Tinapa, Imoke Woos Journalists for Support (23/6/08)

The Cross River State Government has enjoined the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) to appeal to Federal Government to release operational guidelines on Tinapa for its vision to be realized for the benefit of Nigerians.

Governor Liyel Imoke made the appeal when he received the National President of NUJ Mr. Ndagene Aku leading members of Red Carpet Protocol Media Team, Tuesday, stressing that the support of NUJ is critical to State’s development agenda as a typical example of such project is Tinapa.

According to Imoke, the challenge of Tinapa is far greater than its conception and the Federal Government should ensure it succeeds for it to realize its dreams, lamenting it was the same Federal Government that gave approval to Tinapa after appraising its concept, and commissioned it last year but instead of releasing its operational guideline to commence business, it has been deducting money accruing it from loan collected for the project.

Imoke disclosed that the State Government is committed to realize the vision of the people which it serves especially in the execution of people oriented programme as its attention is centered on rural areas, advising that journalists should look at programmes and not projects because that is what grows the economy and wealth as emphasis is placed on agriculture, healthcare delivery, education and other essential social services.

He noted that it is critical that a critical attention is paid on how these programmes and how they affect the life of the people, stating that emphasis should not be placed on what should be seen as a routine like completing a road or a building as it is time people realized what could sustain the people to attain growth and development.

The Governor explained that the state’s approach to development is contained in its Economic Blue print which will impact on the life of the people.

The National President of NUJ, Mr. Ndagene Aku said the Union has the constitutional mandate to monitor government and at the end of this present regime first year in office, it is proper for journalists to find out what the states have done, adding that their mission will expose what is on ground.

Aku disclosed that the team will call a gain next year to confirm if what seen today has been completed or progress has been made based on how long it will take to execute as it will help government to plan better, execute and forge ahead as well as ensure people get dividend of democracy, explaining that neither Federal Ministry of Information nor PDP is involved in their assignment as in the one led by Prof Jerry Gana which was rejected by the South Western States.

He observed that Cross River has taken the right steps by completing projects initiated by the previous government rather than start afresh as this scores the state high because there is no difference between the two, expressing his happiness with Imoke’s initiative despite the lean allocation from Federal Government.

The President called on Imoke to exploit his membership of governor’s Forum to impress on other governor’s for the release of operational guidelines for Tinapa while requesting for la befitting Press Centre land Journalist village in the state.

Government House Press