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Osinbajo: Acting coordinator, president controversy distraction- Lai Mohammed
Mr Olumide

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed

By Lawrence Olaoye

Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has described the controversy on whether Professor Yemi Osinbajo is an Acting President or a Coordinating Vice President a needless distraction.
Muhammed gave this clarification yesterday while briefing State House Correspondents on the outcome of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by Osinbajo.
Responding to the controversy ignited by Senator Mao Ohabunwa, who pointed out that President Muhammadu Buhari in a letter to the Senate intimating the Upper Chamber of his intention to transfer power to Osinbajo as jets out to London hospital for medical attention did not expressly empower the Vice President to act on his behalf but to coordinate the affairs of government, Mohammed said
"I think it is a needless controversy and just a distraction. The operative sentence is in compliance with section 145 subsection (1) so any other word is irrelevant."
Also at the briefing, Minister of health, Professor Isaac Adewole, hinted that the FEC approved a memorandum to introduce the new Yellow Card that has advanced security features.
He said "One of the challenges we had in the past with the current yellow card is that it could be issued by anybody and those who did not even receive the vaccination could also infact get a card signed for them.
"With this new card, you cannot fake the yellow card. Using a card reader we can also document your vaccination status. So we know whether you have been genuinely vaccinated or not and as soon as we start the roll out we will let the Nigerian community know about the date of commencement. We will also let them know with the existing card they are holding and when we will phase out the old one."
Equally speaking, Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, said the FEC approved two memoranda for his ministry.
According to him "Cabinet has approved that we commence negotiations after we submitted the Outline Business Case (OBC) that was submitted by General Electric (GE).
The transaction advisors will now commence negotiations with GE to conclude concession of the narrow gauge which starts from Lagos to Kano to Funtua, Kaura-Namoda and then from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri which includes Aba, Umuahia, Enugu, Markudi, Jos, Bauchi, Gombe unto Maiduguri.
The next memo that was approved has to do with the consultant that will supervise the construction of Lagos-Ibadan railway and when we award the Kano-Kaduna railway the same consultant has also been approved."
Minister of Trade and Investments, Okechukwu Enelamah, also disclosed that the Council approved is to establish the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations.
He said "Trade is something that is quite pervasive, we get involved in a lot of negotiations and a lot of MOUs assigned on trade. What we found was that this was happening in various ministries agencies and department with insufficient coordination and therefore consequently it had unintended consequences and cost for us.
"There are a number of examples of these things that have happened so the cabinet decided that it is wise to establish a coordinating central office for trade negotiations. The Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations which will be headed by a chief negotiator of ambassadorial rank that will then work with both the economic management team and the cabinet.
"Some of the objectives of that office will be to help us to coordinate the various trade discussions and negotiations that will hold and to achieve coherence in our policies so that our policies will pull our trade together.
"As part of an offensive strategy of being proactive in engaging some of the discussions we are having on the continental free trade area agreement that we are negotiating or other free trade agreement that we have entered into with strategic partners all over the world.
"Then finally it will also help us in the implementation of our economic recovery and growth plan because clearly there is an intention to engage and work with other countries in that process. We
also want to make sure that we have trade remedies against dumping, substandard goods and all the other things which is something that is allowed the world over."