"Launches Apo Housing Scheme
"President Goodluck Jonathan, on Thursday, urged Nigerians not to see themselves as Northern or Southern citizens, but as a people and a race bound by the same history and constitution.
Jonathan gave the advice in Abuja, at the annual National Migration Dialogue, organised by the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and internally Displaced Persons.
Vice President Namadi Sambo, who represented the president, called for an end to the classification of Nigerians as indigenes or non-indigenes of any particular state.
“We must insist that in relating among ourselves as a nation, there are no Northern or Southern citizens, neither are there citizens of any particular state in the East or in the West.
“We are citizens of Nigeria, a people and a race bound by the same history and constitution.
“We must continue to insist and uphold our constitution that guarantees the right of all Nigerians to live anywhere in Nigeria without any fear of economic,
political,
religious, or social exclusion.
“Our ethnic diversity, ideally should be a source of strength, not weakness; a country, where people freely profess and practise their respective religious beliefs anywhere within our national boundaries, without any fear of discrimination.
“The future I see is of a nation, where people are no longer identified by their ethnic or religious affiliations, but by the very virtue of their citizenship as Nigerians,” he said.
According to him, the Nigerian constitution and the recommendations of the recently concluded national conference guaranteed the right of every Nigerian to reside anywhere in the country, without discrimination.
While acknowledging the role migration plays in national development, the president noted that the country had the highest volume of international migrants and the largest remittances in sub-Saharan Africa, worth 20.76 billion dollars in 2013.
He, therefore, stressed that Nigeria, while aiming to mitigate the negative impact of migration, would continually to deploy strategies to encourage Nigerians in the Diaspora to invest remittances in social infrastructure, human capital development and other activities.
He stated that his administration had made it a cardinal principle that Nigerians must be treated humanely and with dignify in any country of their residence.
On internally displaced persons, the president said he had directed that victims be given due care and maintenance, without any form of social exclusion.
Jonathan expressed hope that the national migration dialogue would help shape Nigeria’s national migratory orientation.
In her remarks, the Federal Commissioner for Refugees, Hajiya Hadiza Kangiwa, noted that Nigeria was the first country in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) sub-region to institute the dialogue.
She said the dialogue was conceived as a strategy for mainstreaming migration into the post development agenda and was also a derivation of the draft National Migration Policy document.
According to her, the objective of the dialogue was to provide a platform for debating the impact and linkages between migration and development, thereby shaping Nigeria’s national migratory linkages.
She said the dialogue would also provide opportunity for reviewing the various operational challenges at the implementation level.
JONATHAN INAUGURATES APO HOUSING SCHEME
PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, on Thursday, inaugurated the pilot phase of the Federal Government’s Nationwide Workers’ Housing Scheme, at Apo Tafyi, Abuja.
This came as he called for harmonious relationship between government and labour leaders for the benefit of workers.
Speaking at the ceremony, the president observed that workers were the ones who bore the brunt of industrial crisis.
He, therefore, called on unions to explore all peaceful avenues of dispute resolution before embarking on strike or industrial action.
The housing scheme the president inaugurated is made up of 10,000 units designed for workers of different income groups around the country.
The Apo Tafyi pilot phase of the project is expected to deliver about 1,205 housing units to workers resident in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Though it is a Federal Government’s project, it was being implemented in collaboration with the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and private companies.
“I intend to kick off a similar project under this scheme in no distant time. I hope the progress we are making will encourage more private sector investment in this noble cause,” Jonathan said.
Source: #Tribune News.
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