ABUJA—THE Federal Government, yesterday, shifted blames for the problem of power in the country on the 30 years of military rule, just as it said that planning was relegated to the background during the period.
Speaking when he presented his scorecard to the National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and other members of the National Working Committee, NWC, Minister of National Planning Commission, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman was pessimistic on achieving the set goal of becoming one of the top 20 most developed economies by the year 2020.
Shamsuddeen Usman said: “During the military era planning was relegated and for more than 30 years we neglected the power sector”.
The minister also disclosed that the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan, NIMP, designed for the next 30 years will be ready in July, even as he said 50 percent of the nation’s bilateral agreements were presently not functioning as some of them were already dead.
50% of bilateral agreement not functioning
He added that the Commission at the moment had reviewed 488 of such agreements, noting that it was quite unfortunate that Nigerians were not getting the full benefit of the signed agreements.
On Vision 2020, Shamsuddeen, who noted that Nigeria was number 44, said if by 2020 the nation rises to number 25 he would be a proud man.
