Danjuma's committee submits report

The Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) headed by Theophilus Danjuma, a retired general is presently meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja to deliberate on its interim report.

The committee, which was inaugurated on March 4, 2010 is to among other things advise the government on key social, political and economic issues.
This report, which is been submitted today, is expected to make far-reaching suggestions on key governmental issues that will be a drastic departure from previous presidential committees.

Danjuma at the inauguration of the committee told Jonathan "Because the time are extra-ordinary, the measures that need to be taken are not only urgent but also extra-ordinary. Unless you take those measures quickly, the goodwill, which you now enjoy, may be lost.
Fortunately you have the required courage and vision. What you did not have in the past was the authority. Now that you have been invested with the authority the nation expects you to proceed quickly to effect the needed transformation. This is the right time for you to act- now when you can act quickly and aggressively- now when society can be trusted to be so generous as to credit you with your successes and to excuse your errors".
The Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) submitted its interim report with a call on the government to explore hydro, gas, and thermal, solar as alternative sources of energy to tackle the problem of power generation in Nigeria.
The PAC was set up by the Federal Government on March 4, 2010 to proffer solutions to most of the problems besetting the country.

Theophilus Danjuma, Chairman of the PAC said after over 10 hours deliberation on the recommendations of its interim report submitted to Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, that the council looked at critical sectors of the economy and made both long and short term recommendations to the government.

“Our recommendations are that this administration should look at all the sources of power; hydro, thermal, gas and solar,” he said.
Critical sectors besides power that the council looked at are infrastructure, economy, social sector, security, anti-corruption, electoral reform, rule of law and civil service reform”

“Some of the recommendations are short terms; some are immediate and some long term. Most of them are long term so we can begin now until the next administration comes and carry it from where we stopped,” he said.

On the timeline for the implementation of the recommendations, the PAC chairman said it would be “throughout the entire length of this administration”.

Danjuma who said the committee has “up till the end of this administration to look at all the problems and make recommendations” stressed that “we are to formulate policies and bring new ideas and how to implement them.

He lamented that Nigerians were only good at formulating policies and noted that the problem has always been the implementation of such policies.

The retired general said Jonathan has “promised that those aspects of the recommendations that are implementable, he will embark on them, he will set up committees in them and take actions”.

President Jonathan in his brief remarks promised to implement the recommendations contained in the report.

He said if the government cannot implement all the recommendations, it will at least implement over 60 per cent of the recommendations.


Eno Adams
INN/ Hayward, CA