Tag: Gbajabiamila

• We’re ready if we get green light, say hospital authorities

The Chief of Staff to the President, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, has expressed satisfaction with the role the House of Representatives played in the construction of the new Presidential Wing of the State House Hospital in Abuja.

The N21 billion facility was but by former Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, when Gbajabiamila was Speaker of the House of Representatives.

After a guided tour of the hospital, which is located within the perimeters of the State House, the Chief of Staff said he had seen the facility with all the modern equipment in it and attested that it is of global standard.

Gbajabiamila, who addressed reporters after the tour, highlighted the advanced medical equipment, including a Cath Lab and a unique C-ARM.

He expressed satisfaction that the funds allocated during his tenure as Speaker of the House of Representatives had been well utilised.

Read Also; Killed on duty

“First of all, like you rightly said, there’s been a lot of talk about this clinic, not just today, even when I was in the National Assembly as Speaker. So, I thought, having been here a few months, let’s have a look and see exactly what is going on. 

“I have seen, I am very impressed, and I’m sure you are as well because you went round with me. This is a clinic like anywhere else in the world. You will find that the standard is very high. The equipment is of world class. From my understanding, there’s some equipment that you wouldn’t even find in too many places all over the world. 

“So, as far as clinics go, in terms of equipment, in terms of what they can do, in terms of, I mean, I’ve just been lectured about kidney transplant now from one of the best… There’s a Cath Lab; that’s world class, and so many other things.

“There’s an equipment they called C-ARM. This gladdens my heart that at least when we were appropriating money in the House of Representatives, as Speaker, I can see where the money has gone to.

“So, it’s for them to dot the Is and cross the Ts and put finishing touches. I think we’ll be proud to say that we have a clinic of international standard like this one,” he said.

Chairman of Clinical Services at the State House, Dr. Jane Ifechukwu, who led the guided tour, explained that the facility’s current status was even skeletal, as it was awaiting approval to operationalise.

She added: “What we have here is skeletal, just the way we were having the Villa Clinic. But once we dot the Is – we can’t take decisions on our own; they give us the go-ahead – and we are good to go.”

When asked about the timeline for the facility’s full utilisation, Dr. Ifechukwu hinted that approval had to be given from higher authorities.

“We actually discourage medical tourism, and I can’t speak now. I am waiting for our principals, our bosses, to do that. Then, the Permanent Secretary will give us a directive, and then we can do it,” she said.

Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, has debunked claims on some media platforms that the 2024 Budget has allocated N21 billion for his accommodation.

The former speaker was reacting on his verified X handle, @femigbaja, to the report, which provided an alleged breakdown of budget details taking care of items for the office of the Chief of Staff, in the budget estimates presented to the National Assembly by President Tinubu last Wednesday.

The report, which found its way into several online news outlets, claimed proposed N104 million for the purchase of computers and printers for ‘local travel and transport for international training,’ his office is to spend N579 million, while ‘miscellaneous’ is expected to gulp N103 million.

The report also claimed a further breakdown of the proposed budgetary allocations showed that the reconstruction and repair of the CoS’s official residence is to get N10 billion.

Computer software purchase for his office is purportedly expected to gulp about N10.1 billion and N290 million is allocated for purchase of vehicles. 

Read Also: Students’ loan initiative ‘ll make Nigerian studentscompete with world best – Gbajabiamila

However, in the response posted on his X handle, Gbajabiamila said the report by the news platforms is false as there is no provision in the 2024 Budget proposal for the renovation of his official residence, noting that he lives in his own house.

He explained that the sums mischievously quoted by online news outlets and those he called fake news merchants were for the renovation of the Presidential Quarters in Dodan Barracks and the Vice President’s Lodge in Lagos, to overhaul the information management and communications facilities in the Presidency to meet modern standards and to provide vehicles for the staff of the Presidency.

He said: “I have seen social media commentary regarding the 2024 Appropriation Bill, particularly the provisions under the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President. Owing to the erroneous nature of these reports, it has become necessary to clarify that there is no provision in the 2024 Appropriation Bill for the renovation of any residence for the Chief of Staff to the President. I live in my private residence.

“The sums mischievously quoted by online bloggers and fake news merchants are for renovating the Presidential Quarters in Dodan Barracks and the Vice President’s Lodge in Lagos, to overhaul the information management and communications facilities in the Presidency to meet modern standards and to provide vehicles for the staff of the presidency.

“The sums proposed for these projects are clearly stated in the budget proposal and bear no resemblance to the deceptive online commentary. 

“This administration welcomes and encourages scrutiny of government expenditure; this is why the Budget proposal is publicly available. However, healthy public debate about government actions requires us to be responsible with our utterances and engage based on facts rather than insinuations and falsehoods.”

The Chief of Staff to the President, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila has said that efforts are underway to ensure the Students’ Loan Scheme take-off in January 2024.

This, he said, would ensure that Nigerian students access the loans “to fund their educational aspirations.”

Gbajabiamila spoke during the Convocation Lecture of Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH).

While delivering the lecture titled, “Empowering Nigerian Youths in the Present Day Economy” at the 35th convocation ceremony, the former House of Representatives Speaker stated that to make the process seamless, “applicants will apply online, be verified online, and be credited based on the verifiable documents and credentials they have submitted.”

