SGF tasks peer review committee to sustain progress in assignment

TO ensure effective completion of the self-assessment process, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, has urged members of the National Steering Committee on peer review to work with the incoming administration.

Anyim, speaking in Abuja when he received the nation’s self-assessment report from the committee on the second Peering Review of Nigeria, said the self-review is one of the many ways to place the country on the path of development, therefore should be sustained.

Commending the chairman and members of the panel for their achievement in spite of the challenges, Anyim said: “Nigeria, as one of the champions of New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), has continued to show leadership by being one of the first countries to submit itself for a second peer review.”

Similarly, the outgoing Minister of Women Affairs, Zainab Maina, has tasked the incoming administration on the completion of the ministry’s headquarters, now in its eighth year of construction.

The project was initially conceived and planned to serve as a National Children’s Library and Resource Centre in 2005 to improve their knowledge on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and provide database on children’s matters in the country.

While leading stakeholders‎ on an inspection tour of the new headquarters in Abuja, Maina explained that the project, which was re-awarded to Saidi Nigeria Limited in 2007, was suspended in 2008 due to paucity of funds.

According to her, this went on for five years until President Goodluck Jonathan approved resumption of work on the site but also a change in its use to the ministry’s headquarters. The six-storey structure is now about 75 per cent completed and could be completed within six months.

In a statement yesterday, Assistant Director, Press, to the SGF, Johnson Oise, said the SGF assured the committee that the report would get to the President immediately, having become part of the documents to be handed over to the incoming administration.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Ken Nnamani, had listed the objectives of the committee to include:

• Oversight function on behalf of the National Focal Point on African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), with a view to submitting a credible Periodic Report on Nigeria.