Nigerian President Calls for Good Work Ethics

Dr. Goodluck Jonathan

The committee set up by the Nigerian Federal Executive Council (FEC) to review contract awards has been admonished to ensure it adheres to good work ethics in the discharge of its duties.


The Nigerian President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan who stated this at the first Presidential Retreat on the Implementation Plan for Vision 20:2020 and Public Private Partnership Framework for Infrastructures Development at the Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja, the nation's capital said the Committee is not to victimize any person or group but to checkmate contract inflation in the country.

Greed the Main Stumbling Block to Nigeria’s growth

Tracing the factors precipitating under-development of the country, President Jonathan identified greed as the main stumbling block that stems the nation’s growth adding that greedy persons, whether in the public or private sector, inflate contracts and that this practice retards development.

Jonathan noted that corruption is not limited to the public sector but is alive in the private sector stressing that a contractor to government who is to provide services or execute a contract at N10, 000 but who collaborates with government functionaries to inflate it to N30, 000, is corruption.

He reiterated his conviction that excess amount spent from the capital budget due to inflated cost of procurement retards the progress of the nation by a number of years as projects that are supposed to be done in a year might take three years and infrastructure that might produce 30 kilometers of road might not even be up to 10 kilometers. “What the nation is supposed to be in three years time, that corrupt action would take her back by two years.”

President Calls for Reassessment of the Nation’s Procurement Process

The President called for a reassessment of the nation’s procurement process if it is to move forward noting that anytime he is in a foreign land he discovers that most of the infrastructure development cost almost three times what is being charged in Nigeria.

“This informed my call for adjustment which I believe all Nigerians must have a role to play, as nations are built by people. I look forward to the recommendations from the retreat, I’ll implement them to the letter so that the country can improve,” Dr Jonathan stated.

In his own contribution, the Minister of National Planning and Chairman, National Planning Commission, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, disclosed that the nation will need about N32 trillion in investments in order to actualize the vision 20:2020 project.

He stated that the fund will come from the three tiers of government, with the Federal Government contributing N10 trillion, states and local governments N9 trillion while the remaining N13 trillion will have to be sourced from the private sector. “Insufficiency of funds from the public sector makes private sector funds (domestic and foreign) critical.”

Usman estimated the federally collected revenue at N16.3 trillion for 2010 to 2013 and gave the figure of 19 trillion as the estimated investment for federal, state and local governments for the period 2010 to 2013.

Banking Sector Critical for Funding of Vision 20:2020

He noted that the banking sector will be critical for the funding of the Vision 20:2020 and that the country will need to re-order and re-prioritize expenditure to be able to save enough for the program.

“The savings will come from the cancellation of the Joint Venture Cash Calls (JVC), of N3.05 trillion, removal of petroleum subsidy estimated at N1.50 trillion, and other sources such as MYTO, tax and other concessions estimated at N1.75 trillion,” he added.

Usman said that other efforts at achieving the goal include audit of oil revenue remittances and financial activities of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), implementation of the Petroleum Industry Bill and audit of non-oil revenue.

He advised on the stepping up of efforts to improve tax collection through the implementation of the national tax policy, ongoing review of tariffs and correct pricing of petroleum products, power and gas.