Jonathan’s cabinet immediately after inauguration

Posted by admin Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Ministries, Presidency Friday, May 20th, 2011

President Goodluck Jonathan is to announce his new cabinet immediately after the May 29 inauguration, his spokesman, Mr. Ima Niboro said yesterday. He told correspondents in Abuja, that the President was mindful of how short his new four-year term is and wants to start work with his new team immediately after the inauguration.

His words, “there is going to be very little time so the new cabinet is going to come almost immediately after inauguration. That cabinet would go on retreat for a few days also in Obudu where the President is going to charge them with the direction of government.

“The President has four years to deliver and he is not going to waste any minute of it. So the areas the President is going to focus on will be areas of power, infrastructure and human capacity development.

“We are looking at a target where we have an inclusive growth circle in all aspect. It is very easy for people to say oh if he can achieve power he would have done everything. But you cannot pursue power when the children are not in school, you cannot pursue education while hospitals are dead. The President is planning an integrated approach to governance on all decisions”.

He spoke of Jonathan commitment to boosting the nation’s economy, saying the President would hold a critical session with private sector operators with a view to fine tuning the specific priorities to be pursued in order to stimulate the economy.

“As part of plans to hit the ground running, the President would on Monday be meeting with the business community in Lagos to discuss with them on the requirements to grow the economy of this nation, be it in manufacturing, be it other areas; the challenges they face and how government can remove these bottle necks because a country that is not manufacturing cannot aspire to be one of the 20 big economies in the year 2020 and how much time do we have.

Specifically, Mr. Niboro said the president would review the privatization policy as many of the privatized enterprises have not met expectations of both the government and the Nigerian public.

According to him, rather than selling public enterprises to the highest bidder, the new policy would place greater emphasis on competence, capability and capacity of bidders to run the firms and not just to pay money and leave the firms dormant or worse than before.

Jonathan meets Oritsejafor, Sultan
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday met religious leaders and thanked them for their prayers and input towards the successful conduct of the April 2011 general elections.
At the meeting were a delegation of the Nigeria Inter-religious Council (NIREC) led by the Sultan of Sokoto and chairman, Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, and the National President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor.
The President commended the spiritual leaders for their role in mobilizing citizens to exercise their civic responsibility during the period, as well as their calls for restraint and tolerance when the unfortunate post-election violence erupted in some parts of the country.

He urged them not to relent in preaching the virtues of love, unity and peaceful co-existence to their adherents, and welcomed their individual and collective suggestions towards nation building.
The President assured the religious leaders that his administration is leaving no stone unturned in making positive impact in governance, particularly in improving the socio_economic wellbeing of Nigerians. According to him, even his inauguration programme would be less of merriment and more of interactions with business leaders and other economic stakeholders on how to raise the development stakes in key sectors. “Within the next four years we must stop the importation of items like rice and fertilizer into this country,” the President said.

-Vanguardwp_posts