By Demola Akinyemi

ILORIN — Minister of National Planning and Chairman, National Planning Commission, Dr Abubakar Sulyman, has given indication of Federal Government’s plan to implement a new master plan to address Nigeria’s infrastructure deficiencies after two years of delay.

He said this became necessary following the adoption, last week, of the nation’s infrastructure development master plan by the National Economic Council (NEC).
The minister spoke while fielding questions from journalists at the Ilorin International Airport, weekend.
To this end, he said the ministry would engage researchers in the nation’s universities and relevant ministries to evaluate government programmes and come up with recommendations on how to enhance the nation’s growth and development.

According to him, “just two days ago, we were able to get the master plan on infrastructure down to NEC and for the first time it was adopted after two years of stampeding of that master plan.
“We have other programmes in place. We have the NEEDS, we have the monitoring and evaluation unit in ensuring that every sector, every agency, every department complies with the performance contract of the President.

“Most important, what I intend to do is to establish a connection between the Ministry of National Planning and various institutions. There must be that synergy between what goes on in the various academic institutions and what the ministries are doing and that is very important.”
On Millennium Development Goals, MDG, he said the Federal Government was steadily pursuing it agenda within the context of the programmes to meet it 2015 target.