Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Uguru Usani, has again stressed the commitment of all the cabinet ministers in the current administration led by President Muhammadu Buhari to working for Nigerians, with a view to ensuring a better future.
“You will not find any of our ministers in character and actions suggesting that he is superior to any other Nigerians,” he added.
Usani made this assertion while receiving an award of excellence, for his contributions to the development of Niger Delta Region and Nigeria in general, from the Association of Nigeria Geographers in Keffi, Nasarawa State, on Wednesday.
“I really believe that when leaders are privileged to preside over the affairs of others, they should not have any excuse that it is the subordinates who misled them,” he stressed. The minister reiterated that the philosophy of every set of people is guided by the leadership.
It would be recalled that Pastor Usani earlier in the week in his key note address at the just concluded 58th National Conference of the Association of Nigeria Geographers, also in Keffi, titled; “Appreciating Change in the Context of Globalisation: A Geographic Paradigm,” disclosed that the reason for the prevalence of poverty, hunger and inability of the Nigerian economy to boom as expected was due to the decline in morals in the Nigerian governance space.
He decried a situation where crime and people of questionable characters are being celebrated in the country.
Also recognised by the Association of Nigeria Geographers under the leadership of Prof. Kayode Oyesiku included the Minister of State for Environment, Hon. Ibrahim Usman Jibril and the Vice Chancellor of Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Prof. Muhammed Akero Mainoma.
In a related development, Usani, during an interactive session with the National Mentorship Benefactors and some Mentees from the Niger Delta region in Abuja on Wednesday, disclosed that all projects that have been awarded and executed by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), will undergo Technical Audit and Status Verification to justify expenditure on such projects.
He charged the beneficiaries who will soon be travelling abroad on mentorship programme to be good ambassadors of Nigeria and also make effective use of the resources they will get to advance their future careers.
“Every great entrepreneur started with very meager amount of money. Define your paths on what you want to do in life,” advised the minister. He noted that lack of seriousness and incompetence will not be condoned from the beneficiaries.
The minister added that the beneficiaries required knowledge and skills to succeed in life.
Usani stressed that discussions were on-going with different organisations from a number of countries, in order to see that many Niger Delta youths were assisted as much as possible.
In her response, the South-South Coordinator of the National Mentorship Programme, Barr. Mrs. Uwa Ben-Ogbeide, thanked the minister for being a good driver of such a “wonderful programme.”
The mentorship training programme of Niger Delta youths abroad is being coordinated by the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and the National Mentorship Office headed by Mr Chika Olejeme.
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