"Nigerians must patronise locally made products" - Osinbajo

- Acting president, Yemi Osinbajo, says the present administration is committed to ensuring that government and its citizens patronise locally made products - Osinbajo states that preference must be given to indigenous providers of goods and services to strengthen the system - The acting president urges Nigerians to buy and use Nigerian products Acting president, Yemi Osinbajo, has said Nigerians must eat and drink Nigerian products at state banquet.
Osinbajo said the present administration was committed to ensuring that government and its citizens patronise locally made products. The acting president made the statement an interactive session he had with top government officials on the ease of doing business at the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday, May 18, The Punch reports. He said the government would work out incentives for performance by building reward system that punishes malfeasance and that preference must be given to indigenous providers of goods and services to strengthen the system. Yemi Osinbajo said Nigerians must buy and use Nigerian products. Osinbajo said: "I agree that a system of rewarding performance, and punishing malfeasance is key. We must work out incentive schemes even as we tighten up sanctions regimes. “We hit 70 percent quickly on the 60 days of ease or doing business target because of the cooperation of all the agencies like ministry of interior, immigrations, customs etc and that is why the remaining 30percent we will also achieve and deliver. I will hold myself accountable to it and I will also hold you accountable. “Usually, we blame the system. But the system is men and women not machines. So we can and must reform it. These proposed executive orders present a unique opportunity to perform. Ladies and gentlemen let us perform.
“The President has laid out a cornerstone policy of this administration. We must grow what we eat and make what we use. The President again enunciated this principle in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan…Buy Nigerian, Use Nigerian. “So we must now insist that at state banquets we eat and drink Nigerian.”  Specifically, Mr. Osinbajo signed three executive orders giving specific instructions on a number of policy issues affecting: "The promotion of transparency and efficiency in the business environment designed to facilitate the ease of doing business in the country. "Timely submission of annual budgetary estimates by all statutory and non-statutory agencies, including companies owned by the Federal Government and" "Support for local contents in public procurement by the Federal Government."

Amaechi hails Jonathan’s government, says he met 80% project completed

 - The minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, commends the immediate past administration for embarking on massive projects that have been beneficial to Nigerians - Rotimi Amaechi says his ministry did not meet anything comatose on resumption of the current administration - Amaechi notes that the Muhammadu Buhari administration continued the projects of the previous administration after it realised the impact of the recession The minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has hailed the Goodluck Jonathan government for almost completing all the projects in his ministry. Speaking at an Abuja Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, May 16, Amaechi commended the immediate past administration for embarking on massive projects that have been beneficial to Nigerians.

"In the ministry of transportation, we did not meet anything comatose. We met an attempt to bring back our rail services," Amaechi said. "The Kaduna-Abuja railway which was nearly 80% completed which we commissioned and commercial services have commenced." The minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi says the Kaduna-Abuja railway was nearly 80% completed by the previous administration. Chuksbooks learnt that Amaechi noted that the Muhammadu Buhari administration continued the projects because "we realised the impact of the recession". Amaechi’s predecessor in the ministry of transportation is Senator Idris A.Umar, a 57-year old politician from Gombe state. 

 Meanwhile, the minister of agriculture Audu Ogbeh has raised an alarm that eight ships filled with low quality rice are being imported to Nigeria from Singapore. Ogbeh who raised the alarm at the mid-term town-hall meeting of the federal government in Abuja on Tuesday, May 16 said the ship are currently heading to Nigeria. The minister further warned that the federal government would not allow the importation of sub-standard rice or any other good into Nigeria anymore. He also referred to the successes of the Anchor Borrowers Programme in Kebbi state as a way for Nigerians to start eating and growing its own locally-produced rice.