The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Bala Mohammed

  • Goodness… ‘she’s stable’

    Goodness… ‘she’s stable’

    GOODNESS”, many may have exclaimed on seeing the baby girl among the victims of Monday’s Abuja motor park suicide bombing in which about 150 people died. The government said 72 people died.

    For baby Goodness, the trauma seems to be over. Her eye swollen, she was – in her innocence- playing yesterday with a package of Chloramphenicol —an eye infection ointment — which she put on her ear, mimicking a person making a call on a mobile.

    Doctors at the Asokoro District Hospital said Goodness “is okay”.

    The baby, whose right eye is swollen, is receiving treatment at the Paediatrics ward where a relative, simply identified as Aunty Mary, is looking after her.

    Her mother, whose name was not disclosed, is at the Wuse General Hospital receiving treatment for a fracture.

    A doctor said: “She is in a stable condition. The swollen eye is getting better. Baby Goodness is responding well to treatment and she will be discharged when the hospital certifies that she is fine.

    ”Family photographs have been seen and that confirms that the man who came to claim her is truly her father.”

    Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Bala Mohammed, who described the blast as “cruel” and “inhuman”, attributed baby Goodness’ survival to an act of God

    He said: “The baby is here and the mother is in Wuse Hospital and we are taking steps to reunite the baby with her mother, who is also stable and doing well.

    “Her aunty is taking care of her and you can see she is a charming baby. The baby epitomises the callousness of this dastardly act because if you lose such a charming baby, you will know what it feels like. This is a cruel and an inhuman act.

    “You can imagine what the baby is going through because she is separated from her mother, temporarily; talk more of being separated permanently. You can see how God does His things.

    “It is an act of God because both the mother and baby were separated by the blast but they are united in hospitals because God said they are going to live and by the grace of God, they will live.”

     

  • Jonathan to inaugurate plants

    Jonathan to inaugurate plants

    President Goodluck Jonathan will inaugurate the Multi-Billion-Naira Phases 3 and 4 of the Abuja Water Treatment Plants tomorrow.

    Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Senator Bala Mohammed said the inauguration will take place at the Lower Usuma Dam on Bwari Road, Abuja.

    A statement by the Assistant Director/Chief Press Secretary to the FCT Minister, Muhammad Sule, said there were an existing Phases 1 and 2 water treatment plants treating 10 million litres of water per hour.

    The new ones will treat additional 20 million litres per hour (20,000M3/HR), thereby making it 30 million litres per hour.

     

  • FCTA workers lock minister out

    FCTA workers lock minister out

    Aggrieved workers of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Administration have called for the sack of the Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed.

    They accused him of blocking their career development path.

    The workers, who blocked the entrance to the minister’s office, displayed placard with inscriptions such as: “Bala must go”; “Staff welfare zero”.

    They sang “we no go gree o” when the Permanent Secretary, John Chukwu, came out to address them.

    Chairman, Joint Union Action Committee (JUAC-FCDA) Ajao Adejumo, who led the protesters, said Mohammed’s administration has undermined the progressive path of the workers. He said the Administration does not train workers.

    Adejumo said the FCTA has not provided workers with incentives, despite several appeals.

    The Permanent Secretary, John Chukwu, who addressed the protesters, told them that the administration was aware of their demands and has begun discussing with union leaders.

    He said: “Most of your requests, I have heard. I appeal to all of you to just give us today to talk to the union.”

     

    We do not discuss in the market place and am sure all of you are responsible workers.

    “I know all of you are law abiding and responsible. Workers have the right to assembly; nobody is saying we will deny you your right.

    “All of us have a moral duty to better the territory, please do not allow your selves to be misguided. I am a civil servant like you.”

  • Fed Govt inaugurates centenary committee

    The Federal Government has inaugurated a committee for the grand finale of the centenary celebrations in Abuja.

    The committee which is chaired by the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed, has as members the Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Minister of lands, housing and urban development.

    Also on the committee are the Minister of Labour and Productivity; Minister of Communication Technology; Minister of Sports; Minister of State, Works; Minister of State 1, Foreign Affairs and the Director, General Service Office.

    Senator Anyim Pius Anyim who inaugurated the committee, spoke on the importance of the centenary day celebration, saying that, “Mr President considers the centenary a unique opportunity for us as a people to re-inspire the unity of Nigeria”.

    The centenary day celebration will take place on the 1st January 2014 and has the theme of; “One Nigeria,Great Promise”.

    Senator Anyim also said that, “Mr President and indeed the whole people of Nigeria are looking forward to a grand finale of the centenary celebration that will not only be memorable but also a testimony to our renewed commitment to live together in peace and harmony, to collectively work for the upliftment and development of our dear country.”

