The Federal Executive Council FEC on Wednesday approved approved $1 billion Chinese loan from Chinese EXIM Bank for the Gurara II Hydropower project which has the capacity to generate 360 megawatts electricity.
This is just as FEC also approved about N10b for the purchase of grains under the strategic grains reserve program.
Minister of Water Resources, Sulieman Adamu disclosed this while briefing State House Correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari
Adamu said Council also approved N5.7 billion revised total estimated cost for the completion of Nkari dam in Akwa Ibom.
Council also approved the appointment of a consultants for the resuscitate the Gari Irrigation Project in Kano/Jigawa States.
The project which was abandoned for about 17 years was in 2017 approved for the resumption with the same consultant who were appointed in 1998.
Adamu said Council also approved the revised estimated total cost of N10.4 billion for the completion of Ile Ife Dam in Osun State, a project which was started in 2004 and later abandoned.
Federal government has however given the contractors a completion period iof 24 months
This is just as the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed described the Peoples Democratic Party PDP’s brand of Opposition Politic as posing great threats to Nigeria’s Democracy
Mohammed decried the increasingly unpatriotic and desperate opposition politics being played by the PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, warning that
such dead-end opposition could be toxic for the nation’s democracy, if
left unchecked.
“Never in the history of politics in Nigeria has an opposition party and its presidential candidate exhibited the kind of desperate tactics being deployed by the duo of the PDP and its flag-bearer, especially since President Muhammadu Buhari overwhelmingly defeated Atiku to win the 2019 presidential election.
He noted that either by themselves or via their proxies, the party and its presidential candidate are doing everything possible to sabotage the Buhari Administration.
He also accused the party of generally overheat the polity and make Nigeria seemingly ungovernable, especially through their public utterances and their poorly-thought-out press releases before and after the 2019 general elections. Unless they quickly retrace their steps, they may, sooner than later, overreach themselves.
“For those who may be quick to accuse the government of crying wolf, the pre-election statement credited to the former Vice President, that unless Nigerians vote out the APC Administration, killings by herdsmen will continue and ultimately spark a series of ethno-religious crises that will be irreversible, is looking more like a Freudian slip than anything else.
“Also, in recent times, the PDP has taken its desperation to a new low by attacking the judiciary, an action many see as indicating a reversal of the party’s hitherto self-assured stance that it has a solid case against the election of the President. And either by coincidence or orchestration, a faceless group emerges from nowhere calling for an overthrow of a democratically-elected government, a totally egregious act of treason.
He said it is unbelievable that a candidate who prides himself as a democrat can so allow desperation to becloud his sense of propriety to such a extent that he will be associating with anti-democratic forces or making inflammatory statements. For acclaimed democrats, there are acceptable channels of seeking redress after an election defeat.
Mohammed who disclosed that President Buhari himself went to court three times to challenge election results, noted that “What is not acceptable is to either resort to self help after an election defeat, or to embark on a journey of subterfuge and sabotage while also mounting a legal challenge or pretending to do so. Worst
still, painting the judiciary bad for whatever reason is anti-democratic and unconscionable,” Alhaji Mohammed said.
We want to urge the main opposition party to stop beating the drums of war concentrate on the legal challenge by its candidate against the election of President Buhari if indeed they have any faith in the country’s judiciary, and desist from unnecessarily overheating the polity.
Tony Ailemen, Abuja
