CHOOSE CABINET THAT'LL REFORM ECONOMY'

By Elizabeth Archibong
March 24, 2010 02:04AM
Isa Yuguda, the governor of Bauchi State, has expressed optimism that Acting President Goodluck Jonathan will choose a team that will help to drive the economy as fast as possible.

Mr. Yuguda, who is a son-in-law to the ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, said, 'he is fast recovering.' He told journalists at the Presidential Villa after a private meeting with Mr. Jonathan, that the country needs a team that will help to reposition it for vision 2020.

The advice from Mr. Yuguda is coming despite the belief in some quarters that as a close confidant of Mr. Yar'Adua, he was not in support of the dissolution of the cabinet by the Acting President last week.

Ignorant Gaddafi
In reaction to the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi's statement that Nigeria should be split into two, Mr. Yuguda said he should have studied the country before making such an outrageous comment.

'That is unfortunate and I don't know whether Gaddafi knows Nigeria. I don't know whether he knows that Nigeria has close to 500 tribes. I don't know whether he knows that adherents of Christianity and Islam are spread across the 36 states. So for him to suggest that Nigeria should be sliced into two, I think he must be a big joker.

'We don't even have religious crisis in our country. What we have are purely ethnic clashes, and these clashes are caused by economic hardship and sometimes envy, and the international community views it as a religious issue.'

Mr. Gaddaffi had said the solution to the sectarian crisis in Nigeria was dividing the country into two, the North for the Muslims, and the South for Christians.