    The chairman of the committee Senator Bala Mohammed in his speech said that, “the centenary celebration offers us an auspicious opportunity to re-affirm the obvious truth that, Nigeria is not a historical accident.”

    Bala further stated that, “Some even unimaginatively go further to compare Nigeria to the United States of America or Great Britain. But the truth is, there is no plausible basis for comparing Nigeria with America which is enjoying over 200 years of independence or Britain which was never colonized. Modern-day Nigeria came into being only on January 1, 1914, which is 100 years ago.

    “As a matter of fact, Nigeria is just going to be 53 years old this year as an independent nation. The early years of the two so-called “model countries” were worse than ours and we must therefore never lose sight of the…historical facts.”

    Senator Bala on behalf of the committee pledged that they will do the utmost to ensure that Nigeria is bequeathed with a landmark and memorable Centenary Day Celebration come 1st January 2014.

  • FCT gets new solicitor general

    FCT gets new solicitor general

    The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Bala Mohammed on Tuesday approved the appointment of Ibrahim Abdullahi as the new Solicitor General of the Federal capital Territory, Abuja.

    In a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the minister, Muhammad Sule, Mr. Abdullahi, an indigene of Okene, Kogi State joined the FCT Administration in 1987; and until his appointment was the Director, Advisory Services in the FCT Legal Services Secretariat.

    The Minister noted that the office demands a lot of personal initiatives, maturity and professional competence and advised Mr. Abdullahi to exhibit a high sense of dedication, diligence and hard work in the discharge of his new responsibilities.

    The former Solicitor General of the FCT, Helen Oloja, retired voluntarily from services of the Abuja Administration on April 16.

  • 2013 Children day celebration

    2013 Children day celebration

  • Bala Mohammed, Minister for FCT

    Bala Mohammed, Minister for FCT

    Although the Federal Capital Territory Administration is making giant strides in infrastuctural development in the capital city, residents have not really felt the impact of Governance due to the heavy migration of people into the city.

    The Minister, Bala Mohammed in the outgoing year, 2012 signed a Memoradum of Understanding (MoU) with 13 land-swap investors to immediately commence the opening up of 8 new districts in the Federal Capital City, Abuja to provide more houses and crash the high cost of rent in the city.

    He also flagged off infrastructural development in three districts of the Federal Capital City, Abuja. In order to increase the speed of development in the FCT, five districts namely Katampe, Mabushi, Gwarinpa I and Kado were approved for procurement using PPP by the Federal Executive Council.

    Also,as part of the take off of FCT Social Housing Scheme,the FCTA gave approval for the allocation of 50 hectares of land to the American based company-American Building Systems International to build the first phase of the Abuja Social Housing Initiative as well as gave approval of 1,000 hectares of land to be set aside for the Federal Mortgage Bank to build decent and affordable houses for low income earners in the city.

    As part of measures towards laying to rest all encumbrances that had hitherto plagued the Multi-Billion-Naira Abuja Light Rail Project, the FCT Administration signed an MoU agreement of the $500M loan that will be provided by the Chinese Nexim Bank to continue with the Light Rail project to ease transportation in the city.

    Residents also lauded the achievement recorded in the transport sector with progress of works on some major Abuja Roads to address the transportation bottlenecks being experienced along major entrance points into the Federal capital city and these include the drastic improvement on the on-going rehabilitation and expansion of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (Airport Road) and Murtala Mohammed (Kubwa Road) Expressways respectively which have reached completion stages; while the Multi-Billion-Naira Guzape-Sunrise By-Pass was also opened to traffic thereby depleting the traffic congestion at AYA junction.

    The commissioning of this by-pass and establishment of mobile courts to sit at designated areas in the city, have improved seamless vehicular movement and reduced the traffic bottlenecks hitherto experienced around Mogadishu Cantonment and the entire Karu/Nyanya axis.

    On foreign investment, the FCT Administration realized over 6.6 billion US Dollars (about N1.086Trillion) from direct foreign investment into the Federal Capital Territory, including the sum of 2.6 billion US Dollars foreign direct investment for the Abuja Town Centre Development and over 1 billion US Dollars now being expended on the on-going construction work at the Abuja World Trade Centre.

    Although the Administration can boast to have recorded some level of progress, the residents are still yearning for more. A civil servant, James Oluyole said the FCTA should devote more funds to the completion of the Lower Usuma Dam Water project so as to ease the problem of water supply in the city.

    Another resident, Hope Dickson said the administration needs to construct more markets in order to check the springing up of small market in every corners of the city.

    National President of Artisans in the building Industry in the FCT, Mr. Jimmy Oshinubi, who called for the immediate resettlement of Minanuel Estate subscribers and compensation for the estate developer whose 500 houses were recently demolished called on the FCT Minister to restore confidence in his administration by restructuring land administration in FCT.

    RATING: C