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President Goodluck
Jonathan yesterday said the Federal Executive Council will soon stop
considering the award of contracts under the 2010 budget to exclusively
focus on fresh policies that will positively reposition the country for
faster economic growth and development in its remaining sessions for
the year.

Speaking after
receiving a presentation by participants in the National Institute of
Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) Senior Executive Course 32 on ‘The
Imperatives of Policy Sustainability for National Security and
Democratic Stability’, Mr. Jonathan said the council will discuss and
take decisions on some key issues of policy raised in the presentation.

The issues include
free, fair, and credible elections, the high cost of governance, the
revitalization of strategic industries, the streamlining of policy
implementing agencies of government, poverty, and unemployment as
threats to national security, disparity of wages in the public sector,
and a strategic review of Nigeria’s foreign policy.

The president, who
described the presentation as very well researched and relevant to
Nigeria’s current realities, directed that copies be forwarded to the
president of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
and all state governors.

In consultation
with vice president, Namadi Sambo, who oversees NIPSS, Mr. Jonathan
also directed that participants in its Senior Executive Course 33
should carry the work of Course 32 participants forward by focusing on
the theme: ‘Managing Nigeria’s Pluralism for Peace and National
Development.’

“I commend NIPSS
and Course 32 participants for the comprehensive work they have done. I
thank you for the very important issues you have raised, and I assure
you that government will give serious consideration to your
recommendations,” the president told the participants, amongst who were
senior military officers, senior civil servants, and representatives of
the private sector.

In his remarks, the
acting director general of NIPSS, Tijjani Muhammed Bande, appealed to
the president “for more robust funding for the institute,” disclosing
that “the institute already has an existing debt of N590million.”

Mr. Bande told
NEXT, after the closed door session with Mr. President, that the debt
was not the making of a particular person or administration, but had
been accumulated overtime.