accessibility and affordability to mortgage finance.

14. With the on-going efforts to deal with the low capital base of mortgage institutions through new policy measures, we are optimistic that more Nigerians will be provided the opportunity of having access to home ownership.

15. The current policy measure of Government to encourage private sector participation in housing delivery through the Public-Private Scheme is also yielding good results with the implementation of a number of pilot schemes by the Federal Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development under the contractor-finance initiative.

16. The lessons from this initial effort are to be factored into a larger plan to gradually upscale the scope of implementation in the coming years to deliver more housing units using a variety of alternative technologies to promote accessibility and affordability in housing delivery.

17. The Federal Government of Nigeria is working with the State Governments to reduce the transaction time and the cost of the acquisition of land titles so that we can meet our objective of reducing the national housing deficit through substantial addition to the current stock.

18. I have received briefing to the effect that the construction of Atlantic City is benefiting from cutting-edge technology with special attention paid on climatic conditions including the perennial threats of ocean surges that has posed serious challenge to human and property on the coast of Victoria Island.

19. When completed, the Atlantic City will not only benefit the promoters of this project, but it will be an important addition to our nation’s strive to promote tourism and good living. The Project is a great example of partnership, for it brings private individuals and companies who have the knowledge and requisite expertise to transform land lost to erosion into a delightful Ocean City.

20. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, new cities are good, new cities are smart, new cities help to improve our thinking and our lives. We will encourage urban renewal, and where necessary new cities to be built to complement the old. It is in this regard that the Federal Government has given its full support to the construction of the Eko Atlantic City. I want to encourage every state government and other entrepreneurs to emulate this noble initiative.

21. Once again, I thank the initiators for this outstanding legacy project that will not only benefit the present generation, but generations yet unborn as well.

22. I thank you.

Approximate Jamboree Cost by Hon. Garri (x7)

Accommodation = 20,000 x 120 people x 3 days = 7.2 million Naira

Feeding = 4,000 x 120 people x 3 days x 3 times daily = 4.32 million Naira

Logistics = 3 Million Naira (Approx.)

Security = 2 Million Naira (Approx.)

Brown Envelopes = 100,000 x 120 thieves = 12 Million Naira

Miscellaneous = 5 million

TOTAL = 33.52 Million Naira...

Multiply by 36 and that's over a billion Naira down the drain on a "Praise-singing" Jamboree!!

Maduale: These ACN goons are just so funny . Yesterday, Adams Oshiomhole came out to condemn Maku's Good Governance Tour.
Today again, their spokesman followed suit. Aren't this a strategy to discredit the ongoing good governance tour which has really showcased projects executed by both state and local government in over 12 states so far?
I don't know why anyone will be afraid of a move by ministry of information to perform its primary role of providing adequate information to the people on issues of Good Governance.
If you say you are not hosting for the delegation, no problem. Allow the FG continue their exercise. They have sufficient funds to bankroll it.

This latest call by Lai Mohammed for the tour to end flies off in the face of Reason.

”Under our federalism, no state is subject to any control from the Federal Government, and no Governor is mandated to report to the President.

Ex-Militants In Imo Protest Non-Inclusion In Amnesty Programme

Hundreds of youths who claimed to be ex-militants from Ohaji Egbema oil producing Local Government Area of Imo state have staged a protest in Owerri the Imo state capital over what they termed as outright marginalization of the state from the list of the Niger Delta states who are to benefit from the third phase of the Presidential Amnesty Programme by the federal government.

Major roads in the state capital were barricaded during the protest where many of the protesters carried placards with various inscriptions.

The group accused the Presidential Amnesty Office in Abuja of deliberately excluding the state from the list of states to benefit from the third phase of the programme, having sent an adhoc committee to the South South states to make verification on the number of ex-militants to take part in the third phase.

They argued that Imo state is part of the Niger Delta states and the third largest producer of gas in the country. They also said most of the militants in the region also surrendered their arms and ammunitions during the amnesty programme.

The leader of the group, Andrew Edwin stated that the group is not pleased with this development and vowed that they will shut down all the oil wells located in Ohaji Egbema and Oguta Local Government Area of the state if the plan is not reversed.

However, the Special Assistant to the Governor on Niger Delta Affairs, Eric Nwanom said many letters have been written to the Presidential Amnesty Office but none has been responded to.

He said the state government will not fold their arms and allow the ex-militants to suffer as they will do everything possible to enable them get their rights.

Meanwhile, the office of the Niger delta amnesty office in Abuja has been reacting to this allegation by the youths, speaking to Channels Television, spokesman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Dan Alabrah said the programme has no third phase.

