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Next Press Release

Friday, 3rd April, 2009

EDUCATION, A PRE-REQUISITE FOR DEVELOPMENT - GOV ALIYU

The Chief Servant and Governor of Niger State, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu has described education as a top priority and a necessary pre-requisite for the speedy socio-economic development of the State.

Governor Aliyu reiterated this to the delegation of students from the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, when the delegation paid a courtesy visit on him at the Government House, Minna.

He said his administration has realized the need to give priority to education in an effort to institutionalize good governance in the State. He said this informed the decision to declare a free education policy and re-introduce the bursary awards to the students from the State in order to reduce the burden on parents.

 Dr. Aliyu added that government took a deliberate policy to pay NECO and WAEC examination fees to every student in the State, and this, according to him affects every child irrespective of his/her state of orign.

To further buttress his point, the Chief Servant said the State Government has cancelled contract appointment for non-indigenes and that in place of it, permanent and pensionable appointments are offered to them, saying that the measure was taken so as to encourage the non-indigenes to add value to the development of the State.

The Governor also said that agriculture sector is next to education as a priority, pointing out that the State is blessed with abundant human and natural resources to feed the nation, adding that the Badeggi Rice Processing Plant that was abandoned for over 16 years, has been resuscitated and now functional.

Other sectors that are very important to the government include the mass housing projects, under which according to him, about 5,000 units of houses will be constructed accross the State before the end of his first tenure in office through the Public-Private Partnership initiative, and that so far, about 2,000 units of the houses have been constructed with 1,000 units in the State Capital, Minna.

On road construction, the Chief Servant informed them that the government has since commenced dualization of some major roads in Minna, and each local government council in the State has been directed to construct ten kilometers of roads, stressing that these measures were taken in order to bring dividends of democracy to the people through transparency, accountability and good governance.

 In his speech, the Director, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies and leader of the delegation, Mr. J.K. Opadiran said they were in the State to share the fountain of knowledge of the Chief Servant on his efforts at good governance, which according to him was the theme for this year’s Senior Executive Course of the institute, as well as a pre-requisite for achieving vision 20:2020 and the seven- point agenda of the Federal Government.

The Director explained that the visit was aimed at interacting with State and local government officials with a view to studying their patterns of good governance, and that Niger State is among the six states selected in the North for this purpose. He said at the end of the visits, the institute will compile a robust and quality report which will not only be beneficial to the President, but also to the Chief Servant of Niger State.

Bala Ibrahim Abdulkadir,

Director General