He said: “The application system for the student loan programme is being designed so that there is no interface between the loan administrators and the beneficiaries. Applicants will apply online, be verified online, and be credited based on the verifiable documents and credentials they have submitted. Nobody will need to know anybody to qualify for these loans, so that access to this financing will be genuinely egalitarian.

“The student loan system answers part of the question of how to fund a quality public tertiary education but doesn’t answer all of it. Any serious conversation about the future of tertiary education in Nigeria must include thoroughly considering the ways and means of addressing the funding needs of public tertiary institutions beyond government subvention. In this regard, we cannot for much longer avoid the simple truth that tertiary education costs money, and the best institutions worldwide succeed, amongst other things, because they can generate significant sums through fees, investments, and other means.

“The simple truth is that for our institutions to compete favourably, we need more resources than are currently available to address the dangerous decline in the quality of scholarship and academic output and the graduates we produce from many of our institutions.”

He stated that in a perfect world, access to education would be a fundamental benefit afforded to every individual from basic through tertiary.

Read Also: Loan initiative ‘ll make students compete with world best – Gbajabiamila

“And our learning centers will be majestic citadels of research and innovation, open to all who seek knowledge, regardless of means. But this is not a perfect world. In this real world, education is a commodity, and a quality education even more so. “Therefore, the central public policy challenge is the conflict between the competing objectives of access and quality. How do we fund a quality tertiary education without imposing costs that make access to quality education impossible for most people?

 “We require a programme of aggressive and sustained investment in education. Not only in the physical infrastructure of classrooms and lecture halls but in technology hardware and software to facilitate information exchange and innovation.

“In this new world we have found ourselves in, nothing has changed as drastically as the nature of work and how we measure productivity. Today, many skills that guarantee employment and a healthy income for previous generations have been made redundant by technological advances.

The Rector of the College, Dr. Ibraheem Abdul, said the institution focused on youth empowerment through its various programmes.

“Furthermore, to show how committed we are to the empowering of our youths, the management established the Industry Advisory Committee to enhance her dynamic role of producing technical manpower for the Economic and Social development of Nigeria,” he said.

According to him, when it comes to manpower development, technological advancement, and youth empowerment, the college has been at the forefront.

Chief of Staff to the President Femi Gbajabiamila has said that efforts are underway to ensure the take-off of the Students’ Loan Scheme in January 2024.

This, he said, would make to ensure that students access the loans “to fund their educational aspirations.”

Gbajabiamila spoke during Convocation Lecture of Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH).

While delivering the lecture titled:“Empowering Nigerian youths in the present day economy” at the 35th convocation ceremony , the former House of Representatives’ Speaker stated that to make the process seamless, “applicants will apply online, be verified online, and be credited based on the verifiable documents and credentials they have submitted.”

He said: “The application system for the student loan programme is being designed so that there is no interface between the loan administrators and the beneficiaries. Applicants will apply online, be verified online, and be credited based on the verifiable documents and credentials they have submitted. Nobody will need to know anybody to qualify for these loans, so that access to this financing will be genuinely egalitarian.
“The student loan system answers part of the question of how to fund a quality public tertiary education but doesn’t answer all of it. Any serious conversation about the future of tertiary education in Nigeria must include a thorough consideration of the ways and means of addressing the funding needs of public tertiary institutions beyond government subvention. In this regard, we cannot for much longer avoid the simple truth that tertiary education costs money, and the best institutions worldwide succeed, amongst other things, because they can generate significant sums through fees, investments and other means.
“The simple truth is that for our institutions to compete favourably, we need more resources than are currently available to address the dangerous decline in the quality of scholarship and academic output and the graduates we produce from many of our institutions.”

He stated that in a perfect world, access to education will be a fundamental benefit afforded to every individual from basic through tertiary.

“And our learning centres will be majestic citadels of research and innovation, open to all who seek knowledge, regardless of means. But this is not a perfect world. In this real world, education is a commodity and a quality education even more so. “Therefore, the central public policy challenge is the conflict between the competing objectives of access and quality. How do we fund a quality tertiary education without imposing costs that make access to quality education impossible for most people?

“We require a programme of aggressive and sustained investment in education. Not only in the physical infrastructure of classrooms and lecture halls but in technology hardware and software to facilitate information exchange and innovation.

Read Also: How Tinubu is fighting insecurity, by Gbajabiamila 

“In this new world we have found ourselves in, nothing has changed as drastically as the nature of work and how we measure productivity. Today, many skills that guaranteed employment and a healthy income for previous generations have been made redundant by technological advances.

“This generation will not only be competing with one another for opportunities, but they will also be competing in a global marketplace, against students from all over the world, and against technology, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, blockchain and financial technology tools that are increasingly replacing the human function in the workplace. We must prepare them with these realities in mind.

“To do this effectively, we need to develop a new understanding of the changing nature of work and the future of employment. The limits of our knowledge hinder us from effectively addressing the challenges of this new age and adapting to the changing realities we cannot escape. Collaboration between our higher institutions and the organised private sector is vital to carry out the essential work of engagement, research and review required to bridge the gaps in our knowledge. We need to do this as a necessary precursor to focusing national attention on these issues so that we can jointly rise to the demands of the moment. This is an objective that we cannot, for the sake of our future, leave to the government alone to pursue,” he said.