He said the verification exercise going on in the South South states followed the approval of the presidency to include 3, 642 persons who claimed that they accepted the offer of amnesty and surrendered their arms to the JTF in the states of the Niger delta and as such, the verification exercise is not a new one.

Minister Maku should immediately put an end to the jamboree he is leading, declare all the public funds he has collected in the name of this tour and return such to the state governments that have been swindled under the so-called ”Good Governance Tour.”

Maku’s ‘Good Governance Tour’ Is A Scam – ACN

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has described as a huge scam and an illegality the ”Good Governance Tour” currently embarked upon by the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, and a retinue of people, saying it must be stopped forthwith and those behind it made to account for the public funds they have collected in the process.

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party also commended the Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole for rejecting a multi-million-naira proposal from the Minister asking the state government to bankroll the Edo leg of the tour.



The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku on "Good Governance Tour with members of his team

It said such a tour as currently being led by the Minister across the country is an illegality in a federalism, the system of government which Nigeria is running, because it distorts the Constitution and gives the impression that the Federal Government is a supervisor of the various states ”Under our federalism, no state is subject to any control from the Federal Government, and no Governor is mandated to report to the President.

“To now have a team assembled by the Federal Government inspecting the projects being carried out by the various states is not only fraudulent and illegal, but amounts to a blatant waste of public funds.

“It is a carry-over from the days of military rule under which Nigeria was governed as a unitary state.

”It is also a case of double jeopardy for the states, whose projects are made to look like they are being executed by the
Federal Government, while at the same time they (states) are being made to pay for the meaningless tour.

”We say, unequivocally, that this tour fits into other fraudulent schemes concocted by this Federal Government to swindle the people, enrich a few and pad its war chest for the 2015 elections, and we are talking here of SURE-P as well as the oil subsidy and the pension fund scam.
This jamboree must end today!” ACN said.

The party asked whether the Federal Government that initiated the tour has allocated any funds to it, adding: ”If this answer is yes, why are states being asked to cough out millions of naira for it. And if the answer is no, why must states be made to pay for a Federal Government-initiated tour?”

It added: ”If the Federal Government has any project to showcase anywhere in the country, it is its prerogative to do so without extorting money from the states. And where it has nothing to showcase, it is fraudulent to be showcasing the projects embarked upon by state governments, many of which are not even under the same party as the Federal Government, hence they have their own mandates based on their party manifestoes.

”Wouldn’t it be laughable to see the Minister of Information questioning contractors of projects being executed by state governments or issue ultimatums to contractors he did not hire? Minister Maku should immediately put an end to the jamboree he is leading, declare all the public funds he has collected in the name of this tour and return such to the state governments that have been swindled under the so-called ”Good Governance Tour.”

chosen04:

Ewu Awusa......who will u not know that this is nothing but Lagos - Ibadan expressway based media houses JUNK JOURNALISM at its best?

U dey mind that Anu Npama?...........

donchris999: Guy if you feel what she said is not sensible just pass her comment. Replying her post means what she said is sensible. Smh for you.... Dont commit suicide over igbo matters oo like your master awolowo. Your obsession with igbos is just infact, dont kill yourself guy. @chosen04, lmao at the ibadan shyte journalism junk trying to justify the killing of innocent men yet to be proven guilty as kidnappers, when boko haram moves around freely bombing without fear.

chosen04: The source is one of the Lagos - Ibadan expressway based media houses abi?.......The editor must also be a recipient of the sage's free education right?

*****shakes head******

And in order to curb this activity, the leaders reached an unwritten agreement which is to deal with apprehended suspect extra-judicially.

Afam4eva: these traders should be made to pay a tax for the cleaning of these markets or it should be added to the tax that they already pay to the government.

uzomagic: This Oshiomhole like show oooo. Something that all the Governors agreed upon during a governors forum meeting but he is now forming as if na Maku wan use am chop.
Was he absent at the meeting? Abi he was sleeping when other governors agreed to do the Maku tour. Na waa ooo!
I believe Oshiomhole dey fear the tour because Maku dey expose cost of projects and all. The town hall meeting is also another nightmare for most governors who don't want to entertain questions from the public about several issues on governance. I dey watch am steady and see how people expose governors Nyash with questions.
Too bad Oshiomhole

eggheaders: another credible knock to the circus of the midget and his Co clowns.IMHO the tour is so needlessly and the lies been carried about during this needlessly circus is so nauseating. couple with the wastage of resources therein.I watched the one with t.a orji with a staunch pdp uncle of mine.and I was unable to change the channel I was pissed with the lies I was feeling like to slam the t v set on the floor.but finally walked out when the fool keep whining about uzor kalu for all the state misfortunes.

take dat: So Liebaran moves with all his laptop squad for the jamboree tours? Nice one Gov!