The Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, has said that the diverse nature of Nigeria should serve as a catalyst for its greatness and not for its weakening.
Speaking when he received members of the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs who came visiting on oversight functions at the State House, Professor Gambari said “I know the seriousness with which you take your assignment and rightly so because you look at the subject matter of your mandate.
“Federal Character in my view, sums up the strength of our country because the strength of our country lies in our diversity; diversity is not a weakness but strength because out of those plurality of our people we are working towards one nation and therefore the maintenance of the strength and the use of it for the fulfilment of the purposes of the state directives, policies, programs and projects of several administration is in your hands, in terms of oversight.”
According to Prof. Gambari, “Inter-Governmental Affairs is very important because no particular Government, State, Federal, Local or entities of the three arms of government, the legislature, the executive and the judiciary is an island, rather, working together in the harmonious way can achieve the purposes which our various mandates have given us.”
The Chief of Staff assured the visitors that the State House by nature has to lead by example as Mr. President feels strongly about transparency, openness and accountability.
“So we’re very open, and I’m sure in terms of our interactions there may be issues that you want to raise, which we’re going to respond very positively.
“We operate within the budget of the State House and we try to manage our resources, very judiciously because that’s also one of the things that Mr. President insists on, the judicious use of scarce resources. We must always remember that all of us Senators, the State House staff, we serve only one constituency, which is the people of Nigeria,” he added.
The Chairman of the committee, Sen. Danjuma Laah said the committee did not come to indict, sabotage, vindicate or find fault with the State House official operations but to further expand and reason for the good governance of our country and ensure proper service delivery.
He added that the committee enjoys a very good and cordial working relationship with the management of the State House, and as such, the visit aims to further deepen the existing relationship.
The Permanent Secretary State House, Tijjani Umar, in his presentation outlined in detail the budget performance for the periods under review, 2018, 2019 and 2020.
He commended members of the Committee for their invaluable assistance, guidance and understanding as they strive to provide excellent, efficient and qualitative service to Mr. President towards the effective discharge of his responsibility to Nigerians.
The Committee members, accompanied by the Permanent Secretary and State House management team later went to project sites for inspection where they expressed satisfaction with what they saw, especially the extension of the State House Clinic, the Special Care Centre and ground clearing for the construction of the new Presidential Wing of the State House Clinic which would take care of the President, the Vice President, their families and other VIPs.