Posted by By CHRISTIAN ITA on
Despite reportedly holding meetings with northern and South-south governors on the impasse at the National Political Reforms Conference, President Olusegun Obasanjo says he is yet to be official informed about the deadlock between northern delegates and their South-south colleagues over what derivation per centage should go to oil producing states.
Despite reportedly holding meetings with northern and South-south governors on the impasse at the National Political Reforms Conference, President Olusegun Obasanjo says he is yet to be official informed about the deadlock between northern delegates and their South-south colleagues over what derivation per centage should go to oil producing states.
Speaking yesterday on the monthly radio programme, The President Explains, Obasanjo said government had all the while stayed aloof because it was yet to be officially informed about the deadlock.
He said: ' No formal report has been made to me. Whatever I have learnt about the confab had been through informal sources."
The President however assured that once he is official informed of the impasse by the conference leadership, he would certainly intervene.
Said he: 'When formal report is made to me, and that is the way I believe it should be, by the chairman of the confab, appropriate action will be taken. I believe that they should work as a group of people who have the interest of the people at heart.
'We are watching and waiting. Whenever the chairman comes and says the conference has reached its wits' end or the conference is deadlocked, we will consider what should be done."
On Nigeria's leadership role in Africa and its clamour for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, he said the nation, besides having what it takes to be a leader on the continent, has given true leadership to Africa over the years
According to him, 'We are showing beyond reasonable doubt that we are reliable representatives of Africa. We have what it takes to represent Africa both in terms of our population, growing economy and security.
'I believe that is the position. It took us six years to get debt relief. I have been all over the world to get debt relief when some people, even internally were cynical about my trips. We will go on and as far as I am concerned, I work as if to offend some gods."
He said the debt relief was one of the means of alleviating poverty, assuring that he would use the $18 billion debt relief to provide good healthcare, 'education, agriculture, food security, roads, infrastructure and electricity. That is the way it will go.
'I did not even realise the magnitude of this until Tuesday when Hon. Larry Ben in Libya said ‘Look, five years ago, nobody will think it is possible, even one year ago."
Obasanjo also spoke on the on-going reforms in the banking sector and announced that he has just given approval ' for the mortgage bank to raise a bond for N100 billion. If the bank got N16 billion from government, N100 billion from bond in one year, that is a lot of money and with what we are doing in the area of contributory pension, health insurance, there will be money that development banks can have access to. Very seriously, we are doing what I think we should be doing, we are strengthening the mortgage institution."