This followed the approval by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), on Wednesday, of the modalities for implementation of the report as recommended by the conference.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Pius Anyim, who briefed State House correspondents after the meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan, said the coming of the report to the council was the first concrete step towards its implementation.
He was joined at the briefing by the outgoing supervising Minister of Information, Chief Edem Duke; Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen and newly sworn in minister, Professor Nicholas Ada, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs 1; Colonel Augustine Akobundu (retd), Minister of State for Defence; Fidelis Nwakwo, Minister of State for Health; Mrs Hauwa’u Lawan Bappa, Minister of State Niger Delta Affairs; Kenneth Kobani, Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment; Senator Joel Danlami Ikenya, Minister of Labour and Musiliu Obanikoro, Minister of State II for Foreign Affairs.
Anyim said all such policy matters requiring the attention of federal agencies would be referred to them for immediate implementation, while similar policy matters concerning state and local government would also be referred to the various levels of government.
“The national conference report came to the council today. You will recall that barely one year ago, Mr President inaugurated the conference and at the end of their sitting, the conference came up with a report and submitted the report to him.
“You will also recall that the conference came up with modalities for implementing their resolutions or recommendations. And I think it the high point of that effort. They also recommended to government on how to implement those recommendations and resolutions.
“Let me say that what happened in council today was for it to approve that those modalities be adopted in implementing the report. Recall that when the report was submitted to Mr President, he set up a committee under the chairmanship of the Attorney General of the Federation and the committee has looked at the report in its entirety.
“The members have looked at the recommendations and they have advised Mr President that they were implementable.
“You would have heard the president promising severally that he was going to implement the recommendations of the conference. So, the report coming to the council today is the first leg of taking concrete steps towards implementing the recommendations.
“Resolutions of the conference and what was agreed today in council are one, that the resolutions and recommendations that have implications on constitution amendment or enactment of new laws, the Attorney General should compile and vet them for onward transmission to the National Assembly for enactment into law.
“So, we expect that in the nearest future, the Attorney General would have concluded work on them and they will be forwarded by Mr President to the National Assembly.
“The second approval was also that there are recommendations that have to do with policy matters and those recommendations are necessarily for implementation by either federal agencies or state agencies or local government areas.
“So, it was approved in council that all policy matters that require action by federal agencies would be referred to the agencies for immediate implementation and all that require action by state governments or state agencies should be referred to the states for their immediate implementations and ditto for local government.”
Anyim observed that other matters that required legal issues like the constitution amendment, the National Assembly would work with the state assemblies to bring it into effect.
“So, today, we are taking steps towards implementing the resolutions of the national conference and we believe in the vision of Mr President in setting up the conference and the wonderful work done by eminent Nigerians who attended the conference in producing the report, the resolutions and recommendations, and we believe our country will benefit immensely from the work of this conference,” he said.
FEC also approved the award of contracts for the construction of roads in parts of the country, totalling about N39.6 billion and the construction of buildings for the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) worth about N48 billion.
Minister of Works gave the roads to include Osibudu-Oweto, Ningi-Kofa Mata and Suleja-Minna, with a completion period of 18 and 40 months respectively.
In his remark, Duke also disclosed that N472.5 million was approved by FEC for the supply of tricycles to Benue North West senatorial district for empowerment purposes.
According to him, the council also approved contracts for the construction of office accommodation for NDIC in Lagos and Abuja to the tune of N48 billion.
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