Minister of Special
Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Senator George Akume, has praised
policies of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, saying they are for
the good of common Nigerians, as most farmers in the country were currently
smiling to the banks as a result of border closure and more enrolment in
schools due to free feeding programme for school pupils.
Akume said this at a
press conference held after reading the communique for Minister, Stakeholders
Retreat to develop Strategic Plan 2019-2023 for Federal Ministry of Special
Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, with part of the communique calling on
the government to realign its climate change policy to stimulate employment generation
and wealth creation.
The minister speaking
said “President Buhari’s policies are for the good of common Nigerians. Border
closure policy is to support Nigerian farmers. The farmers, especially the rice
farmers are smiling to the bank. The policy will transform their lives. In
Benue state, so many women have taken over rice milling and selling and they
all doing very well.
“The school feeding
programme is also working well, so many pupils are enrolling and going to
school because of that,” he said, adding that it was good for the country to
have an enlightened citizen.
The minister said the
retreat which was attended by more than 200 participants, including all
relevant stakeholders dealt with issues aimed at providing a compass for the
implementation of the mandate and achieving Mr President June 12 promise of
lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.
Reading the
communique, the minister noted that it had been discovered that there was no
synergy and cooperation in policy formulation and program implementation
amongst the three tiers of government, but quickly said it was now imperative
that a review and harmonisation policies on inter-governmental cooperation and
collaboration be implemented with a set timeline.
The communique further
urged the government to realign its climate change policy to stimulate
employment generation and wealth creation.
Besides, the retreat
called on the government to take appropriate steps to key into the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change with a view to gaining carbon
credit for revenue generation.
This was just as it
counselled that: “All special projects of the Federal Government should be
domiciled with the Federal Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental
Affairs as a special purpose Vehicle-SPV for the delivery of efficient service
to the people.”
