A brainstorming session with President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, senior Federal Government officials and principal operators of Nigeria’s private sector in attendance is scheduled to hold on Monday in Lagos to flag-off activities leading up to the inauguration of the President for a fresh term of office on May 29,, 2011.
Speaking at an audience Friday in Abuja with the Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General, Prof Jeffrey Sachs, President Jonathan who will preside over the session, said that inputs and recommendations from participants at the session will be put to good use in the fine-tuning of government’s action plan for the next four years.“It will prepare us to hit the ground running after May 29,”
President Jonathan said, adding that the brainstorming session had been scheduled because he wanted his inaugural activities to include not just pomp and pageantry as usual, but also serious preparation for the successful implementation of his Agenda for National Transformation.The President told Prof.
Sachs that he was fully committed to pursuing a multifaceted, integrated strategy for rapid national development that will yield significant benefits in public infrastructure, power supply, education, healthcare, job creation, poverty alleviation and other areas.
“We must pursue an integrated approach. There is no way we can isolate any particular sector for attention as they are all inter-related. If we do that, we will fail,” he said.
Remarking that he was always saddened by Nigeria’s current indices of human development especially in the area of public health, President Jonathan said he will pull out all stops to ensure that the country’s ranking on the Human Development Index rises significantly in the next four years.
Thanking Prof. Sachs for his continuing devotion to development in Nigeria, the President remarked that it was a very justifiable commitment since any progress in Nigeria will impact positively on the rest of Africa and the world.“If Nigeria gets out of the woods, that is 20-25 percent of Africa out of the woods.
We can carry other African countries along. If our economy improves, it will impact positively on the rest of the world,” he said.Prof. Sachs congratulated President Jonathan on Nigeria’s recent elections which he said the entire world was cheering.
He said that with the successful elections, Nigeria was now at a positive juncture for the consolidation of democracy and rapid economic development, adding that the United Nations was very keen on supporting the Jonathan Administration in any way that it could.