Onyebuchi Ezigbo, Onwuka Nzeshi
23 December 2008
Abuja — More ministers assumed duties yesterday with a pledge to reposition their various ministries in order to engender accelerated development of the country.
The Federal Government has, however, given assurance that the frequent power cuts being experienced across the country will be drastically reduced in the coming year as plans are in top gear to ensure that the national target of generating 6,000 megawatts of electricity by 2009 is achieved.
Minister of State for Power, Mr. Somo Way, stated this during his appearance before the House of Representatives Committee on Power.
New Minister of Health, Prof Babatunde Osotimehin, yesterday said his posting to the ministry was a call to serve and has vowed to revamp the ministry in a bid to achieve the set goals.
He said that with the Minister of State for Health, they had a responsibility to provide the country with quality health. He noted with great concern the enormity of challenges before him but he was confident that they will all be surmounted.
He said the Federal Government had begun plans to resume routine immunisation as a mechanism to eradicate polio and other tropical diseases from its shores and believe that such routine immunisation would solve a lot of ailment spreading in the rural areas.
He explained that when routine immunisation is fully functional most of the diseases in the rural communities would be fully addressed.
He added that the delivery system during vaccination needed to be strengthened while the National Primary Health Care Development Agency had been working in collaboration with local governments.
Speaking on the intervention of donor partners, the health minister added that a monitoring strategy would be put in place to properly coordinate the contributions of donors so as to ensure massive advantages of the facilities in the health ministry.
Minister of State for Health, Aliyu Idi Hong, said they will capitalise on the gains and successses of the past to consolidate a better future.He added that the greatest concern of the Yar'Adua administration is to provide health care for all Nigerians by 2020, which he and his minister will push forward.
Government also assured Nigerians that it was willing and ready to deal with the task of restoring the country's ailing infrastructure to a glorious state in no distant time.
The government's resolve was conveyed by the in-coming Minister of Works and Housing, Dr. Hassan Muhammed Lawal yesterday while taking over from his predecessor, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, in Abuja.
Lawal also said while recieving another hand-over note from the former Minister of State for Environment, Housing and Urban Development, Chief Chuka Odom, that government would exploit the potentials of Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) in ensuring that it bequeats Nigerians with affordable housing in the days ahead.
He said although the monumental infrastructure deficit facing the country predates the present administration, the government is more than determined to fix things up if only to satisfy the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians.
"It is a problem inherited by this administration, but I want to assure you that the President, Mallam Umaru Yar'Adua is worried and concerned about the deplorable condition of our basic infrastructure in this country and he is willing and ready to approach this task headlong", he said.
Way on the other hand told the House of Representatives Committee on Power that"We are already encouraging states to come up with small packages of power in their various states to augment what is happening in the Federal level and I believe absolutely that the power sector will see dramatic changes come 2009 and thereafter.
"I am happy to announce that all hands are on deck; the Federal Government, the state governments and the local governments all over the federation have identified power as a predicament in the whole nation and they have all come to help in one way or the other that we would team up together to salvage the situation we have found ourselves in. We are coming to resuscitate this sector; this is what is in the budget and we are going to reinvigorate all the abandoned projects," he said
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
