SAMBO, BANKOLE DISAGREE ON GOOD LUCK

By NBF News

The Vice President, Namadi Sambo and the Speaker, House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole yesterday disagreed on whether Nigeria needed just good luck to make socio-economic progress in its policies and programmes

The disagreement, it was believed has to do with the fact that the first name of the country's President is Goodluck who incidentally is currently on campaign tour for April presidential election.

Both Sambo and Bankole spoke at the Northern Economic Summit with the theme, 'An Agenda for Economic and Social Transformation of Northern Nigeria.'

The Speaker had earlier in his speech condemned the statement made by the Kaduna state Governor, Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, who at the end of his speech wished the participants, delegates and the country in general, good luck, with much emphasis on, ' good luck to Nigeria, good luck to northern people.'

But as soon as the Speaker took the turn to speak, he said the problems of the country required a lot of solutions rather than mere good luck, stressing that as an economist, he did not believe in mere good luck for things to work.

He blamed the people of the North for not starting the summit long before now and advised them to create a conducive environment for investors into the region because according to him, with conducive environment people would come to invest.

Once it was the turn of the Vice President to declare the summit open, he took on Bankole and disagreed with him, saying that the country indeed needed good luck as well as prayers to make progress in its policies and programmes.

'Mr. Speaker, with due respect, I want to disagree with you on the need for good luck because no matter what infrastructure you get, you still need good luck and that is why we always pray for progress and success in our every day lives.' Sambo said. However, Bankole, who looked seemingly uncomfortable with the Vice President's response to the use of good luck took leave of the summit soon after Sambo's speech.

Sambo, in his speech also called on northern leaders to emulate the development plan of the founding fathers of the region and assured that the Federal Government was determined to resucitate all moribund industries in the North.

He further assured that government was doing everything possible to bring lasting peace to the crisis areas of Plateau, Bauchi and other states of the country, 'because we cannot achieve any meaningful development without peace.'

Ironically, the 19 northern governors who are members of the G-20 that organised the summit did not turn up for the event, except the host Governor, Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa and some of the state deputies. The G-20, according to the Chairman, organising committee of the summit, Professor Jerry Gana, comprises the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

Interestingly, the Chairman on the occasion, former head of state, General Yakubu Gowon came to the defence of the absentee governors, saying that , 'majority of the Northern Governors are on campaign rally, hence they could not grace the occasion.'