From AIDOGHIE PAULINUS, Abuja Ex-Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Ms Ama Pepple, has explained why President Goodluck Jonathan removed her as minister in September, 2013. The former Head of Service of the Federation, was removed at the time eight other ministers nominated by governors and others opposed to President Jonathan were removed from office. Pepple told Sunday Sun exclusively in Abuja that she believed it was the same reason that led to her exit from Jonathan’s cabinet. She wondered what other reason could be adduced for her removal, having been efficient, effective and hardworking. The former Permanent Secretary in the Federal Civil Service Commission, Ministries of Transport, Information and National Orientation, Petroleum Resources, Commerce, Agriculture and Rural Development and Finance, said: “I believe that is what happened. I know.” According to Pepple, “That must be the reason. Ok, as a minster, how do you think I performed? You are a Nigerian, assessing me. Did I do badly? Was I not efficient, effective and hardworking? I believe so,” Pepple said. Apart from the policies she pursued in the housing sector as minister, Pepple has to her credit, the construction of a mausoleum for the first indigenous President of Nigeria, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and the construction of six federal secretariats across the country. She spoke on her achievements, while also praying for peace to reign between President Jonathan and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers state. Excerpts: How was your tenure as a minister? Without being immodest, I believe my tenure was very successful and that we made a lot of progress in the housing sector, in very many areas that were not given attention before. What is it like, being out of public glare? It is ok. You won’t be in any place forever. Life changes. They say the only thing permanent in life is change. Things must change. You serve, you move out and other people come and serve too and go away. For me, I believe the peak of my career as a public servant in Nigeria, was as Head of Service of the Federation. And like I tell people, the minister’s job was a bonus that God, through President Jonathan, gave me. As Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, would you say you achieved all you set out to achieve in the housing sector? Nearly all. And I believe if others build on what I have already done , the housing sector will make a lot of progress. How about the housing policy? I have formulated the housing and urban development policies. When I got there, there was no housing policy. Since 1993 or so, there was no housing policy, no urban development policy. So, when I got to the ministry, I saw that was the first thing we needed to do. How could we make progress in the sector if we didn’t have a policy that will guide us? I put a committee together, an all inclusive committee which included professionals and ministry officials . I put them together and I am happy to say that in less than a year of becoming minister, we took the proposed policies to council and got approval, precisely, I think in June, 2012. That was less than a year after I was appointed minister. And we were following up on the guidelines we laid down for ourselves. Can you expantiate on the guidelines? When I got there, they had a Public Private Partnership (PPP) unit, but the PPP unit was not really working because when you don’t have enough funds for housing, the best thing to do is to open it up to the private sector. And you need to create an enabling environment for the private sector to be able to function. So, we strengthened the PPP unit and we sent one of the members of staff for training locally and abroad and she became certified. She is an architect and she became certified as a PPP expert. People talk about PPP but if you don’t have an expert in the field, it is like you are talking from the top of your head. You cannot really focus on what PPP should be. And I think training that young lady to be an expert, helped us. So, some of the houses we built, we provided the PPP. There was also the public-public collaboration which we were also trying to do in one of the states to provide houses for their health workers. We also tried to strengthen the Federal Mortgage Bank.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 11:32:59 +0000
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