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Tag: Maku

  • Obanikoro, Maku, Wike resign to run for governor

    Obanikoro, Maku, Wike resign to run for governor

    Seven ministers are leaving the cabinet to run for governor.

    PresidentGoodluck Jonathan led the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to thank the ministers who are expected to quit before or on Monday.

    Leaving are Labaran Maku (Information), Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu (Health), Nyesom Wike (Education) and Emeka Wogu (Labour).

    Others are Minister of State for Trade and Investment Samuel Ortom, Minister of State for Defence Musiliu Obanikoro and Minister of State for Niger Delta Darius Ishaku

    The President noted that they had not officially resigned as they were yet to send their letters of resignation to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

    According to him, those leaving have up till October 20 to make their intentions known.

    He said: “If you are a public officer or you are a civil servant, if you have to go into an elective office you have to disengage on or before 20th of this month.

    “Going by that, that means that any of our colleagues who has the interest to contest any level of election may not be with us the next council day, that is next Wednesday.”

    “I think people may want to know what is the fate of XYZ. But I want to make it very clear that as at this morning, about seven members of council may, and I use the word ‘may’ because you don’t conclude anything in politics until… so seven of us may not be here next Wednesday, if their plans continue.”

    Continuing, he said: “But we may not say they are not with us until they write to us through the secretary of government. As we are talking, nobody has written and we have not dropped anybody. People should not say we have dropped ministers; no. We have not dropped ministers; they are still ministers of council, but assuming between now and next council if they decide to go on with their plans, it is only proper we wish them well assuming we don’t see them again.

    “But if they change their plans, they will continue to be with us, but after receiving the letters and they change their minds, it will be too late. So, if they have to change their minds they have to change their minds before sending the letter to the secretary of the government.

    “So those that may not be with us next wednesday are Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, Minister of Health, Prof. Onyeabuchi Chukwu, Minister of State Education, Nyesom Wike, Minister of State, Industry, Trade, Investment, Samuel Ortum, Minister of State Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, Minister of State, Niger Delta Affairs,  Dairu Dickson Ishiaku, Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu.”

    Wishing the outgoing ministers well and thanking them for their service to the nation on behalf of FEC, the Minister of Power, Chinedu Nebo said: “We appreciate the service rendered by these our brothers who have rendered distinguished service to this cabinet and to our country. They have a strong call, a notching to serve our nation in other capacities  as core hard politicians. One will say that they came, they saw, they acquired knowledge and then want to go out and serve their own people in their states.”

    “They have served very well. They gave us their best. They stood by you and by us their cabinet members. They identified with us and with our great leader’s transformation agenda. And now that they have decided to become your excellency’s ambassadors in their various areas, we wish them well. We wish them the best of God’s guidance and protection.”

    Maku, on behalf of the outgoing ministers, expressed gratitude to the President for giving them the opportunity to serve.

    He said: “This is truly a very difficult and an emotional moment for me and my colleagues who are about to take a leap of fate in our lives as individuals and as officers of state.

    “For me and Chukwu and a few others, we have been here with you for the last four and half years in this hallowed chambers, going through all the experiences we have gone through as the leader of this country so far.”

    “Your excellency, we believe in you, we believe in this country. Under you, this country has undergone fundamental changes, both in terms of leadership style, in focus and policy implementation for the transformation of our country.”

    Maku added: “Let me say sir that I mentioned something here last week when we were discussing Ebola virus disease conquest by your leadership, that you may not be appreciated now sir, but don’t worry, a time is going to come when this country will celebrate you because from what we have seen, the experiences we have gone through and the talent you have shown as a leader, it is very clear that God brought you purposely to stabilise this country and to give us a new direction out of a crisis of several decades.”

    “Your cabinet, maybe apart from First Republic and Gen. Gowon, no ministers have had this stability of tenure in this country for a very long time. And today, this stability is impacting positively in the live of our country.”

