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Tag: Chidoka

  • Ochepe, Chidoka, Nebo give scorecards

    Ochepe, Chidoka, Nebo give scorecards

    Three ministers, Sarah Ochepe (Water Resources), Osita Chidoka (Aviation) and Prof. Chinedu Nebo (Power), gave their score cards yesterday in Abuja.

    They spoke at the Public Affairs Forum organised by the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, giving the Federal Government a pass mark.

    The Senior Special Assistant to the President, Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, said the Jonathan administration had taken significant steps in the last four years to improve the quality of life of Nigerians.

    Mrs. Ochekpe said her ministry engaged in the construction, operation and maintenance of dams to improve water supply, hydropower, irrigation, fishery development, flood control, tourism and recreation.

    “Out of the 37 completed dams, 16 are with hydropower potentials capable of generating 135.15 megawatts of electricity has recorded 87% completion”, she stressed.

    “The ministry sees irrigation as key to the attainment of food security due to the fact that irrigation has the potential of increasing the agricultural productivity tenfold. Irrigation is also important for employment generation and poverty alleviation in rural areas.

    “The ministry through these irrigation facilities has supported the nation’s food security programme  with 3,013,296 metric tonnes of assorted food and cash crops valued at over N45.0 billion”, she said.

    She said the ministry provided 4,940 water supply facilities nationwide from 2010 to date.

    Prof. Nebo said significant steps had been taken to improve power supply situation in the country. He said a number of existing projects have been completed and new ones under construction.

    One of them, he said, was the NIPP projects in Kaduna, which is almost completed, while other areas of power generation have been explored, including coal in places like Enugu, Benue, Kogi and Gombe, which could generate more than 4000 megawatts.

    According to him, the president will on November 6, launch the apprenticeship scheme to give 200 young engineers, technicians and even secondary school leavers opportunity to participate in the value-chain as well as bring about homegrown capacity.

    He said other projects costing several billions of naira have reached advanced stages of completion in places like Lagos, Kano, Abia, Imo, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, among others, which he said are funded by the World Bank.

    He added that these projects would generate about 50,000 megawatts by 2015, pointing to the construction of several injection substations.

  • Jonathan swears in Chidoka as Aviation Minister

    ‘I won’t tamper with Aviation master plan’

    President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday swore in two ministers and deployed the former Corp Marshall of the Federal Road Safety Corp, Osita Chidoka (Anambra) as the new Minister of Aviation.

    Abubakar Suleiman (Kwara) became the Minister of National Planning and Deputy Chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC).

    One of the former Deputy Corp Marshalls, Boboye Oyeyemi, was named the new FRSC Corp Marshall. President Jonathan urged the ministers to bring their wealth of experiences to impact positively on their new assignments.

    He said: “We expect that as you join the team at this time, this is an injury time, like in a soccer match, when you are brought in at that time you are expected to score goals or to give very solid defence.

    “So, Nigerians are expecting much from you… The issues facing us – of course, most of African countries – is the issue of governance.

    “We expect you to bring to bear your wealth of experience so that wherever you are deployed, you will make impact.”

    On the new FRSC chief, the President said: “We are appointing Deputy Corp Marshall Oyeyemi as the Corp Marshall. We will expect that you will do a very good job there.

    “I believe you will work with your colleagues and make sure that you don’t just maintain what Osita (Chidoka) has done but that you will also improve on that.”

    Chidoka promised yesterday not to start anything different from the existing Aviation master plan.

    Few hours after his appointment by President Goodluck Jonathan, the new minister met with workers of the Aviation Ministry. He urged them to deliver quality service to Nigerians.

    Chidoka, who spoke at the SGF Conference Hall in Abuja, wore a Southeast (Igbo) attire comprising an embroidered grey caphtan over a white round neck shirt and  a red cap.

    The Supervising Minister in the ministry, Dr. Samuel Ortom, was absent at the ceremony. This pushed the handover ceremony till today.

    Chidoka hailed his predecessor, Ms Stella Oduah, for transforming the aviation industry.

    He said: “I want us to deliver service to Nigerians. We sometimes forget that the ultimate measure of our work is delivering to the people.

    “We sometimes forget that we are here because of people and we bring in our own issues. So, I believe that in the next few weeks, I will get presentations from everybody and get ideas on different areas. We will then create a straight line that we will work with. I beg all of you to feel free to say your minds because I know most civil servants will say, ‘Let’s study his body language’. But I am urging all of you to feel free.”

    Chidoka promised to build on the existing master plan.

    “We are not going to do anything different, but we will build on what already exists, in line with the Aviation master plan. We will measure where we are and take further step from there. I hope we will have a fruitful working experience and, most importantly, deliver service to Nigerians.”