Leadership (Abuja)
Andrew Oota
19 December 2008
Abuja — Former Director General of the Debt Management Office (DMO) and ministerial Nominee, Dr. Mansur Muktar, yesterday blamed the lack of development of some sectors of the economy on the valuable time used by the former president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in pursuing debt relief for the country.
Although he shifted the blames on the door steps of the former president, he also acknowledged that the country's debt profile would have risen to 50Billion Dollars, should Obasanjo relent in his efforts to exit from it.
Appearing before the senate yesterday for screening and confirmation for appointment as minister of the federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Muktar also expressed concerns that each year the nation spends a lot of monies that would have being used for other projects to service foreign debts.
The nominee, who was later confirmed for appointment as minister of the federal government of Nigeria, also told Senators that the country needs very strong financial revenue monitoring to be able to survive the global financial crisis.
Calling for budget transparency, the nominee also advocated for proper borrowing needs, stressing that, "that is the only way we can move forward and meaningful impact."
According to him, "it is unfortunate that each year we pull out monies that would have being used for other sectors of the economy to service our foreign debts.
"In fact each time the former president Chief Obasanjo travelled outside the country, instead of him to focus on how he could work with other heads of states and governments on how to move the other sectors of the economy forward, he was more interested in talking about the debt relief."
He continued, " we also need a very strong financial revenue monitoring to avoid being hit by the global financial crisis , just as we need to also have budget transparency , we need to also have borrowing needs of the government, in fact every single kobo in the budget must be accountable"
However, the Senate also deferred the re-nomination of the Adamawa state nominee Alhaji Abubakar Adamu for screening and confirmation for appointment as minister of the federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Adamawa state nominee was rejected by the senate last week, but was re-nominated by presidency.
Meanwhile, Senate yesterday passed a resolution extolling the virtues of the late former minister of Agriculture in the president Shehu Shagari administration, Alhaji Yahaya Gusau, describing him as a courageous civilian who could challenge the military government.
This came on the heels of a motion co-sponsored by 25 senators, but was moved by Senator Ibrahim Ida (Katsina Central), titled, "Death of Alhaji Yahaya Gusau, OFR, Shettima Sokoto".
In the motion, the movers noted that the late Gusau was an old teacher and pioneer senior civil servant, as well as one of the first indigenous permanent secretaries in the northern Nigeria and latter federal Commissioner for Economic Development and Reconstruction in the government of the General Yakubu Gowon and later served as minister of Agriculture in the shehu shagari administration.
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