SAMBO COMMENDS NIGERIANS IN SUDAN
Vice President Namadi Sambo has commended Nigerians living in Sudan on their conduct, which has been noted by their host country. Sambo urged them to remain good ambassadors and not bring disrepute to the country.
He gave the charge during an interraction with members of the Nigerian community in Khartoum.
The vice president informed members of the community of the tremendous strides the government has made in the areas of politics, economy and security. He stated that for the first time, Nigerians went to the polls to vote for the candidates of their choice in a free and fair manner. 'We have been elected sincerely by the majority of Nigerians and we have an obligation and in that regard, Mr. President has developed a Transformation Agenda.'
Sambo stated that the concept of their administration was to transform the country positively, to ensure security of lives and property of all Nigerians and the transformation of its economic position that would make it one of the 20 most developed countries in the world by 2020.
He stated that the administration was addressing the issue of power supply as the government was currently building 10 new thermal power plants, which were at advanced stage of completion.
According to him, it would add 5000mw to the national grid; building over 1000km of new 330kv and 132 kv transmission lines of several associated sub-stations and hundreds and thousands of injection substations in all the cities. This would improve the capacity to be able to evacuate and distribute power throughout the country.
He also said the government was embarking on several hydro-power plant projects, which include the Zungeru and the Mambila power plants that would add 700mw and 2,600mw respectively in which they had approached the IDB Group in part financing.
On agriculture and transportation, Sambo stated that their administration was also addressing it. issues and had transformed their concept of making agriculture 'not as a programme, but agriculture as a business.'
This would address the whole value chain of agriculture, as government was providing the necessary infrastructure in terms of irrigation schemes and adequate transportation with the construction of thousand of kilometers of roads and a number of bridges, like the 2nd Niger Bridge that was at advanced stage, as well as the dredging of river Niger which was near completion government was also rehabilitating old and building new railway infrastructure that would connect cities and light trains that would add value to the mass transport services in the cities.
On education, Sambo stated that government was putting additional resources to ensure value from primary up to tertiary levels and that approval has already been given for the establishment of nine more universities and that every state of Nigeria would have one university that would address the need of our nation.
In his remark, the Nigerian Ambassador to Sudan Haruna Ginsau said the occasion was unprecedented, been the first time in decades that Nigerians in Sudan and Sudanese-Nigerians are coming close to their number two citizen. He thanked the vice president for sparing time out of his tight schedule to be with them for the moment.
The ambassador, who stated that between nine to ten million Sudanese were of Nigerian origin, affirmed that the Nigerian citizens in Sudan had encouraging record of good behavior based on his comparison of many countries.
Ginsau traced back the relations between Nigerians and Sudanese, before the advent of colonialism, in which Sudan served as a transit route for Nigerian pilgrims on their way to Mecca to perform pilgrimage and since then the relationship between the two countries has been strengthening.
The Vice President was accompanied by his wife Amina Namadi Sambo and Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State.