Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo has remarked that the economic indices of Nigeria have been quite impressive since the inception of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
The vice president made this remark today at a reception organized for him in Abidjan by the members of Nigeria’s community in Cote D’Ivoire.
Arc Sambo used the occasion to highlight on the various inroads made by the current administration in Nigeria in its transformation Agenda in the political and socio-economic spheres adding that various policies of the administration were yielding positive results within the economy. He also stated that the prospects of Nigeria emerging as one of the largest economies in the world were high based on global ratings as Nigeria was Home to a stable of large, well-capitalised Banks, the 10th world largest reserves of oil and gas with emerging world’s largest cement companies and an expanding Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with 7.6% growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2013, relative stability of the external reserve as well as the national currency.
Namadi Sambo further stated that Nigeria now produce over 1 million tonnes of rice per annum and “in the next few years we would be exporting the commodity” he added given example of the cement industry whose production as at 2010 was barely 2million metric tonnes but now produces around 30 million metric tonnes making the country a global exporter of the product.
The vice president also informed the community that the Nigerian government has established a Diaspora Bond for Nigerians in the Diaspora so that they too could participate in the economic activities of their country and assured them of government’s efforts towards ensuring that Nigerians in the Diaspora also participate in the election of their representatives. He called on the members to continue to be good ambassadors of Nigeria and on its part, Nigeria would continue to protect the interest of its citizens wherever they.
Speaking earlier, leader of the Nigerian community in Cote D’Ivoire Nasiru Kareem described the Vice president as a man with deep sense of humility and commitment to service and his meeting with them was a demonstration of the Nigeria’s president dedication to the welfare of Nigerians abroad and thanked the vice president and the president for keeping the transformation agenda of their administration moving on high pedestal
“For those who know our character we are not hasty in given scores but the current administration’s transformation agenda is visible to our eyes. We see a Nigeria that is working and we see that things hitherto impossible are now in place” he said
The Nigeria’s community leader, who described the Nigerian community in Cote d’Ivoire as the largest community of Nigerians in any country outside its shores with a population of over two million people expressed appreciation to the host country whose relationship he described as cordial and attributed it to the efficient diplomatic policy of the current administration.
However the president lamented the lack of the mechanism that would enable Nigerians abroad to exercise their franchise whom despite their numerical strength where disenfranchise from the electioneering process and called for government to facilitate the process that would make it possible for them to vote in the next general elections.
Nasiru Karim also called for the establishment of National Examination Council (NECO) and the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) examination centres in Cote d’Ivoire due to the numerical strength and further called for a diplomatic move to end the discrimination against Nigerians from the host country in terms of employment, which he believed would further cement the diplomatic ties existing between the two countries.
Meanwhile, the vice president had earlier in the day paid a courtesy visit to the president of the Republic Alassane Outtara in his plateau Presidential Palace and expressed his appreciation of the warm reception and hospital accorded them by the government and the people of Cote D’Ivoire throughout their stay in the country. He informed the president that they had held series of bi-national meetings with the prime minister in respect of the Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) signed last year in Abuja and had made positive progress in all the areas that they had signed in the MOU.
Moreover, Namadi Sambo expressed Nigeria’s appreciation of President Outtara’s leadership of the Economic Community of the West of African States (ECOWAS) which was witnessing peace, stability and progress in his tenure and also informed him of the commitment of Nigeria to the realization of the international highway project that would connect Lagos to Lome, Ghana and to Abidjan, As well as the railway project that would connect Nigeria to Abidjan.
On his part, President Alassane Outtara thanked the vice for the important visit adding that Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria would remain strong partners in the development of the West-African sub-region adding that he looked forward to meeting with the Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan at the AU conference in Addis Ababa.
Bashir Bello
For: (SSA MEDIA & PUBLICITY)
TO THE VICE PRESIDENT