    Maku said: “In the first two years or so, you were maligned but today as result continues to come in from different sectors  because of stability of leadership, your focus, your vision, the nation is beginning to read you differently.”

    “The last in my opinion which is very important, is that you have a cosmopolitan approach to leadership in Nigeria. You have been able to bring together diverse people from all walks of life, you have resisted temptations to religious sentiments, resisted persuations for ethnic or sectional sentiments, you have remained a unifyer as every leader in a diverse country should be.

    And so we are going out with some of these lessons which we have learnt quietly from you in the last for yours.”

    He asked the President to forgive any of the outgoing ministers who might have offended him.

    “But Mr. President in the last four years and know that in several respects a lot of us would have done things that you didn’t approve of but because of your kind of personality,  you may not feel like telling us and you may not never tell us maybe in your memiors one day if you choose to vouch.”

    “But let me say that in any ways we have fell short of your vision for us, expectations in the execution of our public duties, we seek your forgiveness, sincerely. I want to assure you that that would not have come intentionally for those of us who truly believe in you.”

    “But we know we are human beings we must have offended you, sir, we seek your forgiveness, your understanding wherever we have failed you in the discharge of these duties.”

    “One of the difficulties we have had as a government is that people outside hardly believe in you so if those of us inside do not believe in you, others are always attacking you inspite of the things you are doing. It is my hope and prayer that as we go out that we will remember that once we have come to this level of trust, it is expected of us to return home and do better for you than we are doing now to find ourselves in the future.”

    “Finally, the challenges Mr. President faces, the challenges of national unity, terrorism, distraction within the Nigerian federation because of the dysfunctional nature of ruling class here and challenges of our divisiveness where we quarrel even when our nation ought to be together, when we quarrel even when we have best opportunity to build a nation. If those challenges were not brought on you after the 2011 elections, today Nigeria would have been playing at a very high league with Brazil and others.”

  • Maku to resign next week

    Maku to resign next week

    Minister of Information Labaran Maku is set to resign on October 20 to run for the Nasarawa State governorship.

    He spoke yesterday at a special mass thanksgiving at the Catholic Diocese of Lafia, St. Patrick’s Parish, Akwanga, Nasarawa State.

    Maku announced the donation of N7.6million from his family and friends in the cabinet and outside the cabinet for the cathedral in Lafia.

    Thanking God, he said whatever he had achieved from 1999 to date was by the grace of God.

    According to him, it is time to sacrifice the comfort of a ministerial position, join his people and go into the wilderness in Nasarawa State to stop the killings, miscarriage of justice and liberate the masses.

    Stressing that he was a typical example of a grass to grace because of God’s favour, Maku said he was born to peasants farmers, who did not even record the date of his birth in a village that is likened to the biblical reference that “can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

    He said: “Just thank God for me, just pray for me because by next week (October 20), anyone in the cabinet, who wants to contest election must step down. The time has come for us to do that.

    “It is time to make my interest known. By the grace of God, I will sacrifice the comfort of a minister by going into the wilderness. I want to sacrifice the comfort of the high office to join my people in the wilderness in Nasarawa State and fight for peace and justice.

    “There is too much blood being shed here. There is too much evil taking place here. There is too much destruction going on in Nasarawa State. The time has come for us to ask God to bring this era to an end. It is only God who can do it. We are asking God that as we step out voluntarily, which is very important to me, as we go into the wilderness, what He did for Moses He will do for us by leading us to cross the Red Sea of politics, bring water out of rock, give us manna from  heaven and pull down the wall of Jericho.

    “There may be giants out there, all over, but like Caleb, we trust God that we will conquer. So all we need is prayer. I thank God for what He has done for me. But this sacrifice I am making is for my people, to liberate them.”

  • Ebola: FG threatens measures against foreign media

    Ebola: FG threatens measures against foreign media

    The Federal Government on Thursday warned that it might be forced to take measures against two international media houses for bias report about Ebola in the country.

    The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu and Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, said the two media houses have been totally unfair in their report of the disease in Nigeria.

    Chukwu said, “It was also observed that a segment of international media had been totally unfair with their comments regarding to the Ebola Virus Disease in Nigeria and little have been said about the successful containment in terms of ensuring that it does not spread rapidly as it’s  done in other countries.

    “up till now the disease is limited to only one state and all those who are suffering from Ebola virus as small as the number is are all primary contacts of the index case which came through a Liberian-American.

    “Within this week prior to the meeting conveyed by the President, the country has carried out so many activities on Ebola.”

    Maku on his part said, “We have had worries from some international media whose report could cause panic at the international level. We have noticed two that have particularly refused to send the true position of things in Nigeria in-spite of all our efforts to brief the media in a transparent way.”

    He also expressed disappointment in the way the media houses in question have been portraying Nigeria case, as according to him, they are doing it as if the over one thousand victims are Nigerians.

    He wondered why Nigeria should be lumped with the three other countries, knowing fully well that the disease was imported into Nigeria.

     

  • Vision 2020: FG attracts N28tr investments

    Towards realizing the Vision 2020 agenda, the Federal Government on Wednesday said it has overshot its private sector investments target from N13 trillion with private businesses investing about N28 trillion between 2010 and 2013.

    This was disclosed by the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, while briefing State House correspondents in the company of Minister of Culture and Tourism, Edem Duke, at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja.

    This, he said, was uncovered during the ongoing review of the First Implementation Plan for Vision 2020 agenda.

    According to him, President Goodluck Jonathan’s macroeconomic policies in line with the first implementation plan are recording appreciable results.

    Noting that with Nigeria now the 26th largest economy in the world from 30th position in 2009, he said that the target to become world’s 20th biggest economy in 2020 is achievable.

    He said: “Today’s council was devoted to the review of the implementation of first development plan of the Vision 2020. The report is very rich, it shows very clearly that the President has achieved significantly the goals set out in the first implementation plan.”

    “And not only in terms of sectors review which shows clearly the progress  we have made in agriculture, in the economy, in industry, in flow of investment.”

    “One of the highlight of what we saw today was that under this period, because of the present reforms that were really encapsulated in the take-off of the first national implementation, we have overshot by more than 100 per cent.”

  • Maku trivializing Boko Haram crisis – Shettima

    Maku trivializing Boko Haram crisis – Shettima

    Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima Tuesday lamented what he described as gross misunderstanding of the Boko Haram crisis by those who should be in a position to proffer solution to the crisis, saying the state government has spend over N10 billion naira as counterpart funds since the insurgency began.

    The governor, who spoke at a two -day conference on security and human rights organised by the Centre for Historical Documentation and Research at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, said it was unfortunate that the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, was blind to the real crisis of Boko Haram and therefore chose to trivialize it.

    The governor said it was a thing of concern that the nation’s chief spokesman who once served as Supervising Minister of Defence has a shallow understanding of the Boko Haram crisis, adding that “no one might ever know the extent he might have inflicted his poor understanding of the Boko Haram on service chiefs he had to work with.”

    The governor lamented that the insurgents have done so much harm to Islam and have killed thousands of innocent souls in the state.

    He said: If Boko Haram succeeds in overrunning the North East as they seek, they will surely want to extend greater havoc to other parts of the north and if they over run the north, they would want to extend to the south. Crisis of any type has got a life of its own which depends on something for survival.

    “As humans, we depend on oxygen and crisis depends on negligence and this negligence can be in different forms. Negligence can be in form of parents or teachers failing to instill the right habits on children to keep them out of crime; it can be in form of government failing to create and provide jobs to citizens in order to make crime unattractive or government failing to work hard to get the right intelligence at a good time or refusing to act appropriately with the right wares.

    “Book Haram insurgency has drenched our society in blood and systematically, it has been responsible for a creeping destruction of the harmony of communities in huge swathes of Borno State especially, but also in other states of northern Nigeria. The insurgency threatens the order of human and civilised existence and the ability of the state to provide the security and the welfare which Nigerians constitution says is the basis for the existence of the state.

    “Boko Haram slaughters, shoot and crush innocent people, destroy communities and public establishment for the fact that citizens do not share their violent ideology of murder and destructions. To Boko Haram, the life of a Muslim who doesn’t share the sect’s ideology is as condemned as that of a Christian or a traditionalist.”

  • Northern governors must fight terrorism – Maku

    Northern governors must fight terrorism – Maku

    The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, on Wednesday urged the 19 northern state governors to avoid grandstanding and begin to prepare their people to check terror in their states.

    He made the remark while fielding questions from State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja.

    According to him, Northern governors must do more than criticizing federal government’s decision to extend the current state of emergency in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno States.

    Stressing that terrorism is a community war, he said state governors, especially the 19 Northern governors, should also ensure proper monitoring of all persons “within, coming in and going out of their states.”

    Such community wars, he said, cannot just be won by the Federal Government sending troops to the states.

    Maku also maintained that the cooperation of all Nigerians is inevitable in order to win the war against terror in the country.

    He said: “The war against terror is a Nigerian war, it is our cooperation that will defeat it.  It is our understanding that will isolate the evil. It is the unity of purpose in the country that will lead to victory over terrorism.”

    “We need greater unity to be able to break into what is going on and defeat it, and that is why the grandstanding and politicking that is associated with the fight against terror is increasing the tempo of the terrorists’ activities. The variety of opinion amongst the political class feeds into the confidence of terror groups because their objective is to divide public opinion and continuously penetrate the Nigerian society and destroy it.”

    “And so we continue to plead that all of us in the politics of this country we need to think again to understand that the challenge we face is not to the advantage of anybody, we need to understand that politics aside we need to save our country first.”

  • Chibok: FG vows to rescue abducted girls

    Chibok: FG vows to rescue abducted girls

    The Federal Government on Wednesday said that it will leave no stone unturned in the bid to rescue the 234 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram on April 14.

    The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, disclosed this while fielding questions from State House correspondents at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council.

    According to him, the government was still studying the video clip released by the Boko Haram sect and the accompanying statement in order to know their real contents.
    Maku urged all Nigerians to leave sentiments and emotions aside and concentrate on efforts they can make collectively to release the Chibok girls.

    He also disclosed that an information centre had been opened to provide the public with daily development on the rescue operation.

    He said that information coming from any other persons or groups on behalf of the federal government should be disregarded.

    The minister said: “We have seen the video clip, we are studying it to be sure of its content. We are also looking into the statement that accompanied the clip. Government has made it very clear that we are ready to go to any length to secure the release of these our daughters that have been in captivity.

    “That is the statement we have issued and we stand on that statement. Other statements that have been made from different groups should be discountenanced.

    “This is a clear position of government that has been announced through the centre on daily reporting of events on the rescue effort and state of emergency in the North East.
    Continuing, he said: “The press should as much as possible utilize the daily information from the centre and help put more light unto the issue.

    “We are appealing to all Nigerians to leave sentiments and emotions aside and concentrate on efforts we can make collectively as a nation to rescue our girls.

    “There has been a lot of pollution and information that may not be correct. We want to cut off Chibok from politics and that is why we are streamlining information.”

  • FG laments delayed 2014 budget

    FG laments delayed 2014 budget

    The Federal Government on Wednesday lamented the continued delay in the passage of 2014 budget.

    Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Goodlcuk Jonathan, the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, said it is becoming worrisome that almost midway into the year, the Federal Government has no budget in place.

    According to him, the distortions in what was transmitted to the National Assembly may work against the budget implementation.

    Maku explained that efforts are ongoing to reconcile the grey areas.

    He said: “The minister of finance briefed us today at the FEC relating to the progress on the budget. It is very sad that we have almost entered the middle of the year and we don’t have a budget.”

    “This indeed is sad that the budget has taken so long in coming and practically we have less than seven months to execute the budget.

    “We will do everything possible to reconcile the few differences that emerged in what was transmitted to the government by the National Assembly.”

    “There are few areas of distortions and there are those areas that are very serious and we think there is a need to look into them because of the negative impact those distortions may have on the implementation of the budget.”

    He went on: “There is a lot of conversation going on now between the federal ministry of finance and the National Assembly on these issues. And very shortly we believe that we are going to reconcile those areas and then the final budget will be announced to the nation by the President.”

  • Nyako’s comments grossly irresponsible – Maku

    Nyako’s comments grossly irresponsible – Maku

    The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, on Wednesday faulted the claims by the Adamawa State Governor, Murtala Nyako, describing his actions as “grossly irresponsible.”

    Nyako had last week, among other allegations, maintained that the Federal Government under President Goodluck Jonathan is promoting genocide in the north through its fight against insurgency and aimed at depopulating the north.

    But Maku, fielding questions from State House correspondents, said the statement was uncalled for from an elder statesman.

    He said, “Each time the security people strike our target there is a lot of public uproar and propaganda which is weakening out national resolve to fight terror. This nation deserves security at this time even in the heat of it, you hear some irresponsible comment coming from highly placed people including a governor.”

    “Now this nation is in need of unity but the way we are playing to the gallery, we are making irresponsible statement. We are making statement that will divide the country, statements that is setting the citizen against security services and government. And when those statements come from people we believe should be leading the course of unity, appreciating the great job the security agents are doing.”

    Continuing, he said: “If only Nigerians understand that as we sit in this hall, our security people are out there in the bush sleeping in the bush day and night and getting killed in the cause of maintaining the security of this country.”

    “But what we see is that every people who has little knowledge ‎on how security services are rendered will just open their mouth and make statements that creates panic in the country and this is very unfortunate.”

    “To hear the kind of things being said by the governor of Adamawa State‎ at this period is very unfortunate. Nyako is the former Chief of Naval Staff, he is someone that has worn uniform before, to publicly incite the people against the security forces of this country is the height of irresponsibility.”

    “And I believe that for someone like that who is old enough to appreciate the kind of crisis this country is going through, we expect that there should be greater understanding, politics aside.”

    “When people reach a certain age they should watch their utterances and the kind of things they are suppose to say. Maybe young people like you and me we can say it due to lack of experience. But people that have known the difficulty this country is going through and the kind of effort that is being made by the federal government to be coming out to make those statements that divide the country even at a point that we need national unity and national healing is grossly irresponsible.”

    “We are expecting that as we move forward, this nation will definitely defeat terror. This is a war of criminals against the entire nation and they know that this crisis originated at local levels.”

     

  • Nigeria battling worst form of terrorism – Maku

    Nigeria battling worst form of terrorism – Maku

    The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, on Wednesday maintained that the country is witnessing the worst form of terrorism in the world.

    He made the remarks while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Maku wondered what the terrorists will be doing with over 100 young female children kidnapped in a secondary school in Borno State if they were really fighting for religion issues.

    The minister, who was accompanied by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Bala Mohammed and the Minister of State for Health, Khaliru Alhassan said that deliberations at the meeting focused mainly on Monday bomb attack at a bus Park in Nyanya, FCT, the kidnapping of the school girls in Borno State and other terrorist activities in the country.

    Condemning the abduction, he said the government is doing everything possible to rescue the girls and bring their abductors to book.

    The Council, he said has not received full official full report on the incident.

    According to him, the Council expressed its collective sorrow and condoled President Jonathan on the unfortunate bomb blast at the Nyanya bus station on Monday and resolved that all Nigerians and institutions must unite against terror.

    Stressing that the purpose of the attacks is to cause confusion and make the government to lose focus, he said that there is a need for all Nigerians to be extra vigilant and every community and state should increase surveillance.