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Nigeria: Yar'Adua Raises Task Force on Energy Crisis
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Daily Champion (Lagos)
17 August 2007
Posted to the web 17 August 2007
Daniel Idonor
Abuja
GOVERNMENT yesterday set about inaugurating a new National Council on Energy, as the fulcrum of a task force for tackling the nation's lingering energy crisis.
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua said in Abuja yesterday that the council would be inaugurated next week, and is to advise government on how best to revive the ailing energy sector.
The president, who spoke while declaring open a retreat for his ministers, special advisers and permanent secretaries in the federal civil service, stated that self sufficiency in the energy sector was one of the critical areas his administration intended to pursue with great vigour in order to make the country one of the greatest economies by 2020.
According to him, unless the problem of energy, which he said was germane to realizing the country's quest for industrial development was resolved, "we cannot develop the capacity to drive the economy for both industrial and private use."
Yar'Adua said that by the next federal executive council meeting, "we will establish a National Council on Energy that will advise government on power, gas and energy. After the establishment of the Council, it will sit, invite experts and work out a programme for our self-sufficiency in power and energy."
He said an energy emergency would be declared so that the nation, within the next decade, would have sufficient energy to drive a modern economy."
The problem of insecurity in the Niger Delta region, the president said, was at the root of securing the understanding of militants in the region to embrace dialogue and allow peace to reign.
"The last critical infrastructure area in the seven-point agenda is the Niger Delta. This encompasses the security situation in the Niger Delta and the holistic development of the region," the president said.
He also reported that Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan was leading efforts to get the militants' leaders to come to the table for dialogue.
"We are on the threshold of having an understanding. We have adopted the Niger Delta Master Plan drawn up by the Niger Delta Development Commission. We have agreed collectively with the states of the region, that as soon as peace is restored in the region, we will begin full implementation of the holistic development plan," the president pointed out.
Regarding land administration, President Yar'Adua noted: "We also need to reform the structure of land ownership so that we allow people to take their land to the market and use it to raise funds. A farmer cannot take his land now to access funds in the capital market. For now, land is a dormant asset which can be used to raise fund for development. This has to change".
While complimenting the last administration's reform programme as encapsulated in the NEEDS documents, Yar'Adua said his administration would remain focused in order to ensure that the reforms are not derailed.
"Actually, in the last eight years, we made a lot of progress. We have charted a course that allows understanding of how a modern nation grows - by having a vision and coming towards a development strategy that works. In the light of this, we need honesty, determination, hard work and focus to work steadily towards achievement in the critical areas.
"The NEEDS reform has encompassed all the reform of the previous administration which we are continuing. We are focused. We know what we want. We know where we want to go. We know that by 2020, Nigeria would be one of the top 20 economies in the world. We are working to articulate this, to realize this vision and attain this objective," he noted.
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He further said the government would work towards ensuring that other sectors of the economy are developed in order to reduce the over dependence on oil and gas